8.14.2007
Designer : Stephan Sagmeister
Stefan Sagmeister (born 1962 in Bregenz, Austria) is a graphic designer and typographer currently based in New York City. He has his own design firm, Sagmeister Inc. He has designed album covers for Lou Reed, the Rolling Stones, David Byrne, Aerosmith and Pat Metheny.
Sagmeister studied graphic design at University of Applied Arts Vienna, later receiving the Fulbright scholarship to study at the Pratt Institute in New York.
In 1991, he moved to Hong Kong to work the Leo Burnett's Hong Kong Design Group.
In 1993, he returned to New York to work Tibor Kalman's M&Co design firm. His tenure there was short lived, as Kalman soon decided to retire from the design business to edit Colors magazine for the Benetton Group in Rome.
After the closure of M&Co, Sagmeister formed his own firm, Sagmeister Inc., which operates to this day. Sagmeister Inc. has employed designers including Martin Woodtli; and Hjalti Karlson and Jan Wilker, who later formed Karlssonwilker.
-Interview-
Q: Most of your often-published work is taken from your book “Made you look”. Are you planning to publish a new book containing more recent work?
A: Yes, we are actually but we are not in a hurry. In fact, there are two books that are in progress: one that is somewhat similar to Made you look, in terms of featuring our newest work and there is another book that is going to be quite different. That other one will exclusively feature a series of work that we have been working on for the last four years and that we will continue working on.
Q: Are you talking about the “Things I learned in my life so far”- series?
A: Exactly! That is going to be a seperate book.
Q: Oh great, I can’t wait! This is actually one of my favorite Sagmeister ones, if not the most favorite!
A: The paper that you saw lying on the floor will be turned into a poster as part of that series. We will ship that out to Lisbon either tonight or tomorrow, where it’s going to be put together as a huge billboard. It is newsprint sheets with stencils on them, which we had lying on our rooftop for a week. Since it was exposed to the New York sun everything turns yellow, but the stencils stay white. Put together this billboard is going to read: Complaining is silly. Either act or forget. When we put it up in Lisbon, it’s going to be exposed with Lisbon sun, so eventually everything is going to fade away. So literally the sun will equal the difference, will make the complaining go away.
Q: In what way relate the built words to the material they are made of in the “Things I learned…”- series? How strict are you to yourself in terms of finding the right concept to “build” the word as opposed to just making them look nice?
A: We are using a different strategy for every single sentence in this series. Some things I have learned are very close in outward form and content, while others are further apart. For example, the form of “Everything I do always comes back to me” relates directly to its content, while “Money does not make me happy” does not.
Even though I am not a big fan of ambiguity in visual expression, (and HATE that stupid line: Oh, the viewer can take away whatever he or she wants), because of the fact that these thing are personal learning experiences from my own life, I felt it important to leave the form more open for interpretation to make it easier for people to relate. - - And yes, if they wind up looking nice, that’s nice too.
Q: Is there any particular meaning for this series to be set up in Lisbon or…
A: No, it’s just because they asked and I always do what I’m asked. They found a sponsor for it, so we accepted. The work will be shown as part of the Bienal de Lisbon, the Experimenta.
Q: There is quite a difference between the pre-Made you look and the post-Made you look. What are your most liked projects after the Made you look book?
A: There was a year without clients after we made the book and I got to think and sort out many things within that time. Before that our work very much focused on the music industry but we kind of stopped that now.
Now we concentrate on 4 things basically- we still do some stuff for the music industry, we do some stuff for art as far as galleries and museums go (books and posters and that stuff), we also do some work for regular corporations and some social work. You could roughly say, that everything is about a quarter. I guess I have favorites in each of these categories.
For music: the work we did for Talking Heads.
As for corporate work: maybe an annual report we did for the Austrian lighting company Zumtobel.
For social stuff: probably the stuff we did for True Majority and One Voice.
