AIGA

Stefan Sagmeister (born 1962) established his own office in New York in 1993 after his education at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. His approach towards the solution of a design problem and his understanding of graphic design quickly turned him into a renowned star of the graphic design world. His designs for posters or CD-covers are “visualized haptic” for which he constantly ignores allegedly accepted design rules and hence creates genuine work with a high recognition value. His customer base includes Aerosmith, the Rolling Stones, Lou Reed, Pat Metheny, or David Byrne. The poster for his talk Style = Fart, which is shown here, became an icon. Sagmeister had the text cut into his skin with a knife; in his left hand he is holding a plaster. Therefore, the poster is situated, although in an ironic way, between Christian Iconography (Man of Sorrows) and Viennese Actionism of the late 1960s. AIGA is part of the collection of the MAK Library and Works on Paper Collection which is comprised of about 24 000 posters. On the occasion of his first exhibition at the MAK in 2002 the Stefan Sagmeister archive was created with roughly 200 objects.