Stefan Sagmeister on Why Beauty Matters

When did beauty become a dirty—or at least obsolete—word for artists and designers? Stefan Sagmeister weighed on the issue in his stimulating—ok, beautiful—presentation at last week’s DLD (Digital-Life-Design) conference in New York City. Watch the video below for an aesthetic journey that goes from the industrial shed that is Memphis’s Cook Covention Center (“Elvis had truly left the building.”) to a consideration of the impact of Sagmeister’s fellow Austrian Adolf Loos to faux Mondrians (can you tell the real from the fake?) to a mesmerizing coda complete with jiggly gelatin typography.