Sunday, July 27, 2008

LEE: The Sagmeister and interests.



Stefan Sagmeister is known for his works that are more “obscure” than most, with pieces such as cutting into himself with a razor to cut words into himself to illustrate the pain some projects graphic designers face, to going on an eating binge and gaining 25 pounds. So clearly this mans style differs to that of your typical graphic designer, but what inspires Stefan Sagmeister?
An interview with Sagmeister tells that Sagmeister believes that true graphic design must come form the heart if you want it to touch someone’s heart with it. In this way Sagmeister is inspired by many old school graphic designers, that created inspirational and uplifting works, or put themselves at risk doing it, (almost like Sagmeister using the scalpel on himself), and example of such an artist is a new York designer who calls himself “True”. There was a lot of official stickers in the subways outlining strict rules as to how to ride the subway train properly, all very depressing, so True designed a replica poster that replaced the dull, depressing with uplifting and helpful “info” such as “keep hopes up, don’t hold grudges, strive to be happy etc.” all accompanied by charming stick figures that imitates the look of the original poster.
In closing I think a lot of sagmeister’s work is defiantly got an old school feel to it, using really simple materials and ideas, but the end product is very interesting to say the least. It is also quite possible that he is somewhat insane!

Of course, the internet being the sprawling cesspool of useless facts that it is, it is almost impossible to find pics of True’s subway poster amidst all the garbage. So here is a nice picture that was found for me instead instead.

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