For art: when it eventually comes out the Monument to Now book for the contemporary art exhibition which took place alongside the Olympics in Athens. We already finished designing a soft cover book, which turned out fine and nice, but we also still working on a very delicious hard cover book, that is unbelievably complicated to make and therefore the production is so utterly vague…. If this ever comes out, that would probably by my favorite art project.
Q: I wonder, who pays for such a project?
A: Our Greece client Dakis Joannou has a gigantic art collection and that show is put together entirely out of his own collection. He is not as known as Charles Saatchi, but still, his collection is certainly one of the most significant ones of contemporary art in the world, much stronger than those of many museums. There are already several books on his collection and he asked us to do this special one for him. Since he doesn’t need to make money out of this project, we are able to try such a difficult production process. Usually a book like this simply wouldn’t be possible.
Q: Your work uses a lot of handmade typography. Is one of the reasons for that, that you find it easier to implement your idea of making the process of a project visible within the work with handmade typography?
A: It actually started with a page within a CD booklet for Lou Reed. This page was very well received, so we turned it into a poster, which then was extremely well received, mostly because that was ‘96 and everyone elwe was doing modernism, very slick and high polished work. Our work stood out, because it was something obviously handmade, human touched and haptic, going away from this cold world. At this time, I was also unhappy with changing styles all the time. Before, I had this period where I thought you can never re-use anything and always do a new style for everything. That basically proved impossible, besides you are in danger of just ripping different other styles off. Therefor, I was happy to explore that handmade typography idea a bit further. I absolutely don’t think that this is the solution to every project. I think each project calls for different strategies, not just content-wise but also form wise.
Q: A lot of your famous projects are handmade, though. The “Things I learned in my life so far”- series is also handmade typography.
A: But not exclusively! That would not be part of the strategy. A good number of them are made with built type- so you can see that they are human made but we did one exclusively on the computer with Ken Miki, or we did a mixed one where it is partly built type…. it varies.
Q: How much are other designers and your team involved in the design process? What is their main part?
A: Again, it varies wildly. For the one we are just working on “Over time I get used to everything and start taking it for granted” I gave an overall direction, then all three of us worked on concepts for single words. All three were involved with the shoot (Richard managing the camera) and Richard is also going to do the editing. Some others I did by myself and then there is the one I just sent off to Ken Miki, one of my favorite designers in Japan.
Q: Looking at work like your poster for Adobe, or the Japanese poster with the sofa, one immediately starts imagining your process of making your designs and is therefor much more emotionally involved, than if it was a computer generated clean style. Could you say, that you use this storytelling and handmade typography as a trick to get people involved in your designs?
A: Yes, this can be a way. I think that so many regular people, which are removed from the daily practice of graphic design - so maybe 99.9% - have actually no clue when they see a piece of well done graphic design, that there was actually a human behind it. Many look at a newspaper and think, that a machine did it all - and to a large extend, of couse a computer was involved, but they don’t quite get the fact that there are still many human decisions to be made when designing a newspaper: what typefaces are used, how wide the margins are… they just don’t think about it and why should they.
A: In my work, I can sometimes expose the process of making a design as a strategy to humanize the whole project. If the project allows it, I am happy to show the whole making of it, creating a little narrative whithin the piece. This is the ideal for me, just like it was done on the Pink Floyd “Animals” cover. (A huge inflatable pig was set up to fly over Battersea Power Station to be photographed, but then broke loose and flew all the way to Wales. It created a lot of press and admiration among fans.)
Q: You mentioned several times, that design should make somebodies life easier, rather than more difficult. I can understand it as a general approach towards design, especially for people doing information design, but didn’t you design a lot of music covers…?
A: Well I’d say as far as our work is concerned- I’d be happy if it does no harm. I don’t think that a music cover makes anybodies life easier. There is a possibility that a music cover- and I cannot talk about ours here, because I cannot see them in that way- but that music covers by other designers that I have seen brought a little joy to my life. However, I think that there are other pieces that we have designed which at least aim to make somebodies life easier.
