You've probably seen graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister's work, perhaps without even knowing it: That Lou Reed poster with the lyrics written all over Reed's face? That was him. Likewise the Rolling Stones' Bridges to Babylon jewel case. More recently, his Chelsea-based studio has provided a brand identity for Seed Media Group and an eco-friendly slipcase for Worldchanging. His most recent release, however, documents an ongoing series of projects he's created since returning from a one-year sabbatical at the beginning of the decade. Each project depicted in Things I Have Learned in My Life So Far drew its inspiration from one of several sentences Sagmeister wrote down in his diary under that heading during his self-imposed vacation. (Later in this post, I've got a video where he explains all this in more detail.)

When he took on the original magazine assignment that became "Everything I do always comes back to me," though, it was intended as a standalone project. "As we went along doing these things for clients, and they specifically requested that we do a sentence, it became clear that this was a sort of series," Sagmeister explains as we chat in a small alcove above his main studio. "And then it made sense to put them all together. As a group, they can work stronger than as single pieces."

The permanence of the book also makes it easier to attract the reader's attention span for longer periods of time, unlike the fleeting glimpses many of these projects drew in their original contexts. Yet the book's unique structure—a collection of signature pamphlets stored in a slipcase—allows for a multiplicity of readings. "I was afraid that it was going to be messy, unwieldy," Sagmeister says of the unbound presentation. "I love books, so I was very reluctant to give [the traditional form] up, and I went back and forth on it until the last minute. Now I'm glad we did it this way."

("It's much more difficult to make an unbound book than a bound book," he adds, "because the factories aren't set up to make an unbound book." Still, he was determined that the signatures should be sewn together rather than stapled, in order to avoid ungainly wedges where the staples would bunch up.)

Sagmeister is quick to point out that although the original sentences come from his diary, the execution of these projects has been a team effort, not just with the other designers working in his studio, but with outside designers like Marian Bantjes and Ken Miki. (Another one of the sentences, "Everybody who is honest is interesting," is currently on display at Yuko Shimizu's website, rendered in marvelously playful illustrations.) And the collaboration continues at the book's official website, where viewers are invited to submit graphic renderings of their own life lessons. Impressed by the "incredible amount of work" visitors are putting into the site, Sagmeister is revisiting it two or three times a week to see what's turning up.

The website is a prime example of Sagmeister's desire to create what he calls "design for non-designers," in order to reach a mass audience. "There are graphic designers out there who do design for other designers," he says, but he finds such work "insular and self-reflective, like music written for other musicians... It's just not my way of doing things." It's an issue that runs throughout the history of the medium: Because design has to function in the real world, it needs to be accessible to people without formal training. When design is at its most accessible, though, it risks becoming invisible, making conscious recognition of the designer more difficult. "If I look at Amazon, and see what people who bought this book also bought, it's still a design audience," he admits. "But I would hope that over time, another audience discovers the book as well."

In the meantime, Sagmeister is planning to start a second year-long sabbatical in the fall, with plans to spend most of his time off in Indonesia. With luck, he'll have lots of new fans by then, wondering what ideas he'll be ready to unveil upon his return.