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designboom | architecture & design magazine

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sagmeister & walsh refreshes frooti mango juice campaign with indian motifs
all images courtesy of sagmeister & walsh

sagmeister & walsh has conceived the visual identity, graphics, social strategy, advertising and animation graphics for frooti, one of the largest and oldest mango juice brands in india. the new york-based graphic design studio sourced the bright, bold and playful color palette used throughout the campaign from the indian culture, making sure the visuals would stand out in the crowded advertising landscape of the region. with packaging designed by pentagram, sagmeister & walsh were able to create a miniature world revolving around a series of eye-catching juice boxes, cleverly arranging tiny people in participation with the product. scaled models of vehicles, people and plant life interact with the frooti packaging and mangos (kept full-scale) allowing the two objects to identify as the 'hero' of the story assembled in each shot.

frooti holli
video courtesy of sagmeister & walsh
'when stefan & I visited india', walsh explains about the research and inspiration behind the campaigns, 'we noticed how most of the billboard campaigns used a similar language: lots of text heavy ads or straightforward images of people / product shots. there are also numerous size formats and billboards often overlap each other. the result is that the advertising landscape in many areas looks extremely busy and nothing stands out as everything speaks in a similar language. noticing this, we designed frooti's campaigns to be very simple and graphic with bold colors. looking at the heavily commercial and busy ad landscape, we loved the idea of creating images that had sweetness or humor. these graphics will be posted all over the country on billboards, above shops, and painted on the sides of buildings. whether its a mango hula hooping, a couple kissing behind a mango sunset, or a group of friends riding down a mango blimp, we tried to create imagery that could make people smile. '

'we also conceptualized games, a social media strategy, a cocktail recipe website, and a digital platform for all things frooti.' walsh continues. 'this included creating creating many smaller stop motion animations videos. for these shorter videos we brought the mango to life, giving them a sense of playfulness and character. over time on their instagram account we will continue to release videos to this series. the graphic language is very adaptable to telling all kinds of stories: already we've released little stop motion videos celebration the holi festival, the win of the last indian cricket team, and mangos hugging for valentines day.'

frooti cricket

frooti spring 2015 - behind the scenes
full article here

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sagmeister & walsh refreshes frooti mango juice campaign with indian motifs

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sagmeister & walsh refreshes frooti mango juice campaign with indian motifs all images courtesy of sagmeister & walsh sagmeister & walsh has conceived the visual identity, graphics, social strategy, advertising and animation graphics for frooti, one of the largest and oldest mango juice brands in india.

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Sagmeister & Walsh has conceived the visual identity, graphics, social strategy, advertising and animation graphics for frooti, one of the largest and oldest mango juice brands in india. the new york-based graphic design studio sourced the bright, bold and playful color palette used throughout the campaign from the indian culture, making sure the visuals would stand out in the crowded advertising landscape of the region

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What is distinctive about Jessica Walsh's style?

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What is distinctive about Jessica Walsh's style?

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Her signature style has been described as "bold, emotional and provocative" with the occasional surrealistic flourish, and her art has been said to look "hand-made and at times quite daring." 

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Walsh started her career in 2008.

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What did critics say about Walsh's work?

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What did critics say about Walsh's work?

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Walsh had a lot of hate comments from women most of the time and and some from men

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As one of a few female CEOs in the design industry, Jessica Walsh, founder of creative agency &Walsh, has faced criticism from women as well as men. In this interview, she tells Dezeen how she has tackled it.

Walsh has led design projects for Beats by Dre, New York's Jewish Museum and WeWork's events platform Meetup over the past seven years. She recently split from fellow designer Stefan Sagmeister at New York design studio Sagmeister & Walsh to establish her own agency &Walsh.

To achieve this success she told Dezeen that she works to overcome sexism in an industry where just five per cent of CEOs are female.

This has led Walsh to take steps to tackle the lack of representation in the industry, by setting up a female networking organisation that has grown globally to instigating projects such as 12 Kinds of Kindness, a 12-step programme that promotes empathy.

"Being in a boardroom with much older male CEOs, sometimes people would talk over me or ignore me altogether," she told Dezeen. "There were definitely a lot of times where I faced sexism."
"Hate" from women startled Walsh
For Walsh, it was the "surprising" amount of women who criticised her on social media that took its toll, at a time when her career began to skyrocket.

