Sagmeister Inc Quotes & Sayings

I have done enough bullshit lately, I just have to make time for something better. Something good. — Stefan Sagmeister

I am not a religious person myself, but I did look for nature. I had spent my first sabbatical in New York City. Looked for something different for the second one. Europe and the U.S. didn't really feel enticing because I knew them too well. So Asia it was. The most beautiful landscapes I had seen in Asia were Sri Lanka and Bali. — Stefan Sagmeister

I discovered that I never really used Helvetica but I like to look at it. I like the VW beetle, too, although I've never driven one. — Stefan Sagmeister

I can see my work as a job. I do it for money. I likely already look forward to the weekend on Thursdays. And I probably will need a hobby as a leveling mechanism. In a career, I'm definitely more engaged. But at the same time, there will be periods when I think, 'Is all that really hard work really worth my while?' — Stefan Sagmeister

Ensure it feels like it's made by humans, for humans. — Stefan Sagmeister

Peter Noever is a pain in the ass and a joy in the heart. — Stefan Sagmeister

Work your ass off. Don't be an asshole. — Stefan Sagmeister

Whenever I do overcome my inherent fear, it turns out well. — Stefan Sagmeister

I didn't think that personal style had much value in graphic design. — Stefan Sagmeister

If you want to communicate something, you'd better make sure that your design piece is well-dressed and that its teeth are fixed. At the same time, I still believe that if it is only stylistically great and it has nothing to say, it still is not going to make a lasting impression on anybody. — Stefan Sagmeister

To touch somebody's heart with design. — Stefan Sagmeister

At the opening of our exhibition at Deitch Projects in New York we featured a wall of 10,000 bananas. Green bananas created a pattern against a background of yellow bananas spelling out the sentiment: Self-confidence produces fine results. After a number of days the green bananas turned yellow too and the type disappeared. When the yellow background bananas turned brown, the type (and the self-confidence) appeared again, only to go away when all bananas turned brown. — Stefan Sagmeister

Downtown Toronto is a very good place to talk about the neutrality of modernist architecture. I'm sure this kind of box-building was interesting in the Twenties, Thirties and Forties, but I think it's absolutely ridiculous to build like this in 2013. — Stefan Sagmeister

The conventional wisdom in our business is that you have to grow and keep moving to survive. We never grew, always stayed tiny, and it serves us very well over the years, allowing us to pick and choose projects, and keeping our financial independence from our clients. We actually have a rather good track record, because we do select projects carefully. Most of our ideas don't eat dust but glimpse the light of day because we find it much more helpful to spend some serious time and effort before we start working on a project, rather than suffer through it afterwards. — Stefan Sagmeister

Everybody thinks they are right — Stefan Sagmeister

Trying to always be the nice guy, to appear good, can be limiting. Avoiding confrontation has closed up a number of possibilities for me. — Stefan Sagmeister

I originally had opened the studio in New York to combine my two loves, music and design. And we created videos and packaging for many musicians that you know, and for even more that you've never heard of. As I realized, just like with many, many things in my life that I actually love, I adapt to it. And I get, over time, bored by them. — Stefan Sagmeister

I'm actually quite critical of the storytelling theme. I think all the storytellers are not storytellers. — Stefan Sagmeister

Having guts always works out for me. — Stefan Sagmeister

By far, the most determining factor of any brand is the product or the service the company produces. Branding companies have very rarely any significant influence on that, but it is, of course, in their interest to amplify their importance. — Stefan Sagmeister

Being in a foreign place, preferably for the first time, having seen many things and collected new impressions, and returning to an empty hotel room with an hour or so to blow. That mix often yields fine results. — Stefan Sagmeister

My granddad wanted to become a sign painter and designer, but was stopped; my dad would have had a real talent for language, but was stopped. When I expressed a desire to become a graphic designer, I was not stopped. — Stefan Sagmeister

I had discovered that I'm much less special than I thought I am. So whatever I find true for myself, other people might also relate to. — Stefan Sagmeister

Everyone who is honest is interesting. — Stefan Sagmeister

U.K. psychologist Daniel Nettle thinks of happiness as a carrot on a stick, designed by evolution to show the right way, and also designed so that we will never permanently reach it. We likely would just sit around and eat sweet and fatty foods all day, and that is simply not in the interest of evolution. — Stefan Sagmeister

Hobbies are for people that don't like what they're doing. — Stefan Sagmeister

You can have an art experience in front of a Rembrandt ... or in front of a piece of graphic design. — Stefan Sagmeister

It is very important to embrace failure and to do a lot of stuff - as much stuff as possible - with as little fear as possible. It's much, much better to wind up with a lot of crap having tried it than to overthink in the beginning and not do it. — Stefan Sagmeister

Any excuse to get away from the computer screen is welcome. — Stefan Sagmeister

You could say that bad typography brought us the Afghanistan war, the Iraq war, the housing crisis and a good number of other things. — Stefan Sagmeister