32 PRINT 69.4 FALL 2015 In Profile

It’s easy to build up your own percep- The End of tion of a notable person from their work, their interviews and the press photos that tend to accompany them—in Walsh’s Jessica Walsh? case, images exuding style, power and often sexuality, refl ecting her bold, for- There’s something you should know about Jessica Walsh. midable, striking, seemingly fl awless And it’s, well, everything. by Zachary Petit designs. She has always seemed, in a word, unshakeable. Invincible. But there’s something that’s often missing in those dead-serious press pho- tos: a smile. And in person, she has one.

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With terms such as “Design’s It-Girl” fl oating around, let’s ignore those for a moment and call Walsh what she has always been: Driven. The fi rst thing she designed? “Magic moss rocks,” Walsh, 28, says with a laugh. When she was in fi fth grade, she found some stones on the side of the street. She packaged them, documented their spe- cial powers accordingly in some labels, and sold them to her classmates. “I always loved making things,” she says. “I was obsessed with all the arts and crafts in school. … I remember when I was 8, my aspiration was to make really elaborate beadwork on the side of the street, and my parents were like, ‘Maybe you should aim a little bit higher.’ It wasn’t until I was 11 and I started doing a little bit of logo work for my parents’ company and ’m here to see Jessica Walsh.” yet refi ned chic elegance that might be doing web design that I realized I wanted The hotel receptionist consults a absurdly yet best described as “Midcen- to do it [for a career].” list—which I quickly realize is the list. tury Equestrian.” Yes: At 11, Walsh did logo work for … “I’m sorry, you’re not on her list.” No, it’s not the type of place I’d expect her parents’ software company. Around Chip Kidd has likened being a foremost periodontist to stay. But it the same time, she made a website that “Ia famous designer to being a famous is where I’d expect a famous designer taught fellow kids HTML and CSS—and plumber. Noreen Morioka has likened to stay. as a result, ad revenue began pouring in. it to being a famous dentist. Stefan Sag- “Can I call her and give you the phone?” “That’s when I realized, Oh shit, I can meister, a famous electrician. I ask the receptionist. make money doing my hobby.” It’s an apt poetic metaphor. But it’s She consents, and I dial. She moved from designing websites for hard to imagine aforementioned plumber, Soon enough I’m in the elevator, school clubs to local businesses, and when dentist or electrician staying at the Soho ascending a few fl oors to the hotel’s bar she was a senior in high school, got off ered House Hotel in Chicago’s trendy Fulton and café. I spot her on an olive couch a $200,000 a year gig at a web design com- Market District. Think exposed brick, across the room, the classic bangs an pany. “I showed this contract to my dad,

reclaimed wood furnishings, an edgy immediate giveaway. and he was like, ‘What the fuck?’” HARGREAVES HENRY BY PHOTO

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The fantastical work of Sagmeister & Walsh. She wrote them back and said she New York City. Ultimately, though, Scher wasn’t old enough, and went to RISD didn’t have any open jobs at the end of Sagmeister recalls that Walsh’s inter- instead—even though it was more of a the term—but she knew someone who ests were very similar to his own—and hands-on fi ne arts school, and she came did. Her friend Kristina DiMatteo, then he hoped she would bring her own take from a digital background. Maybe—just art director of Print, hired Walsh as asso- on them to the table. maybe—that was the key to it all. ciate art director. While Walsh says she “Her portfolio was good, but what loved the gig (with no prodding from me), impressed me more was her enthusiasm,” * she always wanted to be in a studio and he says. “It was very clear that she loved branding environment. So in the middle design and wanted to put everything she Sometimes, when someone is really good of the night in February 2010, she sent has into it.” at something from a young age, a natural, Stefan Sagmeister a “super-long, emo- Two weeks after Walsh’s email, she and they know. They can just instinctively tional email, unsure of where to go in life.” Sagmeister began working together. Two tell. Whether it’s arrogance or a realistic She had never met him before. years went by. And Walsh says it was an self-awareness is irrelevant. They are just “Out of all the design studios in New incredible experience and she learned good. Did Walsh know? York, his was always the only one that I a lot—but she was then ready to open “I defi nitely did not,” she says. “In fact I really, really looked up to and admired her own studio. Instead, Sagmeister and always had this sense that I had somehow because of the emotional quality of the Walsh negotiated for about six months faked my way into everything. I think a work that he was doing. It wasn’t just before announcing an offi cial partner- lot of successful people feel that way, and design—it was story and authorship and ship and creating a studio that would I think it’s somehow the drive—because content creation, so I really just wanted become known for some of the most you feel like you’re inadequate. Through his advice in starting a studio. At the beautiful and cutting-edge work around. college I always had a really big sense time he only had one person working for … Which brings us to the photo. that I was faking it or I shouldn’t have him. I didn’t go there thinking it was a been there and everyone else was a real job interview—I didn’t even think it was * artist and I just stumbled my way into possible to work with him. But he looked this through the web stuff .” through my book and was like, ‘Before Jessica Walsh can be a divisive fi gure After school she nabbed an intern- you do that, let’s try working on a few in design. And often, it goes back to the ship with Paula Scher at Pentagram in projects together and see if it works out.’” photo. We all know the story well, but

