Last Tuesday night’s Stefan Sagmeister event was HUGE! I am still coming off a high from the excitement and success of the event. Number one, we had an amazingly talented speaker, fellow graphic designer, Stefan Sagmeister (who the AIGA board now lovingly refers to as “Saggy”). Everyone who attended was taken on a funny and inspirational journey through Stefan’s career and his most recent project, Things I Have Learned in My Life So Far. In response to this event, the AIGA Board has received rave reviews. But the success story doesn’t end there. This event was the biggest event thus far in AIGA SC’s history. We had almost 150 people come out!I must admit that as a board member of AIGA and the person who designed the event poster, I was a little nervous about meeting Stefan Sagmeister. I kept wondering if he would be nice and easy to get along with. (Believe it or not, not all designers are the nicest folks; it is even rumored that some of them have a bit of an ego. SHHH! Don’t tell anyone!). Also, since I was the one who created the artwork to promote his talk, I thought, “Oh God, he is going to think I am a talentless hack.”
Not only were my fears unfounded, but I found in Stefan a wonderfully delightful, funny, charming, and talented designer and person. Upon being introduced to him shortly before the start of the lecture, I was instantly put at ease. He was so kind and humble, and he said he actually loved the posters! Imagine that? During his lecture, he made a point of giving a shout-out to AIGA as hands-down, the best design organization he has ever worked with throughout the world, and he thanked the local chapter for all the thankless hard work that goes into putting an event like this together. That’s when I fell in love…seriously, I have seen and heard a lot of great designers and speakers, and he is one of the first to ever recognize the efforts that AIGA goes to in order to promote design and the work each chapter does to support their local design community.
After the lecture, Stefan stuck around until every book was signed, and every picture had been snapped. He was truly a class act. I can’t think of anything that would have made the night more complete, other than getting to hang out with Stefan afterwards and talk about life and design. Unfortunately, he was on to Atlanta to speak to their AIGA affiliate.
What an amazing night! Thanks to all who helped put it together, and a big heartfelt thanks to Stefan Sagmeister for taking time to visit our little city!
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