"I started to notice that a lot of the hate I was getting in the design world was actually not from men, but from other women," she said.

"Earlier in my career when I started reaching a certain level of success and recognition in the design field, the amount of hate mail, jealous remarks and outright sexism I experienced multiplied exponentially," the designer added.

Jessica Walsh splits from Stefan Sagmeister to launch creative agency &Walsh

"What surprised me most about all of these remarks was that a large percentage of them came from women."

As one of the few women who have paved the way to the top to run their own creative agency, Walsh believes that competitiveness could be a reason for inducing criticism from other females.

"I found that sometimes women were unsupportive of one another, possibly because our chances of reaching the top are much slimmer than for men," she said.
"Underrepresented people deterred from pursuing creative positions"
"In design school, on average 70 per cent are women, but then the numbers are so small when you see who makes it to the top," she continued. "Like five per cent of CEOs. And then like 0.1 per cent in terms of leading creative agencies."

Walsh believes that representation at the top of the industry is crucial to encouraging diversity among leaders.

"Open a design history book and you'll see that almost all the famous designers mentioned are white men."

"The design industry used to be a boys club at the top, lacking diversity across both gender and race," Walsh added. "With a lack of representation among their role models, underrepresented people can be deterred from pursuing creative positions."

Walsh cites a female mentor at the start of her career as an important factor in her success, Paula Scher at New York creative agency Pentagram, who provided guidance and encouragement. Scher recommended Walsh to her role as art director at Print magazine.

"Seeing a woman [Scher] make such amazing work was very inspirational to me," said Walsh.

Walsh adds that her mother and sister Lauren, who works with her at &Walsh, are a key part of her support system.
Walsh's initiative to encourage gender diversity
The lack of representation coupled with the negativity she faced from other women led Walsh to create Ladies, Wine & Design (LW&D), "an initiative whose mission is focussed on the idea of women supporting rather than competing against each other".

"Other women must be able to relate to the sexism I've been facing," she said. "It's already so hard for us anyway."

Survey of top architecture firms reveals "quite shocking" lack of gender diversity at senior levels

She established the company three years ago with the first session held in her apartment. It has grown to comprise 273 local chapters and active communities in cities including New York, Rio de Janeiro, London and Hong Kong.

Local chapters meet "to make positive healthy relationships in the design industry" with discussions focused on business, careers and relationships.

Walsh hopes to continue changing the statistics regarding women in her industry with her new endeavour &Walsh. "I want to implement these principles [from LW&D] within our studio," she said.
Walsh kickstarted career by turning down Apple offer
"I'm excited to build an agency that provides equal opportunity for all to learn and grow creatively and climb the ranks towards leadership."

Walsh graduated in graphic design from Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in 2008 and turned down a job at Apple to pursue a career in branding and advertising.

"I knew deep in my heart that I wanted to work on a wide variety of projects," she said. "I knew in-house it was going to be limited what I would learn."

She established her company with Stefan Sagmeister in 2012 shortly after sending him an email asking to collaborate.

"When I looked at the world of design, he [Stefan] was one of the only people I saw out there creating commercial work, but also creating work that was self-initiated and connected with me on some sort of human level," she said.

While the duo has parted ways officially, she says their relationship remains strong and will continue to work on projects. "All is great with Stefan and me," she said.

Photography is courtesy of &Walsh.

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"A lot of the hate I got in the design world was from other women", says Jessica Walsh

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As one of a few female CEOs in the design industry, Jessica Walsh, founder of creative agency &Walsh, has faced criticism from women as well as men. In this interview, she tells Dezeen how she has tackled it. Walsh has led design projects for Beats by Dre, New York's Jewish Museum and WeWork's events platform Meetup over the past seven years.

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What kind of work does Jessica Walsh do?

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What kind of work does Jessica Walsh do?

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Jessica Walsh is a designer, art director, teacher and partner at the new york city based design firm Sagmeister & Walsh. Her awarding winning portfolio includes an international roster of identities, campaigns and commercials, websites, apps, films, books and objects.

