Stefan Sagmeister

Stefan Sagmeister is a New York-based graphic designer and typographer. He co-founded a design firm called Sagmeister & Walsh Inc. with Jessica Walsh in New York City.

His work includes album covers for Lou Reed, OK Go, The Rolling Stones, David Byrne, Jay Z and Aerosmith. Solo shows on Sagmeisters work have been mounted in Zurich, Vienna, New York, Berlin, Japan, Osaka, Prague, Cologne, and Seoul.

He teaches in the graduate department of the School of Visual Arts in New York and has been appointed as the Frank Stanton Chair at the Cooper Union School of Art, New York.

His motto is ‘Design that needed guts from the creator and still carries the ghost of these guts in the final execution.’

Stefan goes on a year-long sabbatical around every seven years, where he does not take work from clients. Several years ago he decided to dedicate 25% of his work to the art world, things like books and publications for galleries, another 25% to the scientific community, 25% to social causes, and the remaining quarter has stayed dedicated to the music industry.

In 2005 he received a Grammy Award for the Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package category for art directing Once in a Lifetime box set by Talking Heads. He received a second Grammy Award for his design of the David Byrne and Brian Eno album Everything That Happens Will Happen Today in the Grammy Award for Best Recording Package category on January 31, 2010.

In 2005, Sagmeister won the National Design Award for Communications from the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. In 2013 Sagmeister was awarded the Golden Medal of Honor of the Republic of Austria.