This past January, John Rambo (as portrayed by Sylvester Stallone), descended upon the borders of Myanmar to dole out “aid” in the form of explosions and plenty of collateral damage. Presently, that kind of “assistance” isn’t going to be of much benefit. Fortunately, the folks at Create/Reject have a more inventive, less violent idea for a way to assist the nation’s one million plus people still suffering from the effects of the May 2nd cyclone. Rather than relying on the use of force, they’re relying on the sale of fonts. Their simple response for the request for relief was to put together a book titled Fifty Designers Current Favorite Typefaces, featuring ideas from talents such as Stefan Sagmeister and Experimental Jetset. The best part of the whole deal is that all proceeds from the sale go directly to UNICEF. At the dirt cheap cost of nearly $6, it’s worth much more.

There is one sentence in the bio of Stefan Sagmeister that says both nothing and everything: “He has earned practically every important international design award.” The bio does not continue on to list those awards, it just glides into other subject matter — much like a phrase your lawyer might insert to guard you from getting sued.

From a certain perspective, that statement is funny (because what more casual way to say you've kicked ass is there than to glaze over every accolade you've received), but in another way, it is potently telling. Stefan Sagmeister is an incredible designer — that much is clear — but his work and his lifestyle have made it abundantly clear where his heart is. It is in art, in simplicity, in communication and the universal nature of emotion. The last place it lives is a trophy shelf.

Design as religion (which is perhaps the most understandable way to describe Sagmeister's approach) is a far-fetched concept, but if you've stuck your face into his latest book, Things I Have Learned In My Life So Far, it is not as hard to imagine. Read on as we chat with Stefan about his studio, his opinions, and his willingness to depart from both from time to time in pursuit of a higher power.

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So far, Stefan Sagmeister has only learned around twenty things in his life. It appears one of them is that it's important to share what you've learned with the world. Through his site, Things I Have Learned In My Life So Far, Sagmeister imparts his own knowledge to readers through both written and visual media and asks readers to do the same by contributing their own life lessons illustrating them in beautiful words and via any medium they are comfortable with, whether it be through film, sculpture, paintings, graphic design, typography, compositing, motion graphics, etc. The result is a cross between Life 101 and an advanced course in the visual arts. Despite the fact that the idea has already been transformed into a book featuring Sagmeister's lifetime of knowledge along with typographic works to support this body of lessons, the site continues on because, well, we've still got a lot to learn.

If you consider yourself a graphic designer, you’ve probably heard of Joshua Davis. As one of the first adopters of Flash, a significant new media artist, an author, and one of the design world's weightiest members, Joshua Davis is a name that rolls off many tongues during discussions regarding progression, experimentation, and development. A pioneer in the word's most technological sense, Joshua has never been one to find a niche and stick with it, instead choosing to find what's next — or in what's often his case, to create it. We chatted with Joshua about things like Praystation, philosophy, and his plans for the future, and wound up feeling a little bit like we do when we look at one of his mathematically composed graphics. In other words: utterly enthralled.

Joshspear.com: For our readers who aren't as familiar with your background, can you give us a brief rundown of your life up until today?

Joshua Davis: My name is Joshua Davis, born 1971 in San Diego, California, moved to Littleton, Colorado where I pretty much grew up. I had always been interested in art and in high school I entered a statewide competition and took second place in the state for painting. After spending ‘89, ‘90 in Huntington Beach, California skateboarding and ‘91, ‘92 moving back to Colorado living in Frisco to do some snowboarding, I moved to New York in November 1992 and eventually attended Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. At Pratt I worked on Design and Illustration and through fellow classmates got into working on the web in 1995 (Netscape 1.1). When Netscape 3 was released (at the end of 1996) I had a moment of clarity to use technology and the web to create my work. 13 years later I run Joshua Davis Studios where I use design and technology to create work for corporate clients, private collectors, galleries, museums, and personal exploration.

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While most of the world waits with baited breath for the winner of the soccer (football) World Cup, all of us t-shirt enthusiasts get our own little competition. The second T-1 World Cup is helmed by Shigesato Itoi and is basically a T-shirt playoff based on gross sales. 24 designers from 13 different countries are taking part in this tee-slangin’ extravaganza. The first T-1 World Cup had only japanese designers, but this time around there’s a lot more international flair. Amongst the participants are Stefan Sagmeister, Nando Costa, Klein Dytham architecture, Singapore’s Phunk studio and Japan’s contingent of Naoto Fukasawa and Jun Aoki. Coinciding with the actual World Cup, this competition also runs from June 9th to July 10th.
All shirts are available online and are expected to ship in early August 2006, which means you’ll have to wait a bit after the competition for them to arrive. The winner of the competition will be the designer whose shirt sells the most, across all sizes–and that person will be declared the T-1 World Cup Champion! So support independent t-shirt designers and buy a great shirt while you’re at it. Via Jean Snow