Now for a little hero worship

Lately I'm in awe of Stefan Sagmeister after spending the weekend with his new book, Things I Have Learned in My Life So Far.

I love everything about it: the individual pamphlets, the photography, the maxims, the stories, and even the kinda creepy cover. I keep mulling the text, which runs from the near-proverbial "Everything I Do Comes Back to Me" to the less-sanguine but ever inspirational "Thinking that Life Will Be Better in the Future Is Stupid. I Have to Live Now."

And then there's the tricks with "typography," so that cut-up hot dogs only form a word when the right light's cast across them. Some of it is so clever/silly/fun, I laugh out loud.

It's obvious this guy's just ... real -- and he trusts his instincts. For example, this book came out of a sabbatical year that Sagmeister decided to take in the go-go 1990s, when he thought his work had become mediocre and he could use a creative restart, without any client demands to meet.

'Course it's not the first time Sagmeister's rocked my world; turns out I own many of the CDs he's designed.


Books and people like this make me smile, and then make me jones for the studio. With all the wriggling involved in my latest project (visual evidence at right), it shouldn't be too long now.