Q: For example?
A: True Majority, the group that we are working for, was I think the first mainstream group that really pushed for having the situation in Sudan declared as genocide. That made - as far as I can tell - a huge difference for Sudan, because when the States agreed for this to be declared as a genocide, things moved there fairly quickly. It is in trouble again now, but I think for a while it really made a difference. Our design for True Majority really didn’t do that, but it helped a little bit, tiny little increments… but tiny little increments are tiny little increments. (smile) Every single person can somehow contribute and it doesn’t really matter, what you do.
Q: You always mention, that content is so important for you. How interested are you in getting involved in the content yourself?
A: Well- we already tried to be the charity ourselves- very un- successful! I found that if you want to act as a charity that is effective, you have to do that as a full time job.I would have to give up design and I think that I would be less effective on the whole.
Q: Much of the work that we did for True Majority wasn’t artsy at all. It was very much done with effectiveness in mind and not whether the design world would like it or not.
A: Is it enough to touch somebodies heart?
Q: For me- yes! It is so difficult already. What would you suggest to do beyond that?
A: I know (smiles)- that is probably the most difficult thing, but maybe - again - getting involved more in the actual content like you already do in terms of the “Things I learned”- series. Maybe that is why they are so powerful…
Q: I think there is some sort of desire like that, too, but I am still happy to be a graphic designer and fulfill this profession and what that profession implies. This is, what I feel I am best at.
A: You once said: work slower, do less work, do it better. This however implies a whole life-style, meaning that you can surly be picky with your work but have to accept to earn less money. How much freedom can you actually allow yourselves?
Q: Pretty much! The answer to that is simply to keep the studio small. You have seen how small we keep it here! It would be so “natural” to grow bigger, but I know - even at a 10 people studio - you can already feel this machinery behind it and are in big danger to just find stuff to feed your machine constantly to keep things going, rather than enjoying design and trying to do good work.
Q: How do you convince clients that your work is good? Can you prevent your original designs from client changes? Is it still hard for you to fight things through or are you famous enough, that your design ideas are simply accepted?
A: I was actually hopeing, that once your studio is running and you are established as a designer, things would get easier but I still find myself fighting with clients and having a hard time convincing them… seems like this will never change.
Q: New software is everywhere and more and more things can be achieved with the computer… Do you think that your designs would be different, if you had (for example) very high 3D modulating skills? Is this a criteria for hiring additional staff for that or do you simply stay away from newest technology?
A: Well yes, very likely my work would be different if I had high end 3-D computer modeling skills. But since I don’t have these skills, I don’t have to be involved in building wire grids and can spend my time thinking what we should do and for whom we should do it.
And yes, of course I try to hire people who love doing things that I am bad at. The last thing I need is a little Stefan in the studio…
Q: I know that you are a fan of free design projects such as street artist True. Were you ever thinking of going a bit more into the guerilla-good deeds designer yourself?
Actually, no! Some of my students have made beautiful works like that, or there are things I sometimes see in the streets like Ji Lee’s speech bubbles, he is this kind of designer/artist, who pastes big speach bubble stickers on posters and then people go and write stuff in them. He then comes back and photographs the results. I really love this kind of work, but just didn’t have a good idea yet myself. I have seen fantastic projects but never had the concept of doing something good myself. If I had, I would.
Thank you very much, Stefan! It was a pleasure visiting you.
7.26.2007
Design : WK INTERACT
"The most important thing is to focus on who you are and what you want to do.It takes time to develop a style to represent yourself,so dont give up on what you are good at just because your style is not trendy at this moment.Pay attention on things surrounding you.Buildings, people, or even commercial signs from streets are good sources for stimulating your creativity." said by Eddy Desplanques
www.wkinteract.com
7.17.2007
7.11.2007
Design house : brosmind studio
Brosmind is a multidisciplinary studio based in Barcelona and founded by the Mingarro Brothers.
