Stefan Sagmeister

According to designboom | architecture & design magazine, the Now Is Better compositions address data trends over spans of 50 to 200 years, including life expectancy and home-ownership rates.² According to Designboom, "Now Is Better" is a sequel to his earlier series "Beautiful Numbers"; both explore themes related to liberal democracy.² According to MAK Museum Vienna, stefan Sagmeister collaborated with J. & L. Lobmeyr to expand upon an idea originally suggested by Adolf Loos.³

The SVA page identifies Interval Studio as led by Yannick Jacquet and Nicolas Boritch, without stating their role in the Sagmeister retrospective.⁴ The SVA Masters Series was instituted in 1988 by founder Silas H. Rhodes to honor visual communicators.⁴ According to Institute of Contemporary Art - Philadelphia, PA, sagmeister released the documentary 'The Happy Film' in 2016, exploring mental training techniques.^5,6,7

According to Institute of Contemporary Art - Philadelphia, PA, a 12-minute segment of The Happy Film was shown within The Happy Show.^5,7 According to Institute of Contemporary Art - Philadelphia, PA, “The Happy Show traveled to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles in winter 2013”.⁵ According to The Grand Tourist, "The Happy Film" documentary was released in 2016 and distributed on Amazon Prime, iTunes, Vimeo, and Google Play.⁶

According to The Grand Tourist, sagmeister studied graphic design in Vienna and later attended Pratt in New York on a scholarship.⁶ According to The Grand Tourist, sagmeister worked on a magazine for a political organization in Austria early in his career.⁶ According to designboom | architecture & design magazine, Now Is Better incorporates historical paintings and lenticular prints to present long-term social statistics.²

According to designboom | architecture & design magazine, 'Now Is Better' was displayed at Patrick Parrish Gallery in New York from May 5 to June 16, 2023.² According to designboom | architecture & design magazine, the Happy Show ran at ICA Philadelphia from April 4 to August 12, 2012.^5,7,8 According to Designboom, the Happy Show at ICA Philadelphia included inflatable monkeys displayed on the Tuttleman terrace.⁷

According to designboom | architecture & design magazine, the Happy Show at ICA Philadelphia spanned the second-floor galleries and ramp and activated in-between spaces of the museum.⁷ According to MOCA | The Museum of Contemporary Art, stefan Sagmeister was born in 1962 in Bregenz, Austria.^5,8 According to MAK Museum Vienna, sagmeister moved to New York in 1993.^3,9 According to MAK Museum Vienna, sagmeister’s design work includes album covers for Talking Heads.^3,9

The School of Visual Arts presented a Sagmeister career retrospective at its Chelsea Gallery from August 29 to October 12, 2024.⁴ The School of Visual Arts describes its 2024 Sagmeister exhibition as including material from earlier exhibitions, books, design projects and films.⁴ According to School of Visual Arts | SVA | New York City, the 2024 SVA Chelsea exhibition is described as a career retrospective including past exhibitions, books, design, and film work.⁴

According to ICA Philadelphia, Sagmeister's work tests and teases the boundary between art and design through his implementation of typography.^5,7 According to Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, Philadelphia’s Institute of Contemporary Art describes Sagmeister’s typography as crossing boundaries between graphic design and art.^5,7 According to Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, ICA and MOCA describe Sagmeister as a graphic designer and typographer who tests the boundary between art and design.^5,7

Sagmeister says that drawing headlines by hand proved more efficient than using Letraset sheets with missing letters.⁶ Sagmeister said happiness is such a big subject that it might be worth trying to pin down, despite usually being bored with definitions.⁷ According to Stefan Sagmeister, sagmeister described considering a break from his studio work in 2000.⁹

Sagmeister said repetition in album-cover commissions had reduced his enjoyment of the work and affected its quality.⁹ Sagmeister's sabbatical practice began around 2000; he says clients responded enthusiastically to the idea.⁹ Sagmeister said that in 2000, during the first internet boom, he took a break and clients said they wished they could do the same.⁹

According to Stefan Sagmeister, clients reacted to his sabbatical announcement with envy, saying they would love to do the same.⁹ According to Creative Review, sagmeister has built a reputation for taking on broad-ranging subjects and offering unusual, sometimes unfashionable takes on them.¹⁰ Sagmeister says Now Is Better uses scientific sources he trusts, while acknowledging that his optimistic perspective influences the project.¹⁰

A Creative Review writer says the data supports long-term thinking over short-term drama.¹⁰ Creative Review cautions that data can support different interpretations and says Now Is Better leaves questions unresolved.¹⁰ According to Creative Review, “Data is to some extent always slippery, and open to different interpretations depending on context”.¹⁰