When I take a look at the work that Stefan Sagmeister produces, I’m struck by just how real it all seems. The way he takes very real images in nature or in human life and turns them into words is of particular interest to me. Each piece of art carries with it a meaning, and that meaning can be connected to another one of his works.
Sagmeister’s habits strike me as interesting. He said he has been writing in a diary since he was 12 years old. This process, normally no longer than 15 or 20 minutes of time invested per entry, helps him to step back and really grasp what’s happened in the last week. It’s a habit I could probably benefit from, given how much material my brain is trying to digest on a weekly basis.
Sagmeister’s approach to how he chooses client’s is something I also found interesting. He said he only likes to choose clients that are smarter than him because “that’s the only way you can really learn something.”
Of the artists I looked at, David Carson’s art also really reached out to me. I love art that plays with type, and Carson has no shortage of work that achieves this. His work seems unique, with a certain disorder arranged in a manner that ends up pleasing to the eye. Because I have a background in print, what he does with magazine design is definitely intriguing for me to look at it.
Carson said that his lack of training probably helped him in his work. He ties this to how computers are making our work seem less personal. He also said he encourages artists to be self-indulgent. He wouldn’t want anyone who was working for him to be anything other than self-serving in what their work and to be totally absorbed in what they’re creating. That’s an approach I’m not really used to taking. I cannot imagine creating something solely for myself. Maybe that’s something I need to change.
As our work takes more of a digital form, Carson encourages us to make our work personal and subjective. When I take a look at my own dependence on digital tools to create art, I can certainly agree with him. I don’t know how to make art without some form of digital tool like Photoshop. I worry that maybe I’m losing some creativity with my dependence on it. Perhaps it’s time I start using tools that aren’t quite so digital.