No guts, no glory

Stefan Sagmeister has had a great impact on the graphic design community. Using expressive and experimental typography, the poster and postcard design for a lecture given by Sagmeister combines his visually arresting style with a slogan based on his design process—creating simultaneously repulsive and beautiful promotional materials.

The complete design system includes bold and brash print advertisements, social media assets, and an online event page, providing a top-of-mind presence for the lecture.

The Lecturer

“Having guts always works out for me.”
— Stefan Sagmeister

The Thesis

Despite the more recognized commercial works that Sagmeister has done, his experimental works, particularly with typography in his series, Things I Have Learned In My Life So Far, reveal his creative gutsiness. Whether it be through bizarre materials like sausage, salt, hair, or toilet paper, or even ingeniously temporary projects such as a sun-yellowed newsprint billboard, words on flower petals, type made of bananas of various ripenesses, or type on permanently steamed windows, the personal statements which came from Sagmeister’s diary and into his book are nothing less than stunning, innovative and unfamiliar.

Through the utilization of experimental materials, Sagmeister’s philosophy of rejecting the familiar and embracing new challenges shines: “Having guts always works out for me.”

The Poster

objective

poster

Objective:

Design a poster announcing a lecture by a selected designer (Stefan Sagmeister) to hypothetically take place at CCA. Through research on the designer, utilize aesthetic inspiration to guide the poster design, considering the beliefs and aspirations behind the designer’s designs.

Final Poster with front desk wrap:

The Promotions

objective

postcard

digital ads

Objective:

Design additional promotional items utilizing elements of the poster to build a clearly cohesive design system. Consider how the existing visual language works both digitally and in print.

Final Postcard:

Final Digital Advertisement:

The Website

objective

website

Objective:

Design a website for the lecture to expand on the design system in place. Include a website landing page, navigation, and examples of how the design system can be utilized in different areas and aspects of the website.