Stefan Sagmeister is among today’s most important graphic designers. Born in 1962 in Austria, he is a two-time Grammy Award winning designer for his package design for the Talking Heads as well as Bryan Eno & David Byrne; he has earned nearly every important international award for design. His long-standing collaborators include the AIGA, HBO, the Guggenheim Museum and musicians such as Lou Reed and the Rolling Stones. He is most notably known for his emphasis on the handmade quality which was in reaction to the slickness and unreality of digital design. He is also willing to treat any kind of material as a suitable component. The crucial factor in Sagmeister’s success is the way that he publicly performs the role of designer, just as Jeff Koons and Damien Hirst publicly perform the role of artist.
Sagmeister studied graphic design at the Vienna University of Applied Arts in 1981; six years later, he arrived in New York on a Fulbright scholarship to attend Pratt Institute for his master’s degree. Upon graduation he went on to work for the Leo Burnett Agency in Hong Kong and Tibor Kalman’s agency, M&Co. in New York. In 1993, Sagmeister opened his own studio, Sagmeister Inc.
In 1999, Sagmeister made an unlikely though hugely effective career move, he allowed his intern to carve the details of a lecture onto his own flesh for a poster (AIGA/Cranbrook). Since that painful moment twelve years ago, his most highly publicized and emblematic projects are about him. In 2000, Sagmeister took a sabbatical and announced that he was closing his studio once every seven years to do experiments. The next year he reopened and published his monograph, Made You Look. Since then, he has also published Things I Have Learned In My Life So Far and Sagmeister: Another Book About Promotion and Sales Material.
To illustrate how inspiring Sagmeister is, Stefan G. Bucher writes in All Access,“There are bands you listen to and then there are bands that make you want to start a band. Stefan Sagmeister is a designer that makes you want to be a designer.” The Art Institute of California—Orange County is proud to present a special Q&A session with Stefan Sagmeister as he Skypes live from New York on Wednesday, January 25th at 3pm.
When: Week 3: Wednesday, January 25th, 2012
Location: 3601 West Sunflower Ave., Santa Ana, CA 92704
Start Time: 3:00pm
Room: A153/A154
If you would like to ask Stefan Sagmeister any questions please submit them now at submit@aigaclub.com. This is a free event open to all, feel free to spread the word and to R.S.V.P. today! We’ll see you all there.
