Steven Heller

· Aug 26, 2026

PRINT announces Brad Holland: Making It Personal, a memorial exhibition honoring the influential American illustrator following his death in March 2025. Co-curated by Holland's former assistant Jonathan Twingley and Norman Rockwell Museum Chief Curator Stephanie Plunkett, the show is presented at the School of Visual Arts' Gramercy Gallery in New York.

· Aug 25, 2026

Steven Heller highlights Canadian illustrator Gary Taxali's forthcoming self-published book, FLAGGED, a 100-page collection of 47 American flag-inspired graphics. Created over many years, the work uses humor, satire and visual metaphor to examine patriotism, protest, identity, consumer culture, and the contradictory meanings attached to U.S. national symbolism.

· Aug 24, 2026 · Interview

Steven Heller interviews James R. Wehn, Van Vleck Curator of Works on Paper at the Chazen Museum of Art, about Pressing Issues: Printmaking as Social Justice in 1930s United States. The touring exhibition presents 46 Depression-era prints, chiefly made through New Deal art projects, addressing labor exploitation, women’s work, racial terror, and fascism. Wehn explains printmaking’s accessibility, distributional power, and continuing relevance as a vehicle for social commentary.

· Aug 23, 2026

PRINT recaps a Book Club conversation in which cartoonist R. Sikoryak discussed Declaration/Emancipation Illustrated, a double-sided book pairing the complete Declaration of Independence with the Emancipation Proclamation and Gettysburg Address. The book renders the texts verbatim through more than 100 styles of American comics, using visual parody and intensive historical research to illuminate the documents' contradictions and unfinished promises of equality.

· Aug 21, 2026 · Interview

Steven Heller remembers the late cartoonist, writer and illustrator Jules Feiffer through their final interview, conducted around Feiffer's children's graphic novel Amazing Grapes. Feiffer discusses his improvisational creative process, the book's fantastical story of three siblings, his longtime editor Michael Di Capua, the Obama-inspired title, and the autobiographical and therapeutic role of his work.

· Aug 20, 2026

Steven Heller recounts sorting through his design-culture ephemera collection during a bout of sciatica and rediscovering vintage cigarette packages. He considers the seductive package, label and advertising design of Egyptian-made tobacco products, describing their graphic style as orientalism intended to communicate premium imported quality.

· Aug 19, 2026

Steven Heller examines the branding of the 1939 New York World’s Fair through a 1938 children’s publication, Johnny’s So Long at the Fair: Oh Dear, What Can the Matter Be? Designed by the unknown Märta and published by Maxwell M. Geffen, the work used naive illustration, lettering and characters to entice children—and, by extension, their parents—toward the Fair’s consumerist vision of the future.

· Aug 18, 2026

Steven Heller marks Seymour Chwast's 95th birthday, encouraging readers to send him good wishes. The brief post showcases a sampler of Chwast's unpublished cut-metal pieces and celebrates his continued creative output.

· Aug 17, 2026

Steven Heller reflects on how identifying automotive badges during childhood road trips shaped his instinct for judging logos. He recommends Marques of the Machine by Kurt R. Hohl, photographed by Michael Furman, as a visual record of early American automobile trademarks and considers these marques an important link in logo-design history.

· Aug 14, 2026

Steven Heller highlights Bauhaus to Your House: Personal Work, a new Vallarino Fine Art catalog featuring personal artworks by designers Walter Allner, Alexander Liberman and Fred Troller. The catalog argues that their independent paintings, drawings and prints demonstrate the enduring Bauhaus ideal of unifying functional design with aesthetic expression.

· Aug 13, 2026

Steven Heller examines the 1961 Atlas men's adventure magazine MALE and its sensational pulp imagery of violence, sexuality, race, and female vulnerability. He contrasts its lurid editorial fantasy with conventional advertisements promoting professional training, health concerns, and upward mobility, framing the contrast as evidence of conflicted postwar American masculinity.

· Aug 12, 2026

Steven Heller argues that P.T. Barnum was more than a circus impresario: he was an early innovator of modern advertising, publicity and promotional spectacle. The article recounts Barnum's use of chromolithographic posters, self-publishing and press manipulation, while contrasting his entertainment-oriented hyperbole with Donald Trump's allegedly harmful chicanery. Images accompanying the piece are from the 1949 annual Bridgeport Barnum Festival.

· Aug 10, 2026 · Interview

Steven Heller interviews photographer Craig Cutler and illustrator Craig Frazier, the duo behind 2Craigs, about a new series of fictional-business advertisements. Drawing on the simplicity of classic DDB work and Helmut Krone's Volkswagen and Porsche designs, the pair combine Cutler's photographs with Frazier's design and copy to satirize advertising claims through deliberately low-quality products and services.