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Walsh was born in New York. She started coding and planning sites at age 11 and proceeded to consider graphic designing at the Rhode Island School of Design. Walsh went to the rhode island school of design. her first year there was forced to do all kinds of fine art classes working with her hands: painting, woodworking, sculpture, and drawing. Walsh was only accustomed to designing with the computer so this came as a major shock to her. at first she hated it, however she quickly realized the potential to merge analogue work with digital to make it more interesting. That has had a huge influence on my work ever since.

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Jessica Walsh is a designer, art director, illustrator, and partner at the New York-based design studio, Sagmeister & Walsh. Her work has won numerous design awards from the Type Director's Club, Art Director's Club, Print, and Graphis. She has received various celebrated distinctions including Computer Art's "Top Rising Star in Design," an Art Director's Club Young Guns award, and Print Magazine's New Visual Artist."

Interview

Describe your path to becoming a designer and art director.

I was a big computer nerd when I was younger. At 11 years old, I taught myself how to code and create graphics for websites. I became really involved in the blogging world and people started asking me to create websites for them. About a year into that, I created an HTML & CSS tutorial site that also offered free website templates for many of the blogging platforms that were popular at the time. The website became really popular and I was getting about 15,000 unique visitors a day. This was right around the time that Google Ads first launched; I put one of the ads on my site out of curiosity and started making a lot of money off of it. I basically couldn't believe that I was being paid to do what I considered a hobby. That's kind of what I've aimed to do with my life ever since.

When I was graduating high school, I was a little unsure if I wanted to go more into the coding or the design side of making websites. I was deciding among NYU, Carnegie Mellon, and RISD (Rhode Island School of Design). I've always been a gut instinct person and my gut told me to go to RISD, so that's where I ended up. RISD puts a lot of focus on working with your hands, which was a shock for me coming from a digital background where I was glued to my computer 24/7. I think this merging of craft with a digital background plays a big role in my work today.

After graduation, did you freelance or work for someone else?

When I graduated, I had a pretty tough decision to make because I was offered a really good job opportunity with Apple. I felt a little bit of pressure to take the money and move out to California. My other option was to move to New York and intern with Pentagram, which was a modestly paid position in comparison. But again, in my gut, something was telling me that New York was calling, so that's where I ended up.

When I moved to NY, most of my friends had moved to other parts of the country or even other countries. I was kind of lonely during my first few months in NY, so I threw myself into my work. Within the first few months of my internship, I started freelancing through Pentagram; I was also getting a lot of my own freelance clients. Then, Paula Scher helped me get my first job shortly thereafter as an art director for Print Magazine. Everything fell into place pretty quickly.

"I made a promise to myself that I would always find a way to make money by doing something that I really loved."

Poster design & photography for the RISD "Shared Voices" series. (view more)

You're in NY now, but where did you grow up?

I was born in NY and grew up in Connecticut, about an hour from the city. My family would come to the city to see shows or go to dinner, so I definitely experienced a lot of NY when I was growing up.

Was creativity a part of your childhood?

Definitely. My parents were both entrepreneurs and were very business oriented; no one in my direct family was in the arts. I was a very shy child, but my mom noticed that I was in my element when I was drawing or painting, so she spoiled me by buying me lots of art supplies and craft sets.

I think the arts and creating little businesses was a theme throughout my childhood. My mom always tells this funny story about my sister and me. When I was five years old, my sister and I created this business; we hot glued moss on the top of rocks, wrapped them in cellophane, and created labels-we called it "Magic Rock Moss". We sold these to our classmates for their lunch money and eventually, the other parents found out and we got into so much trouble with our school, but our parents were so proud of us. (all laughing)

That's a great story.

You talked about getting paid for having the Google Ads on your site when you were younger. Would you say that was an "aha" moment when you knew you wanted to focus on design and web? Or did you have any other moments?

Yes, I think it was definitely when I opened one of those large checks from Google. I made a promise to myself that I would always find a way to make money by doing something that I really loved. I was also getting such a great response from the website-so many people were emailing me to say how much it had inspired them to go into design. I felt pretty lucky to have found something that was not only financially feasible, but something that I loved that also allowed me to help other people.

Art Direction & design for the Spring/Summer advertising campaign for Aizone, a luxury department store in the Middle East. (view more)

Did you have any moments when you had to decide between doing something financially stable as opposed to doing something more creative that you really loved?

