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/.