Educated as industrial and graphic designers, they are especially interested in product, illustration and space design. Often they also develop their own projects.
-Profolio-
www.brosmind.com
Graphic Designer : Doze Green
如假包換的紐約客，塗鴉和Hip Hop的先鋒之一。1974年正值少年，就開始在住家街坊塗鴉。兩年後，征戰紐約地下鐵車廂。他在車廂上的神來之作，很快吸引當時成軍已第二代的Hip Hop天團 Rock Steady Crew成員們的注意。便把他拉到團裡一起玩樂。Rock Steady Crew是早期紐約非裔美人Hip Hop文化圈裡非常重要的團隊，成員組成包括眾多DJ、MC、塗鴉藝術家和街頭舞者。他們一干人，是最早開始跳霹靂舞（break dancing）的團隊。之後，還有影像工作者為這群Hip Hop先鋒們拍攝多部電影如：《風格戰爭》（Style Wars）、《街頭舞士》(Beat Street)、《霹靂舞》（Breakin`）、《霹靂舞續集：電子波卡洛》（Breakin` 2: Electric Boogaloo）。也使成員們從地下文化躍升成為家喻戶曉人物，八零年代，他們時常受邀到歐洲表演，進一步影響了歐陸從美術、音樂、舞蹈對Hip Hop文化的雛形發展。Doze Green對這段風光往事並不多提，只說不過就過了段瘋狂有趣的歲月。他略帶感傷的說，到了九零年代很多那時Rock Steady Crew好友伙伴，多因為吃藥過了頭或是被槍斃命亦有大半蹲苦牢，看著朋友的凋零叫他不勝欷噓。另外，同一般有名團隊一樣，Rock Steady Crew漸漸產生質變，新加入的成員有些令他不對盤。又加上紐約當時執政的市長，對地下文化欲除之而後快，落得乾淨。他在九零年代中期，曾移居到舊金山去，開展另一番視野。
Doze Green也是最早由街頭作畫轉到畫廊賣畫開展的塗鴉藝術家之一，他提到：「在畫廊展畫，是一個新的里程。對我來說沒啥差別，反正，我就是在畫畫嘜。我想只要我還能動就一直畫下去！」不過他的畫風，近年漸漸轉變，原因是長年用噴漆作畫，吸進不少化學物質，身體狀況出問題，他懷疑肺大概沒剩多少功能正常使喚。所以，九零年代中期以後，他丟到慣用的噴漆罐，改提畫筆與油漆刷作畫。但最重要的原因很有趣，他說搬到舊金山那一陣子，還是喜歡辦趴地找一堆人玩樂啊，由於空間通常在室內或地下室，DJ一邊放歌，他一邊即興作畫，若是等到噴完一幅作品，大概人也走光了，因為噴漆罐的氣味實在不能入鼻。於是，他從善如流改變作畫材料，要大家玩得健康愉快點。
‧英輪敏感印象
當Doze Green聽著DJ放嘻哈樂隨節奏搖擺，在舞台向畫布上揮撒著鋪陳的底色，吸引眾人喧嘩的目光，SheOne則不急不徐端著一杯威士忌加可樂，靜靜地在後方戶外咖啡座手捧著隨身必備的小畫冊塗鴉。我找了個他停下筆來的空檔，問SheOne：「這是為今天塗鴉畫作打稿嗎？」他微笑答我：「不是，我只是隨手畫，嗯，我畫畫從沒預設過草稿。反正，不想那麼早上台，正在等著這個環境給我一些靈光呢！」接續訪談中，這位倫敦土生土長的藝術家，接續著街頭噴畫的話題。「打從有記憶開始我就在畫畫了，大概是那種給我一張紙和一枝筆，我就會非常安靜的沈醉在自己世界中的小孩吧！到現在都還保留著孩提到長大時的畫冊，有閒有興致的時候，還會把它們全部搬出來仔細檢閱品味，親切地像在跟老朋友說說一般。按圖索驥，還可以追朔各個時期畫風的改變和受哪些風潮的影響，蠻不錯的。」他說。
