cathy_Sagmeister Inc.

Sagmeister Inc. New York. When I got to this website I was bolded over...strong, simple design…flashing stripes of yellow, orange and two pinks. Stunning. Big, bold, black, all caps lettering on sort of pop-up 3D looking bars as links. Easy interface to navigate through…industrial style boxy arrows and “back” links. User friendly. The other menus are equally as colour coded…grey stripes with bottle green and the same layout and lettering. And great content. Makes me wanna live, breathe and eat design. It’s gotta be one of the most fun looking websites…maybe it’s the candy box appeal…like pulsating liquorice all-sorts. But the pages of old and new work on uncomplicated and undemanding white backgrounds is respite from the intensity of the menu pages. There’s an honesty that pervades the site. As well as a impressive professionalism and strength. Very cutting edge. Just love it!

Jaymi- Style=Fart?

Style = Fart was Sagmeisters theory a neat little equation that the problem with style is it’s just hot air, meaningless. This theory was included on his designs from promo material, the AIGA conference poster and even carved it into his chest, that’s dedication. Only to abandon his theory later as shown in his interview with Design Boom he explained his reasoning.

He also stated in another interview, “I just found that the utilization of good or appropriate style can be very important in communicating content. So I started to take it more seriously. I still don’t like stylish pieces that have nothing to say (in the same way I don’t appreciate well dressed people with nothing to say).But if dressing well gets you heard, why not do it?”

Communicating a message is the most important aspect of graphic design. But style is as Sagmeister acknowledges actually a necessary tool for communicating that content.

“Style is viewed by many as a shallow obsession with disembodied surfaces. However, our activity as designers are based on style’s function as a cultural communicator.” Anne Burdick, Neomania: Feeding The Monster, Emigre no. 24, 1992

Some of the work Sagmeister is best known for is his style of typography with a hand-made quality as shown by the images in Jess’ post. Another designer is Si Scott who hand draws his typography a completely unique, organic, flowing, ornate style. You can find his work at http://www.siscottstudio.com/.

Michelle: Stefan Sagmeister

As we learnt from an interview with him in the Australian design magazine ‘Typotastic’ Stefan Sagmeister keeps a list in his diary which he adds to once a week.

The list is titled “Thing I have learned in my life so far” and in one of his most recent collections he has started incorperating words and phrases from the list into visual typography pieces.

“Trying to look good limits my life” (2004) Is a part of this on-going typographic project. Where the title of these works, along with there content are among the few things that Sagmeister has leart in his life so far.

Each of Sagmeisters pieces delivers a strong message, and the ‘hand made’ quality of them definitely sets his work apart from the rest.









“Being not truthful works against me” is also a part of this series.
The sentence is woven into a virtual spiders web. This interactive projection and was installed in the Austrian Cultural forum in New Yor 2006. As a veiwer passes the web it apears to tear apart.








Another addition to the collection comes in the form of a one minute film clip.
Sagmeister was invited to singapore to produce the installment and it was shot in an abandoned Dynsaty park in singapore.









A few of the pieces in the collection were designed as commercial products.
One example of this was included in the Austrian magazine Copy.
The words read “starting a charity is suprisingly easy” and they were used as dividing pages, each one at the beginning of a new chapter.






Another example of this is based on the principle “Material luxuries can best be enjoyed in small doses” is included in a series of newsprint catalogues for New York fashion designer Anni Kuan.

Stefan Sagmeister

Thinking life will be better in the future is stupid, I have to live now…

This image really stands out a lot, it’s a great image, and I think the main attraction of it is the size and the typography.
Being placed on a shop would no doubt make people curious as to what would be inside.

I had no idea what Douglas as a shop was, but am pretty sure it’s a perfume shop.

It works as art, architectural design and advertising without really trying to sell anything, the quote coming out of one of Sagmeisters diary entries adds a sense of personal psychological quality to it.

Only a few things bother me about the picture, while it would draw people in, im confused as how the quote relates to the product at all, it being a controversial saying towards something in particular maybe? But I don’t understand what towards. If it were just a statement in itself it makes sense but on the shop, well yeah you get the point.

Another is the awkward F looking shape at the bottom, I doesn’t look right being there, almost as if its saying, “I have to live life Fnow”, but only really noticeable when looking at it longer than a glance.

My last problem is the weird urine like puddles……, it is puddles of perfume or melted gold or something? It adds a certain atmosphere to the image and fills the gaps quite well but again confuses me.

I like rather than dis-like it, its refreshing to see particular pieces in a different venue, it brings it into a more open and social setting, and with the blue sky in the background almost making the artwork seems three dimensional, that with the subtle shadow with the branches as well, and it seems he continues a line that seems to go behind the building, im not too sure what it is though. But it looks cool.

Jess - Stefan Sagmeister

Sagmeister states in this image 'Trying to look good limits my life'.
His grandfather had been educated in sign painting and Stefan grew up with many of pieces of wisdom around his home. Such as traditional calligraphy carefully applied in gold leaf on painfully carved wooden panels. One of the panels still hangs in his hallway in Austria. It reads:
This house is mine, and it isnt mine
The next guy wont own it either
They will carry out the third one, too
So tell me, my friend, whose house is it?

Sagmeister states he is just following the tradition with:
Trying to look good limits my life
The title of this work and its content is amoung the few things he has learned in his life so far.

This image is originally broken up in 5 parts and displayed in sequence as typographic billboards, giant photographs they will work like a sentimental greeting card left in a park.

My personal view of these pieces of art are i believe its been done before but Sagmeister's interpretation is quite clever and i like the way they have been photographed and put together.


url: http://www.designboom.com/eng/interview/sagmeister.html

Stefan Sagmeister Jo

Stefan sagmeister is surely one of the most extroverted, interesting designers in our century. This is a designer who not only pushes his own boundaries, but also that of the viewer of his works.

I really appreciated his intricate design of his business card, HP Zinker's "Mountains of Maddness"; the album cover with the slip case, and his book titled "made you look" with the same theme of slip case with imagery that changes once the case is removed. By creating this interactive visual, the reader gets a 'hands on and lets be a part of it' feel.

Stefan, who gets his inspiration from everywhere, prefers hand made quality and design; which in turn gives his works an individual and more personal quality. The idea that something has been handmade, written, constructed, etc. for a particular client/person also portrays individuality and not mass production. To me, this is a way of speaking to each individual in mass audience without losing the quality of the message that is being portrayed. Stefan certainly gets tongues wagging with his approach to depicting imagery and text. This is exactly what Stefan intends; force the reader to question, comment, etc. and isn't that the result, we as graphic designers, aspire to achieve.

www.designmuseum.org
www.designboom.com

Stefan Sagmeister

Hi everyone.

This is your first post in the Blog design brief for Professional Design Practice. It is due at the start of our next class....
Remember to read the brief if you need to refresh your memory about the task.

Today's class activity is to complete the following image related task:

1. Read the interviews with international designer Stefan Sagmeister supplied as notes for last week's class. One interview comes from an Australian design magazine published in Tasmania called Typotastic. The other is from an archive of interviews at designboom.com

2. Search Stefan Sagmeister in Google or another search engine to locate an image/images related to the themes in the article.

3. Post the image and write up your thoughts about how the themes in the interviews and the image you selected are related. The image could be the work of Sagmeister himself or somthing else you find in your search.

Happy blogging!