Stefan Sagmeister (born August 6, 1962) is an Austrian

graphic designer A graphic designer is a professional within the graphic design and graphic arts industry who assembles together images, typography, or motion graphics to create a piece of design. A graphic designer creates the graphics primarily for published, ...

, storyteller, and

typographer Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable and appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, point sizes, line lengths, line-spacing ( leading), an ...

based in New York City. In 1993, Sagmeister founded his company, Sagmeister Inc., to create designs for the music industry. He has designed album covers for

Lou Reed Lewis Allan Reed (March 2, 1942October 27, 2013) was an American musician, songwriter, and poet. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. ...

OK Go OK Go is an American rock band originally from Chicago, Illinois, now based in Los Angeles, California. The band is composed of Damian Kulash (lead vocals, guitar), Tim Nordwind (bass guitar and vocals), Dan Konopka (drums and percussion), and ...

The Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the gritty, rhythmically d ...

David Byrne David Byrne (; born 14 May 1952) is a Scottish-American singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, writer, music theorist, visual artist and filmmaker. He was a founding member and the principal songwriter, lead singer, and guitarist of ...

Jay Z Shawn Corey Carter (born December 4, 1969), known professionally as Jay-Z, is an American rapper, record producer, entrepreneur, and founder of Manhattan-based conglomerate talent and entertainment agency Roc Nation. He is regarded as one of ...

Aerosmith Aerosmith is an American Rock music, rock band formed in Boston in 1970. The group consists of Steven Tyler (lead vocals), Joe Perry (musician), Joe Perry (guitar), Tom Hamilton (musician), Tom Hamilton (bass), Joey Kramer (drums) and Brad Whi ...

Talking Heads Talking Heads were an American rock band formed in 1975 in New York City and active until 1991.Talkin ...

Brian Eno Brian Peter George St John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno (; born Brian Peter George Eno, 15 May 1948) is a British musician, composer, record producer and visual artist best known for his contributions to ambient music and work in rock, pop an ...

and

Pat Metheny Patrick Bruce Metheny ( ; born August 12, 1954) is an American jazz guitarist and composer. He is the leader of the Pat Metheny Group and is also involved in duets, solo works, and other side projects. His style incorporates elements of progre ...

. From 2011 until 2019 he partnered with

Jessica Walsh Jessica Walsh (born October 30, 1986)Caitlin Dover“'Awesome, Twisted, and Beautiful': A Q&A with Designer Jessica Walsh,” Guggenheim Blog, February 7, 2014. is an American designer, art director, illustrator and educator. She was a partner o ...

under the name Sagmeister & Walsh Inc. OFFF 2009 Oeiras (3689487617)

Early life and education

He began his design career at the age of 15 at "Alphorn", an Austrian Youth magazine, which is named after the traditional Alpine musical instrument. Sagmeister studied graphic design at the Hochschule fuer Angewandte Kunst, Vienna, graduating in 1986. He later won a

Fulbright scholarship The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...

to study at the

Pratt Institute Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York (state), New York. It has a satellite campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The school was ...

in New York, where he received a

Master of Fine Arts A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.) is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts admini ...

degree.

Design career

In 1991, worked with Leo Burnett's Hong Kong Design Group. In 1993, he returned to New York to work with Tibor Kalman's

M&Co M&Co Trading Limited, previously Mackays Stores Limited until its 2020 administration, (previously trading as Mackays, now trading as M&Co.) is a Scottish chain store selling women's, men's, and children's clothes, as well as small homeware ...

design company. In 1993, he set up his company Sagmeister Inc in New York. He has since designed branding, graphics, and packaging for clients as diverse as the

Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the g ...

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

, the

Guggenheim Museum The Guggenheim Museums are a group of museums in different parts of the world established (or proposed to be established) by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. Museums in this group include: Locations Americas * The Solomon R. Guggenhei ...

and

Time Warner Warner Media, LLC ( traded as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City, United States. It was originally established in 1972 by ...

. He is the author of the design monograph "Made You Look" which was published by Booth-Clibborn editions. He teaches in the graduate design department of the

School of Visual Arts The School of Visual Arts New York City (SVA NYC) is a private for-profit art school in New York City. It was founded in 1947 and is a member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design. History This school was started by ...

in New York and has been appointed as the Frank Stanton Chair at the

Cooper Union School of Art The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art (Cooper Union) is a private college at Cooper Square in New York City. Peter Cooper founded the institution in 1859 after learning about the government-supported École Polytechnique in ...

, New York.

Controversy

Sagmeister became the subject of controversy after his performance of a lewd joke about animal

fellatio Fellatio (also known as fellation, and in slang as blowjob, BJ, giving head, or sucking off) is an oral sex act involving a person stimulating the penis of another person by using the mouth, throat, or both. Oral stimulation of the scrotum may ...

at the annual web conference

Webstock Webstock is a web technology conference held in Wellington, New Zealand featuring a range of high-profile speakers covering a variety of web-related topics such as accessibility, usability, ethnographic design and development practices. Webstoc ...

in Wellington, New Zealand, in February 2017, embarrassing a sign language interpreter and upsetting some in the audience. The organizers apologized to the interpreter in person, and to attendees following the incident, and on Twitter.

organizers also followed this apology up with a longer statement on their blog. The joke, according to Fast Company, involved having a sign language interpreter assigned to his talk "interpret a story about a manatee giving itself a blowjob", with repeated requirements to the interpreter to use gestures to indicate the sex act. Sagmeister later apologized through the Sagmeister & Walsh Twitter account, and from his personal Instagram account.

