The End of Jessica Walsh?
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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. * 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 INPROFILE.indd 32 9/1/15 10:48 AM PRINTMAG.COM 33 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. INPROFILE.indd 34 9/1/15 10:49 AM INPROFILE.indd 35 9/1/15 10:49 AM 36 PRINT 69.4 FALL 2015 In Profile 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.