You Are Not A Storyteller

(via David)

15 Comments leave a comment below

  1. Finally someone speaks truth.

  2. thank you!

  3. I love the way he says “Bullshit” :D

  4. I so agree. I’ve had a blog post sitting here for a year while serious life crap interfered with me getting my blog started. And it’s all about the very same subject, told in a completely different way. I’m a writer, so I wrote mine, but I love how he expresses himself here. So good. I’ll link to it so that when I finally post mine on my blog, I’ll say, “Hey! Don’t get mad at me! Look at what Sagmeister says!” and divert their attention. ;)

  5. Fuck I love Sagmeister.

    I’ve always loved his no bullshit approach. Very refreshing in the world of design where the majority of people and companies are so deeply up their own arse they haven’t seen daylight in years.

  6. Dear Mr. Sagmeister, being born in a wealthy family, and being a millionaire who can just mess around all day pretending he’s working, doesn’t make you a good designer as well. I’ve never heard such a superficial reasoning, therefore I’m answering accordingly. And actually I am very surprised someone made a video out of this (real) bullshit. With love.

  7. but…his all career is story telling

  8. No, this visual artist is angry and frustrated at being incapable of telling a story. The visual artist can only make an impression, not tell a story. He is like a bedridden man getting angry ant an able bodied man. Sad.

  9. I’m going to side with the roller coaster designer here—theme park rides that tell stories are far better experiences IMHO. And the wait times in Orlando would corroborate that. Transformers, Sider Man, Harry Potter, etc. Every new Universal or Disney ride in recent years tells a story. Ask Six Flags how flinging people around at 70mph is impacting attendance.

  10. I agree with him. Couldn’t help but wonder how it would come off with a different background track that put the edge right where it belongs rather soft–soft-artsy-soft-softening it.

  11. If you listen carefully, you can hear the minds of Experience Designers exploding in the distance. Good “story” Mr. Sagmeister, but I found the plot predictable.

  12. Oh thank god he made this. I can see a lot of detractors commented here, but the use of “story” and “storytelling” is so overused in design these days. There are elements of the process that have leaked into design, but the word has lost all meaning (much like “innovation”). I hate the appropriation of story in design, and this is coming from someone who spent her senior thesis thinking about storytelling in terms of design.

    I think at best, most design offers people tools to come up with their own story around an object or experience. This doesn’t mean designers are storytellers just because they created that object or experience.

    We all have the ability to tell a story in some capacity, but in no way is every person a master craftsman at storytelling. Designers don’t need to be storytellers, they need to be designers. And sometimes story plays into it, but not in the pretentious way most in design want to make it. Designers use stories to create their work, to understand what people will need, and to make their work understandable to others. This doesn’t mean the work itself is in any way a well-crafted story.

    Just let a chair be a chair and a rollercoaster be a fun experience, it doesn’t have to be a deeper story. It doesn’t have to compare to a novel and nor does a designer need to compare themselves to professional storytellers.

  13. Absolutely agree as well. Love the way he swears throughout the video

  14. i never heard so much bullshit in my life.
    This gay is a psycopath
    DANKE