Awards

Sagmeister received a

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

in 2005 in the

Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package The Grammy Award for Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package has been presented since 1995 to an album's art director Art director is the title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, ...

category for art directing Once in a Lifetime box set by

Talking Heads Talking Heads were an American rock band formed in 1975 in New York City and active until 1991.Talkin ...

. He received a second

for his design of the

and

album

Everything That Happens Will Happen Today ''Everything That Happens Will Happen Today'' is the second collaborative studio album by David Byrne and Brian Eno, released on August 18, 2008, by Todo Mundo. Marking Byrne's eighth studio effort overall and Byrne a ...

in the

Grammy Award for Best Recording Package The Grammy Award for Best Recording Package is one of a series of Grammy Awards presented for the visual look of an album. It is presented to the art director of the winning album, not to the performer(s), unless the performer is also the art dir ...

category on January 31, 2010. In 2005, Sagmeister won the

National Design Award The American National Design Awards, founded in 2000, are funded and awarded by Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum is a design museum housed within the Andrew Carnegie Mansion in Manhattan, New Y ...

for Communications from the

Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum is a design museum housed within the Andrew Carnegie Mansion in Manhattan, New York City, along the Upper East Side's Museum Mile. It is one of 19 museums that fall under the wing of the Smithsonian Inst ...

. In 2013 Sagmeister was awarded the Golden Medal of Honor of the Republic of Austria. In 2018 he was voted Austrian of the Year by the Austrian newspaper Die Presse.

Exhibitions

2000 ''Design Biannual'', Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, New York 2001 ''Stealing Eyeballs'', Kunstlerhaus, Vienna; Solo exhibition, Gallery

Frédéric Sanchez Frédéric Sanchez (born 23 September 1966) is a French sound artist and music producer, best known for his career in the fashion industry. His works include sound collages, mixes, original compositions, and sound installations. Major industry o ...

, Paris 2002 Solo exhibition,

Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna The MAK – Museum of Applied Arts (German language, German: ''Museum für angewandte Kunst'') is an arts and crafts museum located at Stubenring 5 in Vienna's 1st district Innere Stadt. Besides its traditional orientation towards arts and crafts a ...

2003 Solo exhibition, Museum fur Gestaltung, Zurich, Switzerland; Solo exhibition, DDD Gallery Tokyo 2012 ''The Happy Show'',

Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia The Institute of Contemporary Art or ICA is a contemporary art museum in Philadelphia. The museum is associated with the University of Pennsylvania, and is located on its campus. The Institute is one of the country's leading museums dedicated to e ...

2013 ''The Happy Show'', Design Exchange, Toronto 2013 The Happy Show. MOCA, at Pacific Design Center, Los Angeles 2013 Jewish Museum, New York 2013 ''The Happy Show'',

Chicago Cultural Center The Chicago Cultural Center, opened in 1897, is a Chicago Landmark building operated by Chicago's Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events that houses the city's official reception venue where the Mayor of Chicago has welcomed preside ...

2013 ''The Happy Show'', Paris, Gaite Lyrique 2015 ''The Happy Show'',

2015 ''The Happy Show'', The Museum of Vancouver,

Vancouver, Canada Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. The ...

2015 ''The Happy Show'',

Museum für angewandte Kunst Frankfurt The Museum Angewandte Kunst is located in Frankfurt am Main, Germany and part of the Museumsufer. The alternating exhibitions recount tales of cultural values and changing living conditions. Beyond that, they continually refer to the question o ...

2018/2019 ''Sagmeister & Walsh: Beauty'',

2019 ''Sagmeister & Walsh: Beauty,'' Mak Frankfurt 2019 ''Sagmeister & Walsh: Beauty'' Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg 2021 ''Sagmeister & Walsh: Beauty'' Fondation d’entreprise Martell 2021 ''Beautiful Numbers''
Thomas Erben Gallery
ref name="stefan sagmeister biographie"/> 2022 ''Sagmeister & Walsh: Beauty''

Vorarlberg Museum The vorarlberg museum (former name Vorarlberger Landesmuseum) in Bregenz is the state art and cultural museum of the Austrian federal state of Vorarlberg. It was founded in 1857, and has since been a centre for collection and preservation of ...

, Bregenz, Austria

Filmography

* ''The Happy Film'' (2016, documentary)Official Website The Happy Film
/ref>

References

External links

Official websiteLondon Design Museum's entry for Sagmeister
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sagmeister, Stefan 1962 births Living people People from Bregenz Austrian graphic designers Austrian typographers and type designers Grammy Award winners Austrian expatriates in the United States Austrian poster artists National Design Award winners Album-cover and concert-poster artists University of Applied Arts Vienna alumni AIGA medalists Fulbright alumni