Jessica Walsh is the Walsh in Sagmeister & Walsh, a New York City-based design firm whose clients range from David Byrne and Brian Eno (for their collaborative album Everything That Happens Will Happen Today) to BMW to the Guggenheim Museum. we spoke to Jessica about what her background, how she got where she is and what to expect at OFFSET.
You seem to have been very technologically advanced as a child, teaching yourself to code at such a young age and then designing websites for others. What prompted you to begin looking at coding and website design in the first place?
It all started with an online virtual pet named Kacheek. I wanted to make him the most awesome website ever, so I taught myself HTML and CSS. From there, I created website templates for MySpace, Geocities, WordPress many other platforms. I created an HTML help site that also offered pre made layouts for free.
You’ve spoken about your time as the Rhode Island School of Design and how it brought you away from the computer screen and encouraged you to work with your hands more. Did you ever have any conflict over what area you wanted to concentrate on design-wise and how did you gravitate towards your design specialty?
Yes, there are many design fields that interested me: furniture, fashion, and industrial design in particular. I wavered a bit freshman year in my interest. However in the end, I felt in my gut that graphic design was what I should focus on.
You’ve been given a lot of accolades as a ‘one to watch’ and a ‘rising star’ – as a young person trying to shape their body of work did you find these titles helpful or did they increase the pressure on you to continue to achieve?
Awards and press are helpful because it increases awareness of your work, and in turn helps you get more jobs. When you have more jobs to choose from, you can be more picky with the kind of work and clients you take on. This means you can choose things that you are very passionate about, which in turn makes the work better.
Now that you’re giving talks at OFFSET and judging awards, do you feel like you’re moving into more of an advisory role in the design world?
I enjoy giving talks and participating in judging competitions because it allows me to meet new people, see other work that’s going on in the world, and listen to other creatives talk. These things allow me to expand my network and help fuel new creative work. I want to continue to do more of them, but the creative design work will always be a priority.
What can we expect from your OFFSET talk?
Nudity, swear words, and a few laughs I hope.
Words: Emily Carson
