Stefan Sagmeister : Blog 16

Stefan Sagmeister

Stefan Sagmeister is known for his unusual and subversive designs that question the designer’s role in society. His works are quite rebellious and he is sometimes known as a bad boy. He is known for upsetting norms in society and also for his tricks used in the design, typography, conceptual art and also videos.

          

  At first, Sagmeister treated his style as an expression of his attitude. His designs show disoriented images. He moved on from a graphic designer to conceptual typographer and also to a performance artist but sometimes he feels the need to return to his role of graphic designer in order to start something completely new. Sagmeister is very dedicated and committed to his work, when he comes up with something new which is always very innovative he makes sure to get everything right, and also catches one's attention with originality. Once in 1999, he had the lettering of the event poster carved into his skin. Another time in 2003, he ate about 100 different junk food in order to show a before and after picture where he gained 25 pounds. This was used for an exhibition poster. Additionally, he once hanged dangerously out of an upper-story window of the Empire State Building. These are just a few examples of what he is willing to do.

            Moreover, Sagmeister was born in Austria in 1962, where he started his career at the young age of 15. He also went to the University of Applied Arts and also received a scholarship to study in New York. As a young designer, he took several different roles, this served as experience in other fields. Sagmeister also worked with Tibor Kalman and M&Co.  After this stage, he began to specialize in CD cover designs. He says that music inspires him. I.D. magazine was a very good promoter for Sagmeister’s cover designs. They said that this artist’s intentions have set a new standard to this field. He used different techniques such as, printing, laser cuts, die cuts, model building etc. Stagmester is not a computer based designer, he loves to travel and experiment with different mediums. He also likes to take breaks in his careers; some think that this makes him not reliable but in fact, this is a trick in order to come up with more original ideas.

          Sagmeister also worked as a text- based artist. In his designs, he included a personal touch but still kept the individual or group in mind. Some of his designs were kept in his diary while others were published in magazines and also used as commercials. Sagmeister also included shocking changes in his own personal business design. He once posed naked on a postcard advertising his new film.

        

   In conclusion, Sagmeister is known for his ways to shock the audience and for his originality. He does not follow any rules and his risky work encourages more artists to experiment and move away from the obvious. Sagmeister is still very active in his work till this very day. I believe that he will continue to be a very important figure in the history of Graphic Design.

“If it’s too familiar I get bored.”

Stefan Sagmeister

Bibliography

Heller, S., 2013. aiga. [Online]
Available at: http://www.aiga.org/medalist-stefan-sagmeister/
[Accessed 14 01 2015].

Sagmeister, S., 2004. Happiness by Design. [Sound Recording] (TED).

Grunge: David Carson, Blog 15

Grunge: David Carson

Grunge is a particular Art movement that emerged in the 80’s and become more popular during the 1900s. It was a movement that spread from music to fashion and also to Graphic Design. Grunge was inspired by previous style like Punk, heavy metal and also Indie rock. Some characteristics of this movement are messy and chaotic design and also scratchy typefaces. The typographic style used to create adverts, posters and other designs was very different. It specialised in imperfection and it also become the most widespread and universal movement in recent history of Graphic Design.

David Carson is the perfect example that represents the Grunge movement. Carson developed his own unique style through experimentation. This took quite some years, but now everyone can tell a Carson design at a first glance. David Carson is known to be the most popular designer of his time, and obviously this made him a role model for other designers. He was imitated by many around the world, and his style defined the Grunge style perfectly.

Carson’s style explored the ‘rule-breaking’ ideas of the Punk and deconstructive design. Legible typography was not important; he challenged the traditional design of the years before him. He did not follow any rules because he believed in expressive design. His approach was spontaneous and non-formal to the point that sometimes experiments become some of his most popular works.

David Carson’s original career was not Graphic design, but he graduated with a degree in Sociology. He started teaching Sociology while training to be a surfer. His career made him realise how important is design and therefore he started experimenting in the early 1980’s. Surfing served as a great role in his career as it inspired him to design and work for surfer magazine and other sports related magazines. Besides all the magazines, Carson continued with his experimentation and deconstructive typography. He also becomes an art director of Ray Gun magazine. Ray Gun magazine was about music, pop culture, advertising, lifestyle, celebrities and so on. Carson succeeded in designing this magazine for several years and become best known for his designs used for Ray Gun. This was the peak of his graphic design career where he left huge impact on the young generation of designers.

Moreover, later, he experimented with image and text by blurring and manipulating the image or text in order to intensify the content and its meaning. Some characteristics that describe his work are; asymmetrical layouts, densely layered images and fragmented typefaces. He also looks at photography as one of his techniques used in his designs. The contrast he creates, in the weights, sizes and forms are the main method of his experiments and designs. When Carson left Ray Gun he established David Carson Design in New York and was commissioned by several companies such as Nike, Microsoft and Armani. He also produced two books in  late 1990’s.

In my opinion Carson has been a great designer because he was not afraid to take risks. From his experiments, there were mistakes that become unique designs. By breaking the rules, he become an influential designer and also someone so successful that is admired and followed by many.

           

Bibliography

Lupton, E., 2014. Aiga. [Online]
Available at: http://www.aiga.org/medalist-david-carson/
[Accessed 08 01 2015].

Tododrova, N., 2013. Neli todorova. [Online]
Available at: http://nvtodorova.wordpress.com/2013/10/16/david-carson-the-father-of-grunge/
[Accessed 08 01 2015].