DESIGN LEGENDS - STEFAN SAGMEISTER

Once a month I will be writing about design legends, people we draw inspiration from and people we look up too. 

Who better to kick this off with than Stefan Sagmeister. One of the most talked about Graphic Designers! And my hero. 

Born in Bregenz, Austria in 1962, Sagmeister began his career at age 15 writing for Alphorn, an Austrian Youth magazine. He quickly realised that working on the layout was more enjoyable than writing articles. Sagmeister studied graphic design at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna later receiving a Fulbright scholarship to study at Pratt Institute in New York. In 1991, he moved to Hong Kong to work with Leo Burnett's Hong Kong Design Group. 

Returning to New York in 1993 he formed the New York based Sagmeister Inc. and has since been designing for a diverse range of clients including the Rolling Stones, HBO, the Guggenheim Museum and Time Warner.

During this time, Sagmeister began to specialise in CD cover design. I.D. magazine, in the late 90's wrote that his “CD package designs are what poetry is to prose: distilled, intense, cunning, evocative and utterly complete. His intentions have set a new standard.” Designing for musical heroes like Lou Reed, Mick Jagger,  David Byrne and Jay-Z. He would push the boundaries of design and explore different techniques which included die-cuts, model building, 3D typography and laser cutting, winning two Grammy Awards for his cover design.

Lou Reed CD cover design by Sagmeister

After a one-year Sabbatical in 2003 Sagmeister started producing more text-based artwork, building letterforms that spell out quotes pulled from his own diary, “Trying to look good limits my life”, “Worry solves nothing,”. These have appeared in books, magazine, videos and commercials. Sagmeister wanted to broader the ‘impact of design, to change perceptions and behaviours.’ 

2012 was a big year for Sagmeister, he announced “Nineteen years after the founding of Sagmeister Inc.. We are renaming the company Sagmeister & Walsh.” New business partner 25-year-old Jessica Walsh was appointed, causing excitement in design world. “The Happy Show,” Sagmeister’s 2012 exhibition at the Institute of Cotemporary Art in Philadelphia, was a huge success. He offered visitors “walking into the designer’s mind as he attempts to increase his happiness via meditation, cognitive therapy and mood-altering pharmaceuticals” through interactive digital and analogue typographic investigations of his “rules to live by.”

Last month Stefan Sagmeister was in Melbourne for an exclusive Melbourne event by AGDA and Billy Blue College of Design. I was lucky enough to take the Friday afternoon to go along.

He shared his latest thinking on happiness — both the conscious and unconscious kind. His seven rules for life and design happiness can apply to everyone seeking more joy.

Image from the happy show exhibition

It was an afternoon I would never forget. If you were not lucky enough to go along, check out his talks on TED. 

TED talk - 7 rules for making more happiness

TED talk - happiness by design

- Beth