Design Wales - Stefan Sagmeister talk - Wales Millennium Centre

Design Wales - Stefan Sagmeister talk - Wales Millennium Centre, originally uploaded by julian marshall sykes findings.

Just back from a talk by Stefan Sagmeister at the Wales Millennium Centre. I have seen a few talks by Stefan over the internet through sites like ted.com and of course the movie Helvetica, but I have never seen him in the flesh, so I have been looking forward to seeing for a very long time.

I always think these type of things are just as much about the anecdotes and stories as the actual talk itself. It was also really interesting to get an understanding of how his studio works. In particular for me was his decision to keep his studio small (generally only having himself, two designers and an intern at anyone time). It was particularly poignant for me as currently we are looking for our first employee, which would bring our company up to four. I have always been a real fan of the number as I once went to a talk which discussed the idea of the number 4 being the optimum number as it is the last time that 4 cells are in contact with each other, and so taking this further it is felt that four is the optimum amount of people that should be in groups together. It was interesting to hear how Stefan also seemed to feel the same in that he felt the size of the company allowed them to respond quicker and more effectively to clients needs. I suppose similar to the 'too many cooks' analogy.