Stefan Sagmeister Research Paper.

 

Richard Rohoman

Prof. Bauer

Digital Media Foundations COMD 1112, D105

Nov. 20, 2019

 

Stefan Sagmeister

 

                      Stefan Sagmeister is a renowned Austrian-born US based contemporary

graphic designer and typographer. He is the co-founder of the famous design firm,

Sagmeister & Walsh, which he established in partnership with Jessica Walsh. His

intriguing and provocative designs redefined the status of graphic designers. Some of

his notable designs are showcased on the album covers of The Rolling Stones, Pat

Metheny, David Byrne and OK Go. I choose Stefan Sagmeister because he’s an amazing

Graphics Designer. He strives to be a better designer by finding inspiration in things

that he does. He’s not a quitter when it came to pursuing his career as a graphics

designer. I am majoring in either Computer Animation or Graphic Design. Learning

about Stefan Sagmeisterhas helped me to continue to pursue what I want.

                   

                     On August 6, 1962, Stefan Sagmeister was born in Bregenz, Austria. After

graduation from high-school, he enrolled himself in an engineering college. However,

he later changed his mind and opted for graphic designing course. Since an early age,

Sagmeister had a passion for designing, thus it is as not surprising that he began his

designing career at the age of 15. He worked for an Austrian left-wing youth

magazine, Alphorn. While he was covering Alphorn’s Anarchy issue, he had an

ingenious idea to exercise the D-I-Y graphic for the first time. He persuaded his fellow

students to lie down on the playground forming the letter A, and took a picture from

school roof for the poster of the magazine. At the age of 19, he applied for the

University of Applied Arts Vienna to study graphic designing. Although, at first, he was

refused the admission on the basis of his amateur drawing, his application was

accepted on second attempt. In 1987, owing to his remarkable performance, he

earned a Fulbright scholarship for the New York based Pratt Institute.

 

                    For mandatory military services, Sagmeister returned to Austria after

three years of studies in United States. He chose to do community service for refugee

center instead and afterwards remained in Austria for a while. There he continued to

pursue graphic designing and then moved to Hong Kong in 1991. He landed a job

as a typographer in an advertising agency. In 1992, the agency was asked to design a

poster for the 4As advertising awards ceremony. Sagmeister had a strange sense of

humor and never took issues of propriety into consideration. So, when he presented

an inappropriate and unethical poster for the event he was lambasted by the

audience. A few months later, he decided to move back to New York City. In New York,

Sagmeister briefly worked at M&Co studio, which sponsored his green card

application. As the studio was closed and moved to Rome, he set out to establish his

own studio.

 

                     Having keen interest in music, he decided to work on music graphics but

only endorsing the music, he prefers. In 1993, he founded the Sagmeister Inc. At first

none of the record labels approached him for the album cover designs. So, when his

friend was about to launch his album he seized the opportunity to design the CD cover

for Zinker’s Mountains of Madness. Using the optical illusion, he made the CD cover

more tantalizing for the consumers, and his incredible zeal for innovative designs

earned him four Grammy nominations for the cover. Inspired by his work, Lou Reed

requested him to design cover for his album, Set the Twilight Reeling, in 1996. It was

followed by the cover he designed for David Byrne’s album Feelings featuring the GI

Joe-style doll.

 

                      After forming Sameister Inc., Stefan Sagmeister promoted brands,

music and entertained a diverse range of clients such as the Guggenheim Museum,

HBO, AIGA, Rolling Stones and Time Warner with his captivating designs. For his

stellar achievements he was awarded the Grammy Award thrice and the National

Design Award. He is a long-standing artistic collaborator with musicians David Byrne

and Lou Reed. He is the author of the design monograph “Made You Look” which was

published by Booth-Clibborn editions. His works has been mounted in Zurich,

Vienna, New York, Berlin, Japan, Osaka, Prague, Cologne, and Seoul. He teaches in

the graduate department of the School of Visual Arts in New York and has been

appointed as the Frank Stanton Chair at the Cooper Union School of Art, New York. His

motto is “Design that needed guts from the creator and still carries the ghost of these

guts in the final execution.” He goes on a year-long sabbatical around every seven

years, where he does not take work from clients. He is resolute about this, even if the

work is tempting, and has displayed this by declining an offer to design a poster for

Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. Stefan spends the year experimenting with

personal work and refreshing himself as a designer. Several years ago, he decided to

dedicate 25% of his work to the art world, things like books and publications for

galleries, another 25% to the scientific community, 25% to social causes, and the

remaining quarter has stayed dedicated to the music industry.

 

                      Stefan Sagmeister received a Grammy Award in 2005 in the Best Boxed

or Special Limited-Edition Package category for art direction, once in a Lifetime box

set by Talking Heads. He received a second Grammy Award for his design of the David

Byrne and Brian Eno album Everything That Happens Will Happen Today in the

Grammy Award for Best Recording Package category on January 31, 2010. In 2005,

Sagmeister won the National Design Award for Communications from the Cooper-

Hewitt National Design Museum. In 2013 Sagmeister was awarded the Golden Medal

of Honor of the Republic of Austria.

 

                       In conclusion, Stefan Sagmeister is an incredible graphic designer whose

works are well knowing in the graphic designing world as well as around the world 

through his vision and uniqueness to designing. His style is ingenious and is sought

after from clients that are well known in the entertainment industry and as well as

the business world. He has won many accolades for his outstanding work in graphic

design in the entertainment industry. I respect the fact that he is willing to donate

some of his funds through shows that he has for social issues and the arts. He is a

wonderful artist.

 

 

 

“Stefan Sagmeister: Biography, Designs and Facts.” Famous Graphic Designers, https://www.famousgraphicdesigners.org/stefan-sagmeister.

 

“Stefan Sagmeister.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 9 Oct. 2019, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stefan_Sagmeister.

 

“Work – Sagmeister Inc.” Work – Sagmeister Inc., http://sagmeister.com/work/.

 

“Work – Sagmeister & Walsh.” Work –, https://sagmeisterwalsh.com/.

 

Graphis, http://www.graphis.com/bio/3/stefan-sagmeister-1/.