The Bregenz star designer Stefan Sagmeister (59) can look back on a successful career. WANN & WO met the New Yorker by choice on his home visit to the “vorarlberg museum” and talked to him about getting older, rock stars, the Grammys and beauty.
WHEN WHERE: Mr. Sagmeister: You’re celebrating your 60s in August. Is age something that concerns you?
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Stefan Sagmeister: One of my sisters is celebrating her 70th this year. Last weekend we had a family celebration where we combined both birthdays. My nephew brought a card that I designed for mom and dad in their 60s and 70s while I was studying at the University of Applied Sciences. For me as a 23-year-old, the two were very old at the time. (laughs) Our invitation said Stefan and Christine – 60 and 70. That shook me a little. But I actually really like being the way I am. If I had a time machine and was allowed to be 30 again, I wouldn’t travel back. I was very happy between 30 and 60, but I don’t want to go through it again. I’m not at all one of those people who believe that everything used to be better.
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WHEN WHERE: You left the country young and can look back on a very successful career in New York. Why the Big Apple?
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Stefan Sagmeister: As a teenager, I was always drawn to the big city. It was also clear to me that I would study in Vienna and certainly not in Innsbruck. But then I quickly realized that Vienna is not a metropolis, but just a conglomerate of 23 small towns. After graduating from high school, I traveled through the USA. New York was a central part of this and the city immediately cast a spell over me. At this point, however, I always emphasize that I am an Austrian designer who works and lives in New York. This is very important to me. Because I spent the years that formed me in Austria. It was also those qualities that people from Vorarlberg are always accused of that made my success possible: “On time, you’re right and you’re good at it,” it also works in New York. (laughs)
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WHEN WHERE: Do you still often come to little Bregenz from the noisy metropolis?
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Stefan Sagmeister: As far as the volume is concerned, I have to say: I grew up facing the street on Römerstrasse, when cars were still driving through the city centre. It was louder in Bregenz than in New York. (laughs) But I really like being here. Before the pandemic broke out, I was visiting my family five or six times a year. I’m the only one who left. So maybe that’s why I’m looking for my roots all the more. But apart from the family: there are just a few things that I really like here. The workshop in Andelsbuch, for example, the excellent contemporary craftsmanship, the unbelievably good food. Cheese spaetzle in Schwarzenberg! There are no good cheese dumplings in New York. (laughs)
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WHEN WHERE: Her work has received many awards. How much value do you personally place on prices? And is there an award that is particularly important to you?
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Stefan Sagmeister: Overall, I’m someone who gladly accepts recognition. In fact, we have already won so many design awards that it has worn off a bit. The 500th time isn’t as much fun as the first. That applies to designing record covers, sometimes also to people (laughs) – and also to design awards. But I was very happy about the Grammys because it’s an area I’ve wanted to get into for a long time. When colleagues then say that this is one of the best things of the year, that makes you happy.
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WHEN WHERE: Speaking of record covers, you designed them for the Rolling Stones or Lou Reed, for example. What is it like working with such eccentric personalities?
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Stefan Sagmeister: Rock stars are as diverse as the rest of the population. My contact with Mick Jagger was purely professional. He needed something, I delivered it. After that we had nothing more to do with each other. With Lou Reed (Editor’s note: The Velvet Underground) it was something completely different. He lived in my neighborhood and we bumped into each other from time to time. We’ve also had long chats from time to time, such as about his obsession with tai chi. Or how important it is that we both found what we wanted to do incredibly early on. Lou Reed once interviewed me for a design magazine, even though he hated journalists himself. (laughs) I’m still friends with David Byrne from Talking Heads, for whose box design I won a Grammy at the time. We don’t hang out every day, but I can always contact him and we spend an afternoon together every now and then.
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WHEN WHERE: Finally: On the evening of this interview, the vernissage of your current exhibition “Beauty” will take place in the “vorarlberg museum”. What is beautiful for you personally?
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Stefan Sagmeister: I find everything beautiful that is made with love and care. With very few exceptions, the things that many of us consider ugly were not done because someone wanted them to be ugly. But because someone didn’t care. The people who once built the deer or the eagle in Schwarzenberg had beauty as their building goal. It was clear that the buildings fit into the environment and therefore have to be beautiful. At the gas station in Dornbirn Mitte, this thought was definitely not there. A large logo and functionality were in the foreground. And within the bounds of that functionality, they probably did well too. But most of us find the environment there to be ugly. You go there because you need to fill up gas, want to buy furniture, or you need something to eat quickly. But very few people go there to vacation. (laughs) If you want to stay somewhere for a week, you’d rather go to Lech or Schwarzenberg.
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Short question
- You’re a family person, but you don’t have any children yourself. Has that never been an issue for you? During my sabbatical in Bali, I thought intensively about the topic and could have imagined it. But when I was back in New York and saw the spoiled, self-important brats at brunch, I lost it again. New York is not an ideal place for raising children, the pressure to succeed is enormous. There is no moral obligation to have children – but there is a moral obligation to take care of them when you have them.
- Are you already thinking about retirement? No not at all. In the coming year there are still two projects in Mexico City and Japan on the agenda and in 2024 I will take another sabbatical year. Design is my calling and I can imagine doing it for a long time.
- Your wish for 2022? A peace treaty for Ukraine.
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Personal details: Stefan Sagmeister
- Former residence: 59, New York (born August 6, 1962 in Bregenz)
- Career: Graphic and design University of Applied Arts Vienna, Filbright scholarship, Pratt Institute New York (Master of Fine Arts), agency Leo Burnett Hong Kong, M&Co New York, 1993 agency Sagmeister Inc. NY (since 2012 “Sagmeister & Walsh”)
- Awards (selection): two Grammys (2005 and 2010), Gold Medal for Services to the Republic of Austria 2013, Austrian Abroad of the Year 2016, Austrian of the Year (international success) 2018
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