I think it was what I mentioned earlier-the temptation of taking the job at Apple versus doing the internship with Paula at Pentagram. I knew Apple would be much more stable and well-paid, but I knew in my heart that in the end, I would be much happier at a design studio than I would with an in-house job.

Do you want to briefly share about what you're doing now?

Sure. I'm now a partner with Stefan Sagmeister and the studio is called Sagmeister & Walsh. We do a really wide range of projects, from exhibitions to branding to book design to design for products. It's really great because every day offers something new.

I started working with Stefan about two and a half years ago. I was working at Print Magazine before and at the time, the magazine had many budget cuts. This ended up being a blessing for me as I got to create and photograph many of the covers and interior illustrations and photographs myself. I got very familiar with photography and lighting, which now plays a big role in my work. However, after a year and a half working there, I was ready for a change and I knew I'd be happier in a studio environment. I emailed Stefan, sent him some of my work, and asked to meet with him to get his feedback on my portfolio and career. To my surprise, he said yes. I met with him, he looked through my portfolio, and after five minutes of flipping through my book he said, "When do you want to come work for me?" I was shocked. I quit my job the next day and I've been working with him ever since.

Have you had any mentors along the way?

Yes. There are several people who have inspired and helped me along the way, especially some of my first bosses, like Paula Scher and Kristina DiMatteo.

Overall, I think Stefan Sagmeister has had the largest influence on me. I feel eternally grateful to him for giving me so much creative freedom and putting so much trust in me over the years. It's definitely an honor to be his business partner now. He has really shaped my philosophy on how to run a design studio. I respect that despite numerous opportunities to grow over the past 19 years, he has always managed to keep it small. I think that allows us to be much more selective with the work that we take on; we pick clients that we really like and want to do work for. We also only show one option to our clients versus showing a plethora of mediocre options. I was shocked by that strategy at first, but it really seems to work. The work ends up being better and the clients are less confused.

"How we can use design as a tool to affect the bigger picture and reach larger audiences is something that has always been really interesting to me."

Are your family and friends supportive of what you do and who has encouraged you the most along your creative path?

There was definitely a little bit of fear in my parent's minds when I went to art school-fear that I would turn into a pothead or be a starving artist (laughing), but I think that's pretty natural. Overall, everyone has been really supportive of me and my work, even though they're sometimes a little bit confused about what exactly it is that I do.

My mom is now my number one fan. She "Googles" me daily and knows more about the press surrounding the studio than I do. It's really nice to have her support.

Do you feel a responsibility to contribute to something bigger than yourself?

Definitely. How we can use design as a tool to affect the bigger picture and reach larger audiences is something that has always been really interesting to me. We've done a few projects for charity through the studio and it's great to be able to use our skills to help communicate messages that we really believe in. In the coming years, I'd like to work on personal projects that touch people well beyond the creative audience. I think one good example of this is the Happy Show that Stefan just launched in Philadelphia, which I did a lot of design and concept work for. We get so many people emailing us to say how the show affected them or changed their lives or just made them smile. I think that's definitely more the kind of work that I want to be doing.

Are you satisfied creatively?

For the most part, yes. I love the studio and the work we do. I'm so grateful for the opportunities that I've been given, but there's always a part of me that's really hungry for new work and challenges. I think that a lot of the work I'm doing can be pushed to be better. I think that most creatives are usually discontent with what they're doing; it drives us to create better work. If I felt completely satisfied, I'd be more likely to recycle the same ideas and styles into my work.

Where do you see yourself in 5 to 10 years?

I absolutely love the diversity of the work we're doing now, so I would like to be doing more of the same in that sense. I do have a lot of personal projects that are really important to me that have been on the back burner for a while now. Once things settle in a bit more with the studio-we're launching a new website, which I hope to be up in a few months-I'd like to set aside time to bring those personal projects to life.

If you could go back and do one thing differently what would it be, or would you?

I don't think I'd want to change anything. I've definitely made a lot of mistakes and I've had some hard times in my life, but I feel like all those experiences have led me to where I am today and made me who I am today; I'm a better and stronger person because of them. Of course there's always plenty of room for improvement, but I'm pretty happy with where I am in life.

"I'm so grateful for the opportunities that I've been given, but there's always a part of me that's really hungry for new work and challenges...a lot of the work I'm doing can be pushed to be better."

