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Stefan sagmeister born in 1962, Bregenz, Austria. Stefan Sagmeister studied graphic design at the university of applied arts in Vienna. In 1987 he moved to New York to attended pratt institute on a fulbright scholarship. He then returned to Austria in 1990 for community service as an alternative to obligatory military conscription. At the age 29, he attained a job with Leo Burnett Hong Kong. In 1993 he returned to New York to work for the hungarian graphic designer Tibor Kalman at M&Co. When the studio closed the same year, Sagmeister opened his own office ‘Sagmeister inc’. In 1994 he was nominated for a grammy award for his album cover “H.P. Zinker Mountains of Madness”. In the following years he designed album packaging for artists such as David Byrne, Lou Reed and The Rolling Stones. In 1996 Sagmeister began developed posters for AIGA -American Institue of Graphic Arts- he took a “year out” in 1999, closing his studio to commercial work and concentrating on his own experimental projects. In 2001 released the book ‘made you look (another self-indulgent design monograph)’. In 2005 he won a grammy award as art director of the ‘once in a lifetime’ talking heads boxed set packaging. Currently among many projects Sagmeister continues his work on “Things I´ve Learned In My Life So Far” a series of typographic pieces inspired by the work of his grandfather that he began in 2004.
“If your image does not work, put a dog in it.”
“If it still does not work, put a bandage of the dog.� Norman Rockwell
CHAPTER BEING A DESIGNE
R#1 A ER
Q
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How much does experience count in the ability to produce good design?
I get better at selecting the right projects and clients, I have more power getting them throught, at the same time I have to match against being jaded and repeating myself. It´s a trade off. I could not judge myself if our recent work is better or worse compared to that from 10 years ago. Well, actually, no, not trae, I do think it is better now. I think this is trae because I have absolutely no interest in showing work from 10 years ago (I know, we should get rid of it on the website) .
THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE commissioned six design studios to create a cover for its special design issue, on December 13, 1998, using the headline “Shock of the Familiar.”
Q
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In which context do you use the tearm Story Telling?
Never. Unless I tell a store. I encounter this term as the current buzzword shouted into small cell phones by middle managers of internacional branding agencies in airports, akin to what “creating an experience” constituted in the 90ies. Hordes of branding specialist went from Experience creators to storytallers at the dawn of the new millennia, most using the term preposterously. The same crowd loves to think “outside the box”. If your job is to desing Soller coasters, you create an experience. If you desing websites, you do not. If you write novels, you are a storyteller, if you create annual reports, you are not.
BLUE CLOTHING IDENTITY. Why make a stupid blue logo for a company called BLUE? The question provoked a Dadaist solution: an orange logo for a blue company, stamped with bold black type. The idea was extended to the 20-image advertising campaing, for which the firm had a humble $5,000 photoshoot budget.
Q
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Conversely, do you have any beliefs of policies that haven´t changed over the years? If so, what are they?
Yes, a whole lot of them:
AKY 1 FUZZY FRE CA I 2 MISS AMER UCTION D 3 A SOFT SE 4 VASELINE OF PARADISE 5 THE GATES 6 AMNESIA KNOW ME T ´ N O D U O Y 7 DOWN 8 DADDY GO IGT R 9 FINITE=AL LL O 10 LITTLE D THE SUN 11 BURNT BY WARS L 12 THE CIVI IN LOVE 13 THEY ARE
The campaign took to the road of a “moneymobile”: a bus decorated with dollar bills that followed the presidential campaign trail. At strategic points along the route, three actors would jump out, dragging a family of giant inflatable graphics, and give a showtitled “U Slice the Pie”-to audiences on university campuses, at local fairs and speaker gatherings.
Q
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With “True Majority” you did some socially responsable design. Why did you, as a designer, take this work? Was it because you really believed in the cause, because it was a well-paid work or because you believe on design as a perfect way of delivering the message?
“True Majority” is an initiative by Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry´s ice cream fame. He assembled a group of 500 business leaders, CEO´s and military advisers with the goal to cut 15% of the Pentagon budget and move it over to education and healt care. I felt a group of business leaders will have credibility with the public in budget matters, furthermore they do have marketing experience, wich meant the possibilities of success (reaching the goal) were good. I come from Austria where the military budget amouts to 1% of the federal budget, living in the US where at the moment it is over 50% made me try to do something about it. And no, it´s not highly paid.
Q
In several cases in your work, you use the human body, weather you are nude yourself, using writing on the skin for Lou Reed´s book cover for “Pass thru fire”, cuttig into the skin for the AIGA poster, or using a nude corpse for the Pro-Pain CD cover. Why is the human body as a design element such a priminent part of your work?
A
The human body is just one of the strongest forms there is, one that is incredibly familiar to all of uss. Of course we use it.
EVERY I DO ALWAY COMES BACK ME
YTHING
YS S
E
Q
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Critics have lashed their tongues at you calling you an exhibitionist and a designer adding to the depavity of society.
I agree.
CHAPTER DESIGNIN MUSIC
#2 NG FOR
Q
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What aspects of CD packaging drew you to doing CD packaging design for the music industry, and why do you feel you´ve been so successful at it?
Music is my other big interest in life. It´s more interesting to go to meetings with Lou Reed and David Byrne than spending my time with marketing managers. CD covers normally don´t get thrown away. Many CD´s are distributed internationally and printed in large quiantities. I am very tall, so I love working on something very small.
TELLING STORIES TO THE SEA, a collection of Afro-Portuguese music David Byrne´s Luaka Bop label, brought together a variety of artists from Angola, Cape Verde, Saó Tome, Principe and Lisbon, all thematically linked by the shared experience of Portuguese colonialism.
