The perils of getting naked with Sagmeister
http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2012/june/getting-naked-with-sagmeister ~ Posted by Patrick Burgoyne
When Sagmeister Inc chose to announce that it had become Sagmeister & Walsh, it must have seemed like a fun and appropriate idea to update the studio's original naked mailer with a new nude shot featuring both partners together. But will the decision have as positive an effect on the career of Jessica Walsh as it did on that of the studio's founder?
Stefan Sagmeister has always understood the power of getting naked. He first made his mark with a poster for the Hong Kong chapter of the 4As advertising organisation featuring four bare backsides (shown above, 1992). It was a funny, clever, daring idea which generated both attention and controversy - values that have propelled Sagmeister's career ever since.
Witness also the 1999 poster for an AIGA lecture in Cranbrook for which Sagmeister had the event's details carved into his naked torso. Or his Sagmeister On A Binge poster for a show in Japan featuring the before and after effects of junk food on the designer's body.
When Stefan Sagmeister wanted to announce that he was setting up his own studio in New York in 1994 he sent out a card featuring himself naked. Despite fears that it would lose him the only client he had at the time, the mailer had the opposite effect.
Now Sagmeister has made a major change in his business, with Jessica Walsh joining as a partner and the studio being renamed Sagmeister & Walsh. Time, then, to re-do that card, perhaps.
Sagmeister says he was "sheepish" about the idea of having both partners naked and initially suggested that Walsh could provide a contrast by being dressed ultra conservatively. Walsh, though, was having none of it: "Why should I be the conservative one?" she argued.
The result is an announcement in which both partners appear stark naked, save for, on Sagmeister's part, the addition of a pair of black socks, as in the original. It's a way of saying 'we're equal partners here' (Walsh is even posed on top of a pile of books to equalise their heights), both the same. Except they are not.
As a society, we view an image of a naked middle-aged man very differently to the way in which we react to a naked young woman. Logic dictates that we shouldn't, but we do.
A 50 year-old Sagmeister in his black socks is humorous and self-deprecatory as well as honest, open and daring. The original card suggested that here was a risk-taker who knew what it took to get himself, and by extension his clients, talked about. Will Walsh be judged as generously?
When Sagmeister Inc chose to announce that it had become Sagmeister & Walsh, it must have seemed like a fun and appropriate idea to update the studio's original naked mailer with a new nude shot featuring both partners together. But will the decision have as positive an effect on the career of Jessica Walsh as it did on that of the studio's founder?
Stefan Sagmeister has always understood the power of getting naked. He first made his mark with a poster for the Hong Kong chapter of the 4As advertising organisation featuring four bare backsides (shown above, 1992). It was a funny, clever, daring idea which generated both attention and controversy - values that have propelled Sagmeister's career ever since.
Witness also the 1999 poster for an AIGA lecture in Cranbrook for which Sagmeister had the event's details carved into his naked torso. Or his Sagmeister On A Binge poster for a show in Japan featuring the before and after effects of junk food on the designer's body.
When Stefan Sagmeister wanted to announce that he was setting up his own studio in New York in 1994 he sent out a card featuring himself naked. Despite fears that it would lose him the only client he had at the time, the mailer had the opposite effect.
Now Sagmeister has made a major change in his business, with Jessica Walsh joining as a partner and the studio being renamed Sagmeister & Walsh. Time, then, to re-do that card, perhaps.
Sagmeister says he was "sheepish" about the idea of having both partners naked and initially suggested that Walsh could provide a contrast by being dressed ultra conservatively. Walsh, though, was having none of it: "Why should I be the conservative one?" she argued.
The result is an announcement in which both partners appear stark naked, save for, on Sagmeister's part, the addition of a pair of black socks, as in the original. It's a way of saying 'we're equal partners here' (Walsh is even posed on top of a pile of books to equalise their heights), both the same. Except they are not.
As a society, we view an image of a naked middle-aged man very differently to the way in which we react to a naked young woman. Logic dictates that we shouldn't, but we do.
A 50 year-old Sagmeister in his black socks is humorous and self-deprecatory as well as honest, open and daring. The original card suggested that here was a risk-taker who knew what it took to get himself, and by extension his clients, talked about. Will Walsh be judged as generously?
Comments
Or you are right. I'm seeing it both ways right now.
As to her being judged like him, I think not. Society doesn't work that way.
also, i think that 24 is young to be a partner, but not young to be naked
yeah, possible. another way to look at it is that they are showing their vulnerability, rawness, and openness - something which sagmeister shows plenty of in his work. so maybe a little shyness isn't such a bad thing (plus, it makes her look far more real - remember that she is a design agency partner, not a porn star hehe).