The Caroline Werner Gannett Project 2007-08
Stefan Sagmeister

Stefan Sagmeister

International graphic designer, artist,
author of Things I Have Learned in My Life So Far and Sagmeister: Made You Look

Presenting:

“Design and Happiness”

When: Monday, October 5, 2009 at 8:00PM
Where: Ingle Auditorium (Student Alumni Union)


Banana Wall

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.

Art Direction: Stefan Sagmeister
Design: Richard The, Joe Shouldice
Client: Deitch Projects
Date: 2008
Size: 18' x 38', 5.9m x 12.4m









Obsessions make my life worse and my work better.

I rarely obsess about things in my private life. I fail to care about the right shade of green for the couch, the sexual secrets of an ex-lover or the correct temperature of the meeting room AC. I don't think I miss much.

However, I do obsess over our work and think that a number of our better projects came out of such an obsession.

On September 13, 2008 Sagmeister Inc. began the installation of 250,000 Eurocents on Waagdragerhof Square in Amsterdam.

Over the course of 8 days and with the help of more than 100 volunteers, the coins were sorted into 4 different shades, and carefully placed over this 300 sqm area, according to a master plan.

The coin mural spelled out the sentence "Obsessions make my life worse and my work better."

After completion the coins were left free and unguarded for the public to interact with.

Less than 20 hours after the grand opening, a local resident noticed a person bagging the coins and taking them away. Protective of the design piece they had watched being created, they called the police.

After stopping the "criminal" the police in an effort to preserve the artwork swept up every remaining cent and carted them away.

Obsessions make my life worse and my work better.
Art Direction: Stefan Sagmeister
Design: Richard The, Joe Shouldice
Photography: Jens Rehr (unless otherwise noted)
Date: 2008