Art Direction & design for the Fall/Winter advertising campaign for Aizone, a luxury department store in the Middle East. (view more)

If you could give one piece of advice to a young creative starting out, what would you say?

Figure out what you're really passionate about and what kind of work you want to do and do it. If it feels like work, then you probably don't want to spend the majority of your adult life doing it. When you're young, seek out creatives or studios doing the kind of work you want to be doing and try to work with them. Work your ass off; be persistent; stay curious; challenge yourself; and most importantly, have a lot of fun. If you have fun and enjoy your work, other people will pick up on that and they'll enjoy it, too.

You're in New York. How does it impact your creativity?

I think NY is the greatest place on earth to be. There's so much diversity and culture. I live in Chelsea, so it's amazing to be able to wake up on the weekends, wander around the streets, and go into different art galleries and be inspired. There are always new restaurants to try or new shows to see. The general vibe and energy is something I really love and feed off of.

Tina: Have you always lived in Manhattan?

When I first came here as an intern at Pentagram, I lived in South Park Slope, which meant I had about an hour commute. That took a toll on me over time. Since then, I've managed to always find a way to live close to work, which is nice.

Is it important to you to be part of a creative community of people?

Yes. I think it's invaluable to be surrounded by friends who inspire you and who you can talk to about your work and process. If you're stuck on a project, you can get an opinion from someone who you trust. It also never hurts to have friends to whine to when Illustrator crashes or your printer doesn't match your Pantone color correctly. (laughing)

What does a typical day look like for you?

What I love about working at a small studio is that there is no typical day. One day I can be art directing a commercial photo shoot and the next day, I'll be illustrating a small poster or doing a typographic installation. Another week I could be working more on our social media or meeting with our studio to strategize on a project. I spent the last month overseeing our studio renovations on top of everything else. I love this kind of variety-it keeps me on my toes and keeps me learning new things.

Tina: Do you keep regular hours?

I wake up at 8am and go straight to my email. I'm usually in the studio by 9-9:30am and I try to leave by 7-8pm. I know it's common in the creative industry to pull all-nighters or work till 1am, but I find that that has a terrible impact on my productivity. I need to have a few hours to myself at night in order to wind down or see friends. That way, I can wake up the next morning and work more efficiently.

"Figure out what you're really passionate about...Work your ass off; be persistent; stay curious; challenge yourself; and most importantly, have a lot of fun."

Any current albums on repeat?

Yes. I'm listening to this album called Arabian Horse by Gus Gus, which is an Icelandic band. My intern introduced it to me and for some reason, when I listen to this album, I can pump out so much work. I think I drove the people in my studio nuts because I've been listening to it on repeat for the past few weeks, so I went out and bought myself a pair of headphones.

Favorite movies or TV shows?

That's difficult. I'm a big documentary fan, so I can't pick just one. Recently I've enjoyed Jiro Dreams of Sushi, Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present, and Man on Wire.

With TV shows, I go the opposite direction and watch really trashy stuff like Weeds or most recently, The Walking Dead. I like to watch some TV to turn my brain off and wind down before bed so that I can actually go to sleep.

Tina: I like Weeds, too.

Do you have a favorite book?

There are so many. I recently read Steve Jobs, the memoir by Walter Isaacson, which I really loved. I was always a huge Apple and Jobs fanatic since I was little. I had read a lot of the earlier books, but this biography paints such a good portrait of Steve, both the good and bad sides of his personality.

I was an intern at Apple when they released the iPhone and I remember being there and watching Steve give the keynote presentation-I got chills down my spine. He was such a visionary and I think the work he did changed how we go about our lives and communicate with each other.

What's your favorite food?

Definitely avocados-I have at least one per day.

What kind of legacy do you hope to leave?

I just want to do good work. I hope some of that will make people think or feel something or be inspired. I am so incredibly lucky to have found my passion; it feels like I never had to grow up because I consider so much of what I do to be play. So, if through my work or my talks or my teaching I could inspire people to find that for themselves, that would be amazing.

Equally important, I'd like to be remembered as a nice person. I'm very much a close friends and family sort of person; for someone I love, I would do absolutely anything. In the long run, it's important to me to have that healthy balance between work and spending a quality life with the people I love.