八零年代中SheONe年紀尚輕，常跟一堆DJ、做音樂和其他噴畫家一起混，也正式進入街頭噴畫的領域。自由不羈地，在街頭壁面上鑲繡上自己的名號和作品，這也變成一般人對噴畫的想像。他說：「我受紐約那時正興盛的街頭噴畫影響極深，1984年開始在街頭、車廂、室內室外作畫。剛開始大家都想試試啊，所以總在比較不起眼的地方試畫。我是不知道別人怎麼想，個人的經驗是越畫野心也益發風發，興之所至街面牆壁畫作也越便越大！」雖然他承接紐約一派街頭塗鴉風格，比較特別是，他並沒有全然懷抱繼之而起的Hip-Hop潮流，對於嘻哈音樂沒多少熱情，倒是在重金屬和電子樂裡找到畫畫體己良伴。
後來，他也和其他伙伴入侵癈棄倉庫或是廠房，在室內作畫壁面上開工，畫著噴著一時間偌大的空間也順勢變成現場LIVE的工作室，有時人多一起就開免費趴地。他表示：「在室內玩有不受風吹雨淋的好處，作品陳跡時間也會長點。不過，大半時間我都是獨自一人帶著材料，閒晃到臨時專屬工作室去，專心往牆上噴出自己想要的畫面。」他還附帶說，自今最滿意的作品還在倫敦某個荒蕪的工地裡，除他之外，大概還沒人發現過。「Frieze Magazine 曾在一篇文章中提到我的作品是抽象派式的藝術作品，大體上說來，這位作者說中了我的宿命。我的鬼魅印象般畫，是作畫當時的存在感與飛度的片刻；參雜些微憂鬱和節奏混合之下的產物。靈感也許來自少年時胡亂寫的一點字句，對已逝去時代的模糊印象，幾張聽爛的LP唱盤，想丟棄卻又保存下來髒髒的購物袋…等等不一而足。總得要臨到現場，看什麼東西正在我身體裡起化學作用，才是下筆當時最佳的主角。」SheOne悠悠道來。可一開始絕意要靠此行為生，是非常不簡單的生涯。回憶起十年前還沒被人賞識的苦日子，簡直難過到不想多提。「我可是整整畫了十年以後，才真正確立了屬於自己的風格，可以在牆面上自在無束完整的敘述我想跟觀者說的一段故事，這種感覺是極其珍貴的。」他說。
SheOne早期在過著苦哈哈日子時留在牆上的作品，漸開聲名，成英倫派街頭塗鴉先鋒之一，漸漸地就有人邀約他做現場的Live Show也有藝廊請他開個展。「倫敦物價嚇人的高昂，有了這些邀約日子比較好過。你問我，在公共空間牆上留下自己的作品，是不是像一般青少年出於某種憤怒或是愛現的心態？我想都不是，我早過了愛出風頭耍酷的年紀，情緒並沒有那樣高張憤慨，各種型態的噴畫只是我使用的素材與媒介。所以，轉入畫廊空間展畫，對我來說是再自然也不過的事。我熱愛旅行，能參加巡迴演出也很好啊。能有機會接受跨國企業的資助藝術創作也很棒，無後顧之憂的專注創作。尤其，Royal Elastics是很上道的贊助廠商，他們真的就給你錢，實實在在地幫助藝術家，不多過問作品，十分尊重藝術創作，也沒有一堆雜七雜八的規定，反正，你愛怎樣做就那樣呈現，全無壓力。世上還有比這更美好的事嗎？」他說。
- copy from pots.
www.dozegreen.com
7.10.2007
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