I am a big fan of a Danish architectural firm BIG headed by Bjarke Ingels. Needless to say, I follow their work and read their interviews. Recently, while reading up on their new book ” HOT TO COLD, an odyssey of architectural adaptation” I made another discovery – Stefan Sagmeister! The man is a graphic designer and a partner at “Sagmeister & Walsh” which worked on a design of “Hot to Cold” book.
I start googling Sagmeister’s work and reading his interviews. Just like every encounter in life is to teach us something, one specific interview I read was like a guidance from above and an answer to my questions.
“Stay small”: I am a young designer with aspirations of having my own studio one day. I also want a freedom of saying “no” to projects I don’t find interesting. One way to achieve it, per Sagmeister, is by staying small – your costs are low, you don’t have a a lot of people you need keep busy with work and since you can manage your costs, you have greater freedom with projects you take on.
“You’ve had a long career, and it’s probably difficult to sum it all up, but is there one thing you’ve learned over the years that has really stuck with you?
Stay small. That was Tibor’s saying because he grew his company too large. When I was at M&Co, there were about 30 people. He always said the most difficult thing about running a design company is not to grow. I opened my studio in ’93 and we’ve basically had 20 good years here in New York; there was a little dip after 9/11 and a dip in ’09, but it would have been possible to grow in almost any direction. Staying small has had many, many advantages for us, and many unexpected ones, too.”
“Working from home”: since you are small, you can work from home and avoid paying an office rent. There is a risk that you will have no life and become a 24/7 machine. That has to be resolved by establishing strict work hours.
“Strict hours”: you work from 10-19, no distractions, no social media, you really work. At 19:00 you are done-done. I love the idea of strict hours even without running a studio from home. It happened to me more than once in the past that I was working so many hours over months that eventually I was finding myself empty, tired and uninterested in my work or anything else (a condition medically known as “depression”).
“…I also think there’s a time in your life when it’s necessary to work more, but if you want to do this long-term, not everything can be a baby all the time—you can’t keep giving birth. It’s not sustainable for women to do it, and it’s similar with work.”
The whole interview is beautiful and is packed with wisdom. Read it and you may take away other interesting ideas from it. I, on the other hand, am turning off my laptop and going to bed because I have another very strict rule – 00:00 I am in bed no matter what.