Sagmeister and Emotion

Sagmeister breaks down what it means to create design that is emotional. He opened up with an example of a swag bag he got at an AIGA conference in New Orleans (I’ll refer to it as Na’lins for the rest of this post). Inside the bag was all well designed stuff with no emotional content. He put it into perspective by saying that it was all predictable. Jazz, crawfish, strippers and steamboats. Same shit different day, on that Dreamcatcher tip. He then goes onto examples have touched him. What’s really cool is that one of those examples, I’ve actually got to experience myself. I was visiting NYC with a friend half a decade ago and we traveled via subway the entire time. I remember seeing on one of the carts True’s work and I remember I was kicking myself for leaving my camera back in the hotel. All those examples of not holding grudges and what not were excellent examples of interrupting a business man’s subway ride and the very least would get him to possibly examine his own life. Sagmeister suggests there are six core steps in creating emotionally moving work and they must: give new perspective, trigger memories, expose passion and guts, surprise the viewer, demonstrate virtuosity and beauty. He recognizes that all these are highly subjective but in the end reminds himself that if he finds an emotional connection with his work that this is the best way to create work that will resonate with others.