"This is all from Düsseldorf? I didn't even know that!"

Stefan Sagmeister was a guest at the Beyond Tellerrand design conference in May 2024. It was the Austrian-born designer's first visit to Düsseldorf. The New York-based communication designer has won almost every major design award and designed covers for the Rolling Stones, Jay-Z and Talking Heads. Sagmeister then spent a sabbatical in Bali in 2006. This time out prompted him to rethink his approach. Stefan Sagmeister then began to shift his work away from commercial commissions and towards conveying social messages. In this interview, Sagmeister reveals how he counters a pessimistic view of the world, why he needs an urban environment to be creative and which Düsseldorf bands impress him the most.

You often speak at conferences and have been invited to many TED Talks. You also offer free design criticism on Instagram. What motivates you to travel the world and share your knowledge and insights?
It has a bit to do with my age. I think evolution has set it up so that we have the best ideas when our brains are still growing. At my age (Sagmeister was born in 1962. // Editor's note), I feel a natural need to pass on my knowledge. I taught at the School of Visual Arts in New York for 25 years, I'm a regular guest at universities and, as you rightly say, I also offer my support on Instagram. This allows me to reach a relatively large number of people. That seems effective to me.

Have you been a guest at Beyond Tellerrand before?
Yes, it's my fourth time. I've been to Munich, Hamburg and Berlin. But this is my first time here in Düsseldorf.

Your themes revolve around happiness and beauty. You also argue that, contrary to the general tenor, our world has not become more violent and worse, but better and better. A view that you share with Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker.
Steven Pinker had a big influence on me. In his book "Gewalt" (Violence), published in 2011, he draws attention to the fact that violence has continued to decline over the course of our civilization. I was first introduced to the idea of long-term thinking by the Long Now Foundation. (The US non-profit organization promotes long-term thinking and is working on a clock that is supposed to work for the next 10,000 years. // Editor's note) This immediately fascinated me. In many areas of life, in politics, but also in business, there are complaints that people think too short-term, for example because quarterly results are considered more important than the question of how the company will be in five years' time. I think we lack long-term thinking in many areas. We should also look back over the last five or even 50 years in retrospect. Surprisingly, as Pinker also shows, this leads to a completely different view of the world. Since the news in both social media and traditional channels is designed to be short-term and mostly negative in its message, many of us have a distorted view of the world.

Your exploration of the subject began with the posters you made after your first sabbatical, didn't it?
My mentor and great role model was the graphic designer Tibor Kalman. He always saw design as a language. After running the studio for seven years and having studied at two different universities before that, I thought: 'Okay, I've mastered this language now. What do I want to do with it now? Like most graphic designers, I had practically only spoken in commercial language until then. After the sabbatical, I was approached by two clients who gave me a lot of freedom: One was an Austrian magazine, which involved designing a few double-page spreads. The other client was a French poster company that had put up billboards in a park. The brief was: 'Do something! That was surprisingly difficult at first.

So you came up with the idea of turning insights from your notebook "Things I Have Learned In My Life So Far" into pictures?
Yes, and there was an amazing response. The posters were often reproduced and they were shown worldwide, in newspapers, magazines and on billboards in pedestrian zones. Then I started to communicate things that I don't think are said often enough.

What are you working on at the moment?
There is a big exhibition in a museum in Shanghai. It's called "It's getting better". In May, the "Besser" exhibition opened at Lake Constance in Austria. These are two different approaches: The Chinese exhibition serves to reflect on the topic, while the Austrian show also serves to sell the exhibits. In contrast to my exhibition project "Beauty" or the "Happy Show", the exhibition in Austria offers the opportunity to purchase works and hang them on the sofa at home. As a reminder that what you've just read on social media doesn't necessarily mean the end of the world. However, I am thinking about renaming it. Maybe to "Boring". People are still put off by a positive title.

You were celebrated for your record cover designs in the 1990s. Your clients were the Rolling Stones, Lou Reed, Aerosmith, Jay Z and Talking Heads, to name but a few. You stopped in 2000.
With many things in life, the 50th time is not as good as the first. So it's not as much fun. One of the absolute advantages of my profession is that you can try out different directions and still call yourself a designer. Making a chair or a movie are really very different processes.

Düsseldorf is a stronghold of electronic music and punk, the cradle of Krautrock and home to many influential bands. For example, the albums "Monarchie und Alltag" by Fehlfarben, "Die Mensch-Maschine", "Autobahn", "Trans Europa Express" and "Computerwelt" by Kraftwerk were all recorded here. And "Ein kleines bisschen Horrorshow" by Die Toten Hosen.
That's all from Düsseldorf? I didn't even know that!

Which of these bands would you have most liked to do a cover for?
For Kraftwerk. But that would have been very difficult, because they were already world class back then. Not just musically, but intellectually and above all visually. I would say that the visual presentation of Kraftwerk - and I don't just mean the covers, but also the videos or the stage show - was something that didn't exist anywhere else in Germany or Austria.

You have lived in New York for many years, a city that is regarded as a benchmark for the zeitgeist. How has the city changed over the years?
New York has grown up. When I arrived in 1986, it was a wild thing - and cheap! I could rent a room in an apartment on the Lower East Side for 400 dollars. Just right for a design student. And as I slowly established myself over the years, luckily the city established itself too. If it was still as dangerous today as it was in 1986, I wouldn't live in New York anymore.

As a creative person, do you need such an urban environment?
For me, that's kind of true. I spent a year in Bali during my first sabbatical. It would have been much cheaper to rent a house in the wasteland. But I still wanted to live 15 minutes away from Ubud, so with access to people, restaurants and stores. During my last sabbatical, I spent four months in Schwarzenberg, a small town in the Bregenzerwald, not far from where I come from. It was interesting, but I wouldn't do it again. Mexico City was more fruitful for me.

Every seven years you close your design studio in New York and go on a one-year sabbatical, a ritual you call the "7 Year Itch". Your next sabbatical starts this fall. What are the stops?
Madrid, Buenos Aires and Guadalajara in Mexico. The Mexican or some South American cities have such a loose density that you can still find production facilities within the city. There is space for art, but also for crafts. I find it very pleasant to have a carpenter or a ceramics producer around the corner.

You describe the graphic designer Tibor Kalman, who died in 1999, as an important former source of inspiration. Is there a living person who currently inspires you?
Yes, my big sister Christine. She leads her life with a lot of kindness, she supports other people. She draws meaning and happiness from this. I like to let that rub off on me.

sagmeister.com

Info

Beyond Tellerrand
Beyond Tellerrand took place for the first time in Düsseldorf in 2011. The conference covers a wide range of topics relating to technology and creativity. Marc Thiele is the initiator of Beyond Tellerrand, which now also takes place annually in Berlin. Thiele invites experts from all over the world, such as Stefan Sagmeister in May 2024.
beyondtellerrand.com

Text: Ilona Marx
Photos: Kristina Hellhake
Further photos of exhibitions and works courtesy of Stefan Sagmeister.