Photo illustration for the cover of the New York Times Arts & Leisure "Summer Stages" section. (view more)

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Jessica Walsh on The Great Discontent (TGD)

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Jessica's work speaks for itself and there's no doubt-she's one talented lady. The path that led her into design started when she was young and since then, it's been her mission to find a way to always do what she loves.

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designboom | architecture & design magazine

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interview with jessica walsh, partner at sagmeister & walsh
all images courtesy of sagmeister & walsh

jessica walsh is a designer, art director, teacher and partner at the new york city based design firm sagmeister & walsh. her awarding winning portfolio includes an international roster of identities, campaigns and commercials, websites, apps, films, books and objects, for clients ranging from a mango juice brand in india to the jewish museum in new york city. supplementing her work with stefan sagmeister, who we interviewed in 2012 on designboom here, are personal projects, each which play an important role in walsh's own life and craft. her ' 40 days of dating ' project - an editorial and web-based work documenting the results of experimentally dating her friend timothy goodman - drew a cult following of millions, appealing to people's most intimate curiosities and sensibilities through photography, typography and original artistry.
we spoke with walsh about the evolution of her career, the biggest influences on her work and her current fascinations and creative preoccupations.

art direction and design for the fall/winter 2015 campaign of aizone, a department store in the middle east
see more about the project on designboom here

designboom: can you remember the first image or images you saw that made you think about working visual communication

jessica walsh: hello kitty!

DB: how did your interest in graphic design evolve and eventually come to be your profession?

JW: when I was twelve, I download cracked versions of all kinds of graphic, 3D software, and flash. I had already taught myself how to code websites and I became interested in how to make my websites look great beyond what code could accomplish. I did freelance web work for individuals and small businesses in high school for a few years. at one point I had the idea to create an html help site that offered free graphic templates for other kids. the site was popular financially from advertising revenue and this gave me confidence that I could turn my passion into a profession. I went to the rhode island school of design. my first year there I was forced to do all kinds of fine art classes working with my hands: painting, woodworking, sculpture, and drawing. I was only accustomed to designing with the computer so this came as a major shock to me. at first I hated it, however I quickly realized the potential to merge analogue work with digital to make it more interesting. that has had a huge influence on my work ever since.

concepts, art direction and design campaign for aizone, referring to the vibrant nature of the brand

DB: who or what has been the biggest single influence on your way of thinking?

JW: my mom was an entrepreneur and having a strong female influence from a young age had a big impact on me. my mom taught me that things don't necessarily come easy in life. it's not just about being smart or talented, the key is persistence and hard work.

continued concepts, art direction and design campaign for aizone department store

DB: how does working in a team compare to working solo for you? how did you adjust to joining a studio and how is work shared/ split between the team?

JW: when stefan and I started working together, there was not a team like we have now. it was often just myself and him and an intern, maybe one additional designer. we've evolved these past years into doing larger scope projects where we handle all aspects of a rebrand: from print, TVC, web, photography and apps. while we've always agreed we want to stay small as it gives us many advantages, we realized we needed to grow a little bit to maintain quality and still take on these larger jobs. we're now 10 full time designers and with this size we can handle almost anything that comes our way.

I prefer working on a team versus solo, I think a collaborative effort between creatives with different kinds of skills yields more interesting results then one person could do alone. when we get a new brief at our studio we'll open up the conceptual phase to a few people on the team and then compare ideas and brainstorm together. most often the overall creative direction and concepts do come from stefan or I, however occasionally if a designer or an intern has a stronger idea than us, we'll go with it! it's all about collaborating together to achieve the smartest and most beautiful work that functions for our client goals.

sagmeister & walsh designed a visual language,for frooti, one of india's oldest mango juice brands
see more about the project on designboom here

DB: what would you say is your strongest skills and how have you honed that skills over the years?

JW: I would say brand identities. I love conceptualizing how a mark and visual language we create can work holistically across multiple mediums: print, digital, and television. it's an accumulation of many things I love doing: coming up with conceptual ideas, creative and art direction, design, project management and client management. I am good at listening to a client's goals and restrictions (budget, timeline, etc) and coming up with solutions that function within those parameters. I've also always been good at project management and having a sense of how long things take, and keeping things on schedule. I would say over the years my process has become much more efficient and faster as I have more and more varying experiences and inspirations.

campaign for the aishti foundation highlighting the intersection of fashion and art and its location by the sea side

DB: what are your thoughts on specialization vs generalization?