Q
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A lot of designers involved in the music industry can´t seem to get enough of the inevitable doom of music packaging. This has long been a stample of your work and we have seen less of it recently. Has this change affected you? Is music packaging something you would have enjoyed doing longer than the Rolling Stones have been alive? (Pardon the exaggeration)
About 6 years ago, during our experimental client free year, I decided to minimize design for music to about a quarter of workload, not because I smartly foresaw the troubles of the music industry but because: 1.) I got bored with it on a day to day level, stemming form the fact that we often dealt with 3 clients on a single project and my threshold to dealing with that dynamic became more shallow. About a year ago, we decided to not accept any music work anymore and redirect that time instead for design for science. 2.) As I get older music plays a lesser role in my life 3.) There are lots of other interesting things out there And.) What I do miss is the simple act of visualising music. This never got old.
THE TRUTH H URTS Q
A
In reference to the Pro-Pain CD cover featuring the cadaver, you once stated, “I thought long and hard before releasing the cover, but if I were to make the decision again today I would do it differently.” In sayin this did you mean that you would have not released it or that you would have presentes the same content differently?
I would not have used that image on the cover. I think its one of the strongest pictures I know off but it was not a good choice in the context of selling speed metal CD´s. Part of the audience proofed to be not ready for it.
NOT LOVE
DENIAL
THE BEST IS B ACK
AFTER LISTENING TO the hardcore thrash of Pro-Pain several times, Sagmeister began to hear what he called the “beaty in the noise,” and found an image that seemed to represent the same contrast. Jeffrey Silverthorne´s photograph “Whoman Who Dien in Her Sleep” was both horrific and compelling, in no small part because of the dead woman´s evident youth and beauty.
CHAPTER TYPE AN TYPOGRA
R #3 ND APHY
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The series “Things I have learned in my life so far� is a typographical experiment. How does typography influence the transmission of the message?
The message is always very clear and straigh forward, the typography much more ambiguos and open for interpretation. I found that by utilizing an open typographic approach combined with the clear message many viewers have an easier time relating their own experience. We do employ various typographic strategies from one project to another (withing the series). Some are influenced by the environment they take place in, some by an outside person, some by personal experiences.
SEVERAL IDEAD IN the booklet were explored further in subsequent projets for Reed. The lyrics, for example, are designed in a way that reflects their content (an idea developed typographically in Reed´s book of lyrics, pp.234-237). The lyrics to “Egg Cream,” Reed´s song about a particularly tasty version of the soda drink served at “Becky´s” on King Highway in Brooklyn, are set in the style of an old New York Coffe shoop sign. The work of Middle Eastern artist Shirin Neshat inspired Sagmeister to hand-write the copy over photograph of Reed´s face.
Q
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Your handwriting is very distictive. Do you consider it to be typeface?
I am not obsessed with typefaces and find the selection of just the right one a rather tedious exercise. Using my handwriting eliminates that process, personalizes the piece and can be interpreted as an anti-computer statement all in one easy move.
Q
How do you decide on type and how to use it?
A
Comes always out of the concept.
CHAPTER DESIGN PROCESS
R #4 AS S
Q
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Your body is a recurring theme in your work. What is the fuction of your body in your work, and why do you use it?
You might have notices, that ALL projects with my body in it are lectures or exhibitions of our work, so the use of my body (or mine and Matthias´) is akin to the usage a simple product shot.
STYLE
= FART
E Q
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You´ve started to distance yourself from the “Style=Fart” notion. What is the difference between style and concept, and where do they overlap/complement each other?
Somebody smarter tha me de described style/form as the outside of a concept, and the concept inside of style/form.
Q
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Ellen Saphiro says that your lenguage is personal and intricate, enigmatic. That it takes some time for the spectator to understan it, that it is like a puzzle. Many people support the postulates that messages should be clear, easily decodified, etc. People who would consider your way of designing almost an aberration. What is your opinion about this?
It all depends on the medium you are working in. If I am designing an outdoor poster, it will have to read fast. But if I design a CD cover, where the viewer can spend a stoned hour in front of it, I can work much more multi-layered, complex and intricate. We also tried to design some of our pieces for different spectator time spans: So that the viewer who has 5 seconds would get something out of it, the viewer who has 50 seconds would understand an extra level, and there is something the 5 minute and the 50 minute viewer too.
THE TASK-to design a poster for the AIGA´s 1997 Biennieal conference in the legendary steamy southern port of New Orleans-cried out for something evocative.
Q
I have asked you this before, and I think your take on it is quite inspiring... A lot of people relate your work to being naked and showing your private parts - wich is all well, good and enjoyable. Yet, I think your work is “naked� in a more serious and vulnerable way. You put yourself and your emotions for all to see. Why has this become such an integral part of your work?
SAGMEISTER LAUNCHED his New York studio with a card party invitation showing two photographs of himself standing naked in a crummy-looking office. Captions implied that the left image was taken before launching his own studio and the right was taken after.
A
The nakedness started with the opening of the studio 13 years ago, when I sent out a card wich showed longer and shorter versions of my parts. At that time this took a little bit of guts of me (my girlfriend recommended heavily against it, she thought I am going to lose the one client I had). The client not only stayed, but loved it too. Any follow up nakedness was simply a case of repeating a technique that proved to work before. Also, coming from Austria (in Viena the main student beach is nude) nakedness simply was never a big deal, but proved to raise hair in the US. The late Quentin Crisp, British queen extraordinaire and subjet of Stings song “I´m an Englishman in New York” came to visit our students at the graduate departamente of the school of Visual Arts in New York. Among the very many quotable things he mentioned was that he used to say to journalist: “Everybody is interesting.” They came back and said: “Mr. Crisp, this is just simply not true, there are lost of utterly boring people out there”. So he had to revive it “Everybody who is honest is interesting.” This has impressed me much and informed many of our projets