Introducing…

Posted by Sarah Hyne

Stefan Sagmeister is a bit of a god in the graphic design world. Born in Austria, and now based in NYC, he carved a name for himself working on album artwork for the likes of David Byrne, Lou Reed and the Rolling Stones. In 2005, Sagmeister’s Talking Heads box set artwork won him a Grammy.

His work is characterised by hand-rendered typography, and oftentimes elaborate setups that would require hundreds of hours of work. Sagmeister really broke the wave of computer-generated, minimalist, Swiss-influenced graphic design of the time and his style has permeated the advertising, music, fashion, graphic design and art sectors.

Stefan Sagmeister: I salute you!

Lou Reed poster art, which is still making waves for its hand-rendered type. See recent editions of Esquire magazine and the high-end fashion mag Love
 

A self-promotion piece for the AIGA, the professional association of design. Famously, Sagmeister had his intern scratch the details onto his chest. He said for months afterwards he had scarring that would show up under a tan!
 

Adobe commissioned Sagmeister to create a poster for its Design Achievement Awards. Understanding that designers often work late into the night to meet deadlines, he created this poster out of hundreds of styrofoam cups of coffee, all with different quantities of milk to give different shades of brown
 
A recent work in a series of typographic installations created from quotes from his personal diaries. This one, entitled ‘Obsessions make my life worse and my work better’ was created with thousands of individual pennies.

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About Sarah Hyne

Sarah Hyne is part of Bluewire’s alumni. Sarah was Bluewire’s interactive designer from 2007 until she accepted a position at Map magazine in 2010 where she could pursue design in all forms, not just on the web.

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