INPROFILE.indd 33 9/8/15 12:07 PM Fugue Identity. CD: Stefan Sagmeister. AD/Design: Jessica Walsh. Design: Pedro Sanches, Shy Inbar.

Jessica Walsh photographed in New York City by Zak Mulligan for Print.

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let’s recap it for posterity: In 1994, Sag- years ago, having this interview I would for yourself, then you lose the honesty in meister formed his own studio, and he have been anxious for days before.” what you’re doing in a way. So for a while announced it to the world via a post- Over the years, as she has created I was just in this weird spot, but eventu- card of himself nude, save for a pair of amazing design after amazing design, her ally, I said I realized I just can’t live for black socks. To celebrate the found- life has seemingly become open-source: other people, I just have to do my own ing of Sagmeister & Walsh in 2012, the The famous 24/7 Sagmeister & Walsh thing—and people will hate it sometimes, partners recreated the photo in the studio camera projects her every working and that’s fi ne.” buff (save again for Sagmeister’s black movement, her Pinterest boards cover The result was the illustrated 40 Days socks). Walsh was 25 at the time, and everything from typefaces and paper of Dating website in 2013, which Walsh the design web broke with admiration, to lingerie, she maintains a Twitter fol- created with designer Timothy Goodman. jealousy, misogyny, speculation about a lowing of 76,000, gives about 12 talks a The premise: Two friends with separate relationship between the partners, and year, and you can even fi nd her wedding dating issues date each other for 40 days. everything in between. registry online. As a reader at the time, perhaps the But no matter how anyone feels about Which is all to say, heavy stuff for an biggest revelation was this: The seem- it: It was eff ective, just as Sagmeister’s introvert. So what led to the shift? ingly self-assured Walsh, known for bold original postcard was. And Walsh agrees. In the speaking department, there’s work and conquering the design world at “When it fi rst launched and a lot of always the power of repetition. And a young age, was in fact somewhat broken people didn’t know who I was—and of then, of course, there’s another colossal at that moment. course Stefan is such an established per- risk Walsh took that exceeds even the Going nude for the postcard was one son in the community—I can understand announcement photo. thing, but this was another entirely: Here, and empathize with why people were Sagmeister & Walsh are sometimes she was revealing to readers who she like, ‘Wait, why is this 25 year old girl criticized by graphic designers for essen- really was. naked?’ You know what I mean? I can cer- tially making commercial art into fi ne She was terrified. She was vulner- tainly see why people thought the things art. The reasons behind that criticism able—and she put it all on the table for that they thought or stuff like that. They are another article entirely their own, readers, from her anxiety and sleeping didn’t know me or who I was or my work.” but after a few years of doing only com- problems to her relationship issues to Does she ever regret it? mercial work constantly, Walsh was feel- having sex with a Sagmeister & Walsh “No. I mean, it did exactly what we set ing stifl ed. It wasn’t all fun anymore. So branded condom. out for it to do. Even more so than we she promised herself she would spend “It was a huge risk for us, both person- could have ever expected. So no, I don’t between 25 and 50 percent of her time on ally and professionally. And I was defi - regret it. And in fact, it’s been so freeing.” more personal work to balance things out. nitely scared shitless,” she says. “The This is where a diff erent Jessica Walsh “I think as soon as you attach all these day before it was out I was having a emerges. To me, the stoic expression expectations, and it’s not doing the work total meltdown.” and boldness in all those press photos has always seemed, not necessarily a preconceived persona, but perhaps an armor, a reaction. A mind-bogglingly talented young person who achieved the fame she deserved far earlier than most, and was left to navigate it. These are the things they do not teach you in design school. Walsh was a very shy and anxious per- son at the time, and was naturally over- whelmed—because suddenly, she says, people expected things from her. And naturally, such fast recognition leads to things like speaking engagements. (After our interview, in fact, she is set to deliver a keynote to a few thousand people at HOW Design Live.) She admits she had to develop a public face for it all. “I still think I’m an introvert at heart,

