Jess - Castle Magazine

What is Castle Magazine?
Castle Magazine is a pdf online mag with regularly issues.
It consists of the work of free Illustrators, Artists or other creative nerds.
Every issue comes for free and is full of weird and high quality arty stuff.
This magazine is a german magazine and there are 12 issues per year.

Why it interests me?
This magazine interests me because of its fresh colours and layouts and touches upon a little grunge style, which i like at this present time.
The illustrations on the magazines are funky and eye catching.
I love it when magazines stand out on a rack of other magazines, this magazine would stand out alot to me.


Url:
http://isarstadt.de/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/castle.jpg

Push the Envelope

Being socially aware and responsible in the world of the designer today is very important as design is a commercially based industry in which thousands of people will see your creations and be influenced by them. Due to this there is great importance to spread the word to designers to make a better world to live in by not sacrificing ones individuality to impress the world of mundane conformity. Sagmesiter is at the forefront of such thinking.
He embraces the notion that design can make a positive impact on the world and can change it for the better, and acknowledges that poor design can also leave the world worse off (bad printing on Florida ballot papers ended up with Bush in the seat of president which ultimately lead to the Iraq war). For example in his body of work ‘Trying to look good limits my life’ the concept holds a potent social comment on the masses obsession with body image which he constructs with unusual media. It is excellent to see a designer pushing the envelope of common design media, and it relates directly with his individual conceptualisation.
Sagmeisters work is also mostly of a hand made nature, which I feel brings the audience closer to his work and makes it easier to relate to.

Kim- Ever-changing Style.

A main theme I got from sagmeisters interview is that you need to keep your style fresh and inspiration well watered. He states that he doesn’t think a sense of stye is just hot air and meaningless. I think you need to keep drawing inspiration from various areas of life and know that your sense of style even though u think you have a good thing going will start to get old and boring. Style is an ever-changing thing. This image of sagmeisrters is one of my favourite. It represents exactly the theme of change. Even though the writer has written always on the flower. It still dies. Nature is a cycle of death and rebirth. I think it’s the same for style, we need to let go of old ideas and styles and grab onto new ones.

I think that Stefan Sagmeister's aim was to create questions in people’s minds
and make people actually think about his designs and the messages he is trying to convey. A lot of his designs shock and intrigue people as he wants people to think about the message conveyed.
Although his aim was to not have a style, by not having a style, you are unintentionally creating one. He states that his handwork is what they are best known for; this could be creating their own unique style for which they are known for.
Sagmeister likes to work in 'new fresh surroundings’, which would be good for creating diverse, new and different styles and designs. Presenting many different ideas for things such as the writing on the fence, the tree and the field etc. diverse stylels and designs seves a good purpose in a designers work as it would stop them getting board and it would keep their audience interested.
Statements such as ' trying to look good limits my life' presents a shocking and confronting question to the audience. Leaving them to think and question everyday aspects about their everyday lives.

how to get attention in a way that creates an idea...

To be honest, after looking at Sagmeisters website (www.sagmeister.com),
I wasn’t hooked. So when it came to researching for this blog instead of looking at it again I picked up his book ‘Made You Look’ and the further into it I went the more I found him to be kinda funny and somewhat similar in his way of thinking as myself. I do like some of his stuff but most of all I’m drawn to his approach to design and the way he explores all possible options when it comes to a design brief for a client.


Something that stood out most to me was the repeated slogan ‘Style = Fart’ (Which in my picture is appropriately printed on a whoopee cushion) which actually became a prominent Sagmeister slogan.
In the beginning stages of his studio he thought it would be helpful, or even necessary, to use a certain style for every single project… And once they used one style, it had to be a completely different style for the next project. Over the years the meaning has changed for Sagmeister and he doesn’t necessarily believe in it anymore as this approach became a little bit boring – a constant jumping from theme to theme and he began to realize that style wasn’t such a bad thing after all.

I can understand that some of Sagmeister’s work has the potential to make viewers feel a bit uneasy, for example chickens with their heads cut off, words carved into his own skin and giant cow tongues but he truly defines how to get attention in a way that creates an idea. A lot of his work is weird, unusual and very ‘outside the box’ but his positive and motivating attitude toward design is what really inspires me.
“I quickly thought about what I actually wanted to do with the studio:
Design good CD Covers, Earn a little money, Do not grow and of course Have Fun!”
He strongly believes design should be fun and even took a year off to re-establish his own personal passion for design:
Sagmeister states “I thought, if I don’t do something about this now, then everything will go because if I have less fun I will do work that is less satisfying...”

I agree that as designers we should all remind ourselves of this from time to time, because design should be based on passion and that the only thing constant in life is change.

paula - stefan sagmeister

YES, Design can make you happy..... Well we all knew that didnt we, that is why we are here isnt it.

After analysing all the things in his life that made him happy Stefan Sagmeister realised that almost half of them where related to design. Whilst listening to his talk at a design conference about this subject, I realised how funny he was and I liked him instantly. He is quirky and has a European sense of humour and style that is familiar to me because of my husband and his friends and family. I almost felt like I knew him.

I was inspired by him taking a year out of business to regroup and get clear on what he wanted to do. In such a cut throat industry, I felt he was brave to do this but it was obviously necessary for his ongoing happiness.

I was excited by pretty much all Stefans work posted on internet sites etc however after viewing his ' 20 things i have learnt in my life so far ' I was really inspired and wanted to have a go, just for fun.... at creating words from still objects and i realised that design is fun.

We tend to get stressed about our designs but if we can just - Breath, Laugh & Love ideas will come to us.

stefan

"
sagmeister. theres a lot to like about him.




i had written whole lot of stuff and when it came to the crunch, pressed the wrong button and you know what happens then. in short i like stefan sagmeister. i like his work, i like his bending in and out of traditional approaches to graphic design to truly express the meaning of graphic design, communication. i like that people dont like his work, i like his reflections on bad typography leading us to the iraq war and i like that success has kept this guy grounded and he knows that success gives him an opportunity to make a difference in his chosen field.