book review

“Sagmeister. Made you look” by Peter Hall somewhat backs up my argument without even having to read it. It is a Printed experience and design piece in itself. Through this printed monologue one gets to experience the thoughts and visuals that Sagmeister documented and designed throughout his career, both the good and the bad. When possible Sagmeister avoids screen and technology and works directly on paper whereby he states that he feels more connected to his design and it is what he wants his readers to experience later in his publications through physical interactivity. The book in itself is fun genuinely because of its innovative and witty presentation. The whole ‘reader and print experience’ starts from the moment one opens the book, and you could easily spend a good five minutes playing around with it. The edge-page-printing in itself added an influx of character to the book, something one would not experience had it just been on online e-book or PDF. A reader enjoys this book because there is so much interaction throughout. Sagmesiter has proven the book even has a good design whilst closed, something that would not be anywhere near the same on screen as you won’t be able to move it around back and forth in its PVC casing. There would be lack of texture and physical interactivity had there not been that sense of feel and excitement of opening the book physically. As stated in his monologue when describing his business card he once successfully designed, ‘it had a covetable aspect that seemed to prevent people from throwing it away, and thus initiated a number of useful leads’ [reference] The optical illusion trickery it provides is what made clients, amongst others, keep hold of this promotional material due to its different and fun appearance which made it somewhat memorable. Here it justifies how print, being tangible, makes people remember it more. Printed material is something that can be held and bought giving a sense of ownership – you can feel something that is yours, a more secure feeling than something just floating in technological space. Just like Sagmeister intertwines through his side notes, even web allows you to create things differently, such as the Google helping in research. He however feels like Print was and is the reason as to why he started Graphic Design and not the web and screen.

 Figure 1. Sagmeister. Made you look. Peter Hall



Hall, P., 2009. Sagmeister: Made You Look. New York: Harry N. Abrams