but it’s defi nitely evolved a lot. Even two ZAK MULLIGAN BY PHOTO

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Brand identity system for Function Engineering. CD: Stefan Sagmeister. AD/Design: Jessica an idol in any way. My life is a mess in As for the present, there’s still her HOW Walsh. Design: Wade Jeffree. some ways. So yeah, it’s just a very odd Design Live talk to do. She describes it as concept to me.” a mix of who she was at the time of the But ultimately, it became the project partnership announcement, and her post- of which she is most proud in her career. * 40 Days vibe; a sort of duality. A couple The site went viral, and led to appear- of hours later, there she is, black leggings, ances on the “Today” show and “The So what’s next for Walsh? white v-neck, pony tail, giant wedges and View,” the sale of the fi lm rights to Warner She’s currently working on a fresh trademark bangs, taking the stage as the Bros., and a print book released earlier project with Goodman—though not a venue’s smoke machine billows. this year. romantic one, as she married cinema- She’s funny. Bold. Confi dent. At times, “The funny thing is, I’m less proud of tographer Zak Mulligan last year—and vulgar. She told me her voice shakes in the content and more proud of the realiza- she says it’s going to be a game-changer the fi rst few minutes of a talk, but I detect tion that design can touch a mass audi- in her career, and perhaps the best thing no quavers. ence like that,” she says. she has ever created. Afterward, she stays for more than an While the story indeed resonated with “When I first started speaking five hour signing copies of 40 Days of Dat- a mainstream crowd, that was not always years ago, defi nitely at that time … I was ing. She’s sweet to her fans, draws in the case within the design world, which very much curating who I was and try- their books, and agrees to an inordinate sometimes seems to bemoan its own ing to put on this very confi dent facade amount of selfi es. celebrities while simultaneously embrac- and not talk at all about my problems Eventually, the conference organizer ing them. or failures or stuff like that. And I think has to remove her because Walsh is about “What I learned is that a lot of design- it was just a lot of insecurity. I felt like to miss her fl ight, leaving everyone to ers like to keep design in this box of I had to show this perfect side of me. inspect their phones, ponder the moment, what design is, and anyone who tries No one likes perfection anyway,” she and send the shots off to wherever they to do something outside of that box, it’s says. “… So eventually over time as I may land. really easy to critique them. So we got a learned that and became more comfort- lot of hate from designers I actually really able with myself and confi dent in that, * admire in the industry who thought it I’ve become much more comfortable was wrong that we were putting our per- opening up.” When Jessica Walsh’s new project debuts, sonal stories into design,” she says. “A In the craft of fi ction writing, the No. 1 what will happen? lot of graphic designers want to remove rule of character development is that a I hop onto the Sagmeister & Walsh themselves. Which is fi ne. Some people’s character must be fl awed; readers have webcam and scan the scene for details, style doesn’t lend itself to putting your no interest in the fl awless. In any pursuit, but fi nd none. personal voice in it, and certainly not in perfection is a great—and necessary—goal. This may be the end of Jessica Walsh every client project is that appropriate But in most cases, it is also a great, and as we know it, and the beginning of to do. But that doesn’t mean as design- unnecessary, illusion. Vulnerability. Per- another evolution, of something new, ers we can’t do that. Design is just a tool haps that is the magic of 40 Days, and part perhaps a fresh understanding of one like writing is a tool, to express yourself.” of the reason that Jessica Walsh is at the of today’s most talked-about and cel- What is it like to be a celebrity of design? top of her game: She embraced it. ebrated designers. “Oh god,” she says with a nervous laugh. The future project, she says, is going Who will she reveal? “I don’t know. When people tell me, ‘Oh, to be a dramatic shift and a step further. But perhaps the bigger question: When you’re my idol,’ that stuff really scares me, (And by the time this issue comes out, she you look at her brilliant work, does it because I’m just still fi guring this all out may already have taken that step; as of matter? ▪ as I go, you know, and there’s so much this writing, the project is set to launch still for me to learn. I don’t feel like I’m at the end of the summer.) Zachary Petit (@zacharypetit) edits Print.

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