I recently spent some quality time (thanks to my colleague Andrea Tria) with a graphic design book that’s been around a while that I’d only ever seen online and never had the chance to hold in my own hands. It’s titled Sagmeister: Made You Look.
(If i comes before e except after c why isn’t he Sagmiester?)
A short review is that, love him or hate him, I think everyone would agree Stefan Sagmeister’s book is fabulous visually, extremely entertaining to read, with fine examples of brilliant creative, and it’s definitely recommended by me. If you can’t find it or don’t really want to buy it you can probably ask Andrea if you can borrow her copy. She’s so nice she’ll likely say yes.
The book also reminded me of an embarrassing moment in my life that involved a former Sagmeister employee.
Years ago I volunteered to help organize a graphic design conference in Winnipeg. Our committee had dinner with invited speakers the night the event kicked off.
Sitting to my left at the table was Luba Lukova, a Bulgarian-born New York illustrator whose work I really admire. We talked a lot about our similar European roots (many of my ancestors came from Romania). But as Luba and I were agreeing we were practically neighbours, in a roundabout way, the man sitting to my right, Sagmeisters’ guy, who was also speaking at the conference, spilled a glass of water in my crotch.
Talk about a conversation killer.
And an abrupt end to that dinner.
Not that long after the conference ended this issue of Creativity came out. The guy on the left is the dude that wet my pants. Creative coincidence? Probably. But they do also say you never really know where your next great idea is going to come from.
