Steve Kapsinow (bio)

In asking students to "touch" three different audiences—their circle of family and friends, the community, and humanity—Sagmeister has motivated students to reach beyond the school's Manhattan campus.

For instance, student Laura McCormick re-packaged heavy socks to offer as a winter holiday gift to homeless individuals she encountered in San Fransisco’s Tenderloin district, while Sue Walsh outfitted 110 employees of the North Brooklyn unit of the Department of Sanitation of New York each with a pair of personalized gloves, complete with worker name and superhero-themed logo patch.

Sagmeister first spelled out his commitment to design that touches the heart in his 2001 book Sagmeister: Made You Look. He has also given workshops on the topic for designers in Berlin and Venezuela.

We caught up with Sagmeister via e-mail and asked him about his course and crusade to touch the heart through design.

SK: You've said it is difficuilt for design to reach our emotional core? Why is this?

SS: Because designers often sell or promote something. The desire of an emotional impact is often (and rightfully) perceived by the audience as pretentious. The viewer of a typical design piece tends to engage with the work for seconds or minutes. I found it difficult to touch someone in a very short time frame. I myself tend to be touched more by novels than by short
stories.

SK: What is the measurable objective of this class? How are students graded? What's considered a successful project?

SS: As you know, two out of the three assignments have to be actually produced in the real world—it is not enough to just show the concept in class. Students have to build a feedback mechanism into the project so they are able to see if people were touched by their projects. Success is when the audience is touched.

Students are graded (even though I think grades in art school are fairly meaningless, - I was a very good student in art school and nobody, ever, has asked me about my grades).

SK: What type of prep work is done before the students come up with a concept or idea?

SS: Lecturing, preaching and laying down the ground rules (select an audience, stick with it, make it work).

SK: From what you've seen and experienced, what exists in the designs that have had the most emotional impact on a community?

SS:

• Designs that needed guts from the creator and still carry the ghost of these guts in the final execution
  
• Designs that evoke memories
  
• Designs that are viewable over and over again and again
  
• Beautiful designs
  
• Designs whose craft levels are very high (the unbelievebalility that somebody can be so good at something)
  
• Surprises
  
• Extremely labor intensive designs
  
• Personalized designs
  

SK: Did student designers express any concerns or fears about doing something like this? If so, what were they?

SS: In project 1, (friends or family, touching the heart of people you know) sometimes we experience a conflict, because a project might be extremely personal. The trigger for doing it comes from a class, so in rare cases a pretentiousness creeps in (I made this specially for you, but - hold on - I also made it for class).

SK: What value, if any, can an experience like this bring to designers' professional work? What are the practical lessons designers can learn through work like this?

SS: The ability to passionately communicate meaningful messages to an audience that understand them is something that comes in handy in everybody's professional work.

SK: What advice can you give to designers who want to try and touch the hearts of a community? Where should they start? How should they begin?

SS: They should get to know the community, see what it cares about. And if you want to touch somebody's heart, it is necessary that the message come from your own heart.

Then they should create:

• Designs that needed guts from the creator and still carry the ghost of these guts in the final execution
  
• Designs that evoke memories
  
• Designs that are viewable over and over again and again
  
• Beautiful designs
  
• Designs whose craft levels are very high (the unbelievebalility that somebody can be so good at something)
  
• Surprises
  
• Extremely labor intensive designs
  
• Personalized designs