“My experience in large brainstorming sessions is that everybody’s hoping for someone else to do the heavy lifting and come up with something good.”—Stefan Sagmeister
Sagmeister & Walsh / New York NY
sagmeisterwalsh.com
“my experience in large brainstorming sessions is that everybody’s hoping for someone else to do the heavy lifting and come up with something good.”—stefan sagmeister
Interview with Stefan Sagmeister:
What is your collaborative design process?
This can take on any form: Jessie comes up with an idea, I come up with an idea, we both sit down and discuss a project back and forth.
David Bryne “Feelings”
courtesy of sagmeister & walsh
Why do you work well together?
Ultimately, we both are interested in emotional communication, pieces that are personal and human.
How does your NYC studio encourage collaboration?
Within the studio, we are a small team and we all sit very close to each other. So without the necessity of a meeting, we all know what everybody else is working on.
Azuero Earth Project
courtesy of sagmeister & walsh
Deitch Steam Room
tucker viemeister
courtesy of sagmeister & walsh
How is collaboration important to originality and idea-generation? Project example?
I don’t think anything ever left the studio where only a single person had worked on it, so by definition, everything is a collaboration. Having said that, as far as the idea generation is concerned, many projects do originate from a single person. While we do sometimes brainstorm together in tiny groups, I have never been part of a large brainstorming session that yielded impressive results. My experience in large brainstorming sessions is that everybody’s hoping for someone else to do the heavy lifting and come up with something good.
Deitch Steam Room
nicholas blechman
courtesy of sagmeister & walsh
OK Go
courtesy of sagmeister & walsh
How is your collaborative process affected by project time-constraints?
We like the Duke Ellington quote: “I don’t need inspiration. I need a deadline.”
How do design studios find the right combination of people?
Like everybody else, we look at portfolios. About half of the decision is influenced by the work, the other half by the personality.
The Happy Show
courtesy of sagmeister & walsh
The Happy Show
courtesy of sagmeister & walsh
The Happy Show
courtesy of sagmeister & walsh
What was Second Tuesday?
It used to be a group of design studio heads getting together once a month to discuss things that were not necessarily design-related. The subject could be about health plans or back-up strategies or what-not. This was VERY helpful to me when I first started the studio. The aim of this group was not collaboration. After many years, we ran out of subjects to talk about and the group was dissolved.
Style=Fart Whoopie Cushion
courtesy of sagmeister & walsh