Six Things in New York

Six Things: Sagmeister & Walsh

March 15, 2013 - August 4, 2013

The designers Stefan Sagmeister and Jessica Walsh are known for their experimental typography and striking visual imagery. Their work is by turns playful and unsettling, humanist and existential, and often expands the definition of design, embracing film, sculpture, poetry, and performance.

Six Things marks the first exhibition of their newly founded design firm, Sagmeister & Walsh.

Before this partnership, Sagmeister was already taking an unusual approach to design. In an iconic 1999 poster for the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA), he cut type into the skin of his torso like a tattoo. At the contemporary art gallery Deitch Projects in 2008 he stacked 10,000 bananas against a wall. Unripe green bananas among the yellow ones spelled out the sentence, “Self-confidence produces fine results.” The legibility of the text fluctuated as the fruit ripened over the course of the exhibition.

He has created signature album covers for Lou Reed, Talking Heads, the Rolling Stones, OK Go, and others, and executed indelible ad campaigns for major companies such as HBO and Levi’s.

"Six Things: Sagmeister & Walsh." Exhibition view, The Jewish Museum.
Photo: David Heald/The Jewish Museum, © 2013.

To stimulate his own creativity Sagmeister has gone on periodic sabbaticals since 2000, traveling and investigating ideas. For the last ten years he has delved into the nature of happiness. “The center of this exploration,” he explains, “is the search for an answer to the question: is it possible to train
my mind in the same way I can train my body?” Inspired by the psychologist Jonathan Haidt, whose research connects spiritual wisdom with modern science, Sagmeister developed an intensive regimen of meditation, cognitive therapy, and mood-altering drugs as an experiment in self-discovery.

From this emerged a forthcoming documentary entitled The Happy Film and from that The Happy Show, a traveling exhibition with accompanying publications, organized by the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia.

Six Things is a continuation of this project on happiness, in which Jessica Walsh has been an integral partner.

In five compelling short videos and a sound-activated sculpture, Sagmeister & Walsh examines six things culled from Sagmeister’s diary that he believes have increased his personal happiness:

If I Don’t Ask I Won’t Get

Keeping a Diary Supports Personal Development

Be More Flexible

It Is Pretty Much Impossible to Please Everybody

Now Is Better

Feel Others Feel

Sugar cubes, bubbles, and water balloons are just some of the materials used to spell out the phrases. The ambiguous connections between the six epigrams and the objects of which they are composed are left for visitors to decipher, a provocative game based in the pleasure of looking.

In addition, intrigued by a 2010–11 nationwide survey in which Jews reported the highest levels of well-being of all religious groups, the studio has placed a text in the gallery that connects scientific data to the personal exploration of happiness.

Rebecca Shaykin, Leon Levy Curatorial Assistant, asked Sagmeister about the exhibition:

Q. Six Things is named for six of your own keys to happiness. How did you arrive at them?

A. They all come from very different experiences. “If I don’t ask I won’t get” was influenced by my friend Richard Saul Wurman, founder of TED, who doesn’t take no for an answer. “Keeping a diary supports personal development” came from the realization that my diary allows me to keep track of all the things I would like to change about my life. “Be more flexible”: I find that when I get stuck in a groove it’s beneficial to question my decisions. “Now is better” reflects my belief that it’s better to be alive right now than in any previous century and that civilization actually works.

Q. These phrases could come across as a satire of self-help aphorisms, but your work is sincere, isn’t it?

A. The sentences themselves are rather straightforward—and yes, you’re right, they are meant neither cynically nor ironically. There’s too much cynicism and irony in my life as it is. I do hope small glimpses of humor can be found in the work nevertheless.

Q. Speaking of religion, can you say a bit about the gold text you’ve added to the walls? Why do you suppose observant Jews score so high on the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index?

A. My guess would be that these results come from an increased feeling of community, the possibility of getting answers to the very big questions in life, and a sense that one is part of something much bigger than oneself.

Q. Have you thought about converting?

A. No, for now I remain a medium-happy agnostic.

About the Designers

Stefan Sagmeister (b. Bregenz, Austria, 1962), established the design firm Sagmeister Inc., now Sagmeister & Walsh, in New York in 1993. He is the recipient of numerous design awards, including two Grammy awards for his packaging designs (2005, 2010). Jessica Walsh (b. New York, 1986), a multidisciplinary designer, previously worked at Pentagram Design and Print magazine. The New York Times, AIGA, and EDP are among her clients. She was named Computer Art’s Top Rising Star in Design (2009), an Art Director’s Club Young Gun (2010), and Print’s New Visual Artist (2011). Sagmeister & Walsh has been engaged to create a new graphic identity for The Jewish Museum.

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