Hasta La Ideas

Stefan Sagmeister’s new website offers a glimpse into his studio’s working life: the homepage features a live webcam while interaction is via vinyl graphic ‘buttons’ stuck on the floor

Sagmeister’s sites have always departed somewhat from the portfolio-based norm – the last one, for example, being a headache-inducing clash of colour and type which was more endurance test than pleasant browsing experience.

The new site creates an interface out of a series of vinyl stickers applied to the studio floor and shot from directly above by a live webcam. So now the world can thrill to the site of a bustling modern design studio at work ie designers sitting in front of screens for hours on end with their headphones on, rising occasionally to get more coffee/relieve themselves/go shopping for more skinny jeans and overpriced trainers . And presumably clients can keep an eye on things too…

No doubt Sagmeister’s detractors will see it as an exercise in vanity but it’s certainly a fresh and intriguing way to tackle an issue which all design studios struggle endlessly with – the dreaded studio website.

This film shows the installation:

<object width=”480″ height=”385″><param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/qTg6Gl3gD8M?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0″></param><param name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”></param><param name=”allowscriptaccess” value=”always”></param><embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/qTg6Gl3gD8M?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”480″ height=”385″></embed></object>

A note on commenting: previous posts about Sagmeister have brought out the worst in certain commenters. Any abusive comments will be deleted by the moderator.