Stefan Sagmeister has owned and run his own firm, Sagmiester Inc., in New York since 1993. He was born 1962 in Bregenz, Austria - and does sound like Arnold Schwarzenegger, just without the Steroids. In 1981, he moved to Vienna to study graphic design at the Vienna University of Applied Arts and graduated with a first class degree in 1985. He moved to New York in 1987 with a Fulbright scholarship to study at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn where he studied for a Masters Degree. Three years later Stephan returned to Austria for compulsory military service, but did community service in a refugee center in Vienna as an alternative to military conscription. He remained in Austria working as a graphic designer until moving to Hong Kong in 1991.

In Hong Kong, he joined the advertising agency, Leo Burnett, part of a worldwide advertising agency conglomerate famous for the creation of icons such as the Jolly Green Giant, Marlboro Man, and the Pillsbury Doughboy. The agency asked Stefan if he would be interested in being a typographer, Stefan was not, so he made up a high number and said he would do it for that amount. Unperturbed, Leo Burnet met the figure, and Stefan began working with the firm (Hall 84). The agency was invited to design a poster for the 1992 Advertising Agency Association Accredited (known as the 4As) awards ceremony. Stefan wanted to stir things up. "It was a rebellion against the [B.S.] that everything has to be nice and sweet in Hong Kong." (Hall 91) He depicted a traditional Cantonese image featuring four bare male bottoms (www.designmuseum.org).  Some agencies boycotted the awards ceremony and tried to organize a boycott-unsuccessfully; the poster conversely stimulated a twenty-five percent increase in entries. One of Stefan's favorite of many letters of complaint read: "Who's the asshole who designed this poster?" (Hall 91) Stefan never intended to stay in Hong Kong, and after a brief stint working from a beach hut in Sri Lanka, in 1993 he went back to New York.

In New York, he went to work for Tibor Kalman at M&Co, a studio Stefan dreamed of working for since his time at the Pratt Institute. Tibor Kalman, in Stefan's opinion, had the most guts of any designer he has known and understood that spending energy on making sure that a design appears as designed is as important as designing it. Six months later, Kalman closes M&Co. So Stefan opened his own studio, Sagmeister Inc. in 1993 at the age of thirty-one.

On the advice of Kalman, Stefan's goal was to keep the studio small. Stefan considers the advice by Tibor Kalman, as having the greatest impact on his career. Kalman said: "The toughest thing when running a design studio is not to grow."  (www.sagmeister.com). His experience at Leo Burnett's agency also allowed him to see that the disadvantages of a large office outweighed any advantages for clients. Stefan's goal was to design music graphics, but only for music he liked. He retained a team of three including himself, Hjalti Karlsson, a designer and an intern. In 1994 he was nominated for a Grammy Award for the cover of H.P. Zinker's Mountains of Madness CD. This begins a still running design theme by Stefan, of the story of the making becoming part of the design (Luhring). The design of the cover features a red tinted jewel case that shows a placid man'sface, but when removed, an angry man's face appears by using green printing. (Much like the "Made You Look" Book Cover below) He continued designing graphics for the Rolling Stones, Lou Reed, Aerosmith and Pat Meheny.

                       
Sagmeister's Rolling Stones Bridges to Babylon CD & Lou Reed Poster turned CD Cover

Many of the CD covers he has designed show immense consideration of the process of creating the designs, and illustrate the process. His work has been nominated four times for the Grammies and he has won most international design awards.

If Stefan Sagmeister has a style it is under the umbrella of provocative graphics, and provocation for the sake of it. In 1997, he designed a poster for AIGA's (American Institute of Graphic Artists) biennial conference in New Orleans that featured an illustrated chicken with its head cut off. It was a metaphor for the graphic design industry and a sly reference to New Orleans voodoo. (Hall 165) Then in 1999, for an ad for a talk hosted by the Detroit chapter of AIGA, Stefan bestowed upon an intern the task of carving all the text of the poster into Stefan's torso, a process that took eight hours to complete. The poster, a photograph of the result became the most notorious poster from Sagmeister's studio. It was intended to reflect the ordeals of the design profession, or, as Sagmeister put it, "the anxious periods, the fighting and the pain." It signaled a turning point for the design profession, away from digital perfection and toward an appreciation for a designer's personal touch. Twelve years of computer-driven design had initiated a backlash in favor of the tactile and hand-hewn-anything that showed physical evidence of a creator and evoked an equally physical response, even repulsion (Hall 191). Now a graphic icon of the 1990's, it typifies Sagmeister's style; striking to the point of sensationalism and humorous but in such an unsettling way that it is nearly, but not quite unacceptable (www.designmuseum.org). Along these lines, he has also appeared nude in quite a few of his designs. When asked if he enjoys appearing nude in his artwork, indifferent to nudity or if it is merely the best way to make your statement, Stefan simply responds that it's just a cheap trick. It worked in the past and will probably work again in the future. Being naked is no big deal for me (studying in Vienna where many public bath places are nude or topless), but seems to get everybody's attention here in the States every time (www.sagmeister.com).

This break away from the norm and expected has definitely influenced the industry. Some say Sagmeister is among today's most important graphic designers (www.designmuseum.org). However, when asked what he believes is his contribution to the graphic design field, he responds with: "I can say that the question of my contribution to the design field does not keep me up at night (Heller 1). I think his notion to create stimulating work in the minds of both himself and clients and as a result, viewers, without concentrating on the limitations of either the process or mass appeal make him the envy of many designers.

Something I found interesting was how Sagmeister runs his studio. When Veronica Oh, Stefan's first employee, came to work for Sagmeister Inc. she learned that Stefan was not the free-form, laid back artiste one might have expected from his work. "The way Stefan did a business plan was really impressive. He kept a time sheet every day, even though there were only two of us. In terms of promoting the studio it was nicely planned and followed through. I didn't expect that at all from a creative crazy person" (Hall 127).

In 2000, Sagmeister took a year off, aptly called "year without clients," in order to spend time working on experimental designs, ideas, and future directions, as well as to spend time working on the to-be-released Made You Look book. He emerged from this hiatus with a new ultimate goal "to touch somebody's heart with design." The idea stems from his desire for design to become more humanistic and less shallow. I think this still reveals his sense of illustrating the process of creating in his designs. He presently has become an advocate for change in the design world (www.scene360.com).

I am amazed by his concepts, and totally admire his ability to think outside the box that contains the usual box that we, as designers are supposed to think outside of. I also agree with his tendency to not engulf himself in design annuals and others' work, he focuses that energy instead, wisely, on experimenting with original concepts. My first thought when researching Sagmeister, from not knowing anything about him, was damn, if this is what it takes to be a success as a graphic designer, I'm screwed. I now understand that he is not a success, he is definitely one of the greats. And yes, to be great like this, I believe one must completely immerse himself into the world of the creative like he has. Finally, I admire his proclivity to focus on producing provocative designs, without searching out fame or even to become a large studio.

Works Cited:

Hall, Peter. Sagmeister: Made You Look. London: Booth-Clibborn, 2001

Heller, Steven. "Stefan Sagmeister: Style + Fart = Language"
http://artsparce.sfa.uconn.edu/267_s06/peraltai/Final/interview1.html

Luhring, Brandon "Stefan Sagmeister: He Will Make You Look" an interview exclusively for Scene 360. www.scene360.com/interview/interview_sagmeister.html, 2002

www.designboom.com/eng/interview/sagmeister.html

www.designmuseum.org/design/stefan-sagmeister

www.sagmeister.com/students.html