JW: I think both strategies can work depending on how you position yourself and what your medium is. I see specialists doing really well when working in a very unique medium or when they have a specific style or twist on their craft. when you become an expert at something very few people do, there will likely be a market for it, even for bizarre things. I've found successful creatives specializing in things I once thought obscure: body painting, light painting, chalk board typography, bubble artistry, balloon artistry, the list goes on. it's more difficult to make yourself marketable when you specialize in something that numerous people are good at. do you know how many talented letterers and designers and photographers there are now? these are just too many people good at those crafts now. which is why I think the 'generalization' route can also work, if you can wear many hats and prove capable beyond just creative skills thats very desirable. I'm always looking to hire designers that have additional talents beyond design: whether its illustration, animation or 3D work, photography, writing skills, or conceptual skills.

branding, bags and boxes for the jewish museum in new york city

DB: how do you think online design resources (blogs, tutorials, forums etc.) have influenced the graphic design being produced today?

JW: affordable easy access to software and tutorials have allowed many more people the opportunity to become a designer and/or express their creativity, which is fantastic! even for non-designers, there are many good tools and apps that allow you to create a website, or to make their photos look better. some professionals have negative views on the democratization of design, and hate tools like squarespace that offer services like this out of fear it will take away jobs from professional designers. I don't see it that way - I think these tools are great for individuals and small businesses who in the past were not able to afford design and ended up trying to make their logo in microsoft word. these tools make work that previously look really shitty look a bit nicer, that's all. there will always be a market for real creative work that requires smart problem solving to create custom solutions, computers can't compete with our brains (yet). its also obvious that formally our work as professionals is much better because of all this easy access from software and online resources. with expedited learning curves and production processes across the board for design, animation, 3D, processing, and other skills; it's allowing us to push the quality and styles of work we create. I think it's all exciting and can't wait to embrace how the industry continues to evolve as creative tools and technology continues to innovate.

the happy show at the institute of contemporary art offers the experience of walking into stefan sagmeister's mind
read more about the project on designboom here

DB: what are you currently fascinated by and how is it feeding into your work?

JW: I'm interested in generative / interactive processing languages and how we can utilize them in our branding work. its a great tool that allows us to bring brand languages alive: whether its reacting to motion or interaction, or morph in physical / digital spaces in beautifully complex ways. it can add playfulness, personalities, or stories into the work we do. you'll be seeing more projects from us in this direction moving forward.

participatory installation illuminates at the happy show in philadelphia

DB: do you have any superstitious beliefs, rules or rituals that you live by?

JW: I believe in honesty and transparency. I am a very straightforward person, not only in my personal life but also with clients or our designers. I don't sugar coat things and tend to believe life would be a lot easier if everyone would just say it as it is.

40 days of dating: jessica walsh and timothy goodman try dating and record the results in an editorial publication

DB: what's the best piece of advice you have heard and repeat to others?

JW: fake it till you make it. how I interpreted this early on in my career is that if someone asked me to do something I didn't know how to do, and I wanted to do it, I'd just say yes and than figure it out later. it's really not that difficult to accomplish any task if you use common sense, persistence, and know how to be resourceful.

a spread from '40 days of dating', a book which includes questionnaires, photographs, videos, texts, and artworks

DB: what do you know now that you wish you knew when you were 21?

JW: doing great work is not enough. when I was younger, I didn't used to appreciate the amount of energy that goes into finding / getting the right clients and selling your ideas through to clients.

illustrations of the seven deadly sins and the seven heavenly virtues for lobmeyr on the bottom of glasses
read more about the project on designboom here

DB: what's your personal motto?

JW: perfection is boring. this goes for both life and our design work.

graphic illustration for jay z's 'a new york holiday' luxury line at barneys

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interview with jessica walsh, partner at sagmeister & walsh

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interview with jessica walsh, partner at sagmeister & walsh all images courtesy of sagmeister & walsh jessica walsh is a designer, art director, teacher and partner at the new york city based design firm sagmeister & walsh.