· Aug 7, 2026

Chicago-based design firm Span, working with Noisy Creek, refreshed The Chicago Reader's identity to preserve the recognizable, countercultural character of the long-running alternative newspaper. Led by Bud Rodecker, the work draws on archival mastheads and production artifacts to restore and refine the publication's original custom-lettered wordmark, supported by a yellow, street-level visual system and the line "This is the start of something old."

· Aug 6, 2026

Steven Heller reflects on the enduring public fascination with disasters, accidents and tragedies. He contrasts contemporary screen-based sensationalism with the print era, when magazines and newspapers supplied readers with illustrated depictions of gruesome events, and presents a selection of favorite disaster illustrations.

· Aug 5, 2026

Steven Heller highlights Book the Trip, a Poltroon Press travelogue by master printer and author Alastair A. Johnston. Forty years in the making, the book collects 700 photographs of rare and one-of-a-kind folk letterforms, surveying sign-painting traditions from Africa, Britain, Ireland, India and Haiti.

· Aug 4, 2026

Steven Heller revisits Liberated Latin, a 1952 comic book of fractured Latin puns that he remembers from his parents' bookshelf. He highlights its illustrator, Otto Soglow, known for creating the minimalist comic The Little King, and celebrates Soglow's visual interpretations of the book's deliberately painful but entertaining wordplay.

· Aug 3, 2026 · Interview

Steven Heller interviews thonik co-founders Nikki Gonnissen and Thomas Widdershoven about the Amsterdam studio's three decades of collaborative identity and communication design. The founders describe a process built around client workshops, interdisciplinary team input, and the interplay of strategy, motion, and print across cultural, civic, and major organizational identities.

· Jul 31, 2026

Steven Heller memorializes designer, author, editor, and educator Steven Brower, who died at age 74. The article highlights Brower's work as PRINT's creative director, his illustration-editing role at The Nation, his book-jacket design, teaching at Marywood University, and his extensive work documenting graphic design, comics, and American cultural history.

· Jul 30, 2026

Steven Heller revisits WAIL: The Art of Prestige Records 1949-1970, a richly illustrated RIT Press book about the visual history of the American jazz label Prestige Records. The book uses oral histories and printed ephemera to document the label's photographic, typographic and graphic album-cover legacy, including bold compositions by Reid Miles.

· Jul 29, 2026

Steven Heller reflects on the brutality and deprivation of Weimar-era Berlin through recent reading, including Ulrich A. Boschwitz's Berlin Shuffle. He highlights anti-Nazi artist Georg Scholz and reproduces early 1920–22 prints and drawings from the Merrill C. Berman Collection, placing Scholz alongside Georg Grosz and Otto Dix within the New Objectivity movement.

· Jul 28, 2026

Steven Heller recalls the overlooked multidisciplinary career of American artist and illustrator James Henry Daugherty, whose work ranged across realism, post-impressionism, Futurism, Synchromism and abstraction. The article traces his editorial illustration, children's books, warship camouflage, war-effort posters, murals and New Yorker covers, while noting the efforts of the Friends of James Daugherty Foundation to preserve his work.

· Jul 27, 2026

PRINT Magazine recaps a Book Club discussion about D. B. Dowd's new book, Reading Pictures: A History of Illustration. With Debbie Millman and Steven Heller, Dowd discussed illustration as a cultural system shaped by publishing, advertising, printing, editorial context, and readers—not merely as decoration for text. The recap frames the book as particularly timely amid AI-generated imagery and changing digital-media habits.

· Jul 27, 2026 · Interview

Steven Heller interviews Dublin-based Jason Killingsworth, co-founder and creative director of Chisel, a twice-yearly print magazine and twice-weekly newsletter created with editor Ryan Rigney. Killingsworth discusses his route from music criticism and work at Paste and Edge to founding Tune & Fairweather, as well as Chisel's collectible, finely produced print format and editorial focus on beauty, obsession and play.

· Jul 24, 2026

Steven Heller highlights a little-known 1957 menswear catalog cover designed by Milton Glaser for Portland retailer Rosenblatt's. The article notes that the cover was atypical of Glaser's later work and situates it within the history of Rosenblatt's, a highly regarded menswear store known for artistic window displays and meticulous merchandising.

· Jul 23, 2026

Steven Heller revisits Walt Kelly's Pogo, the 1948–1975 comic strip that used the inhabitants of Okefenokee Swamp to deliver sharp political satire. The article highlights Kelly's 1955 Chicago Review essay and his critique of McCarthyism, conformity and ideological policing, arguing that its themes remain relevant to contemporary American culture.

· Jul 22, 2026

Steven Heller reviews Stephen Savage's children's book Wide Load on the Road: A Big Red Truck's Journey. The article praises its deceptively simple visual language, using an oversized-load truck narrative to combine data visualization, mystery, typography and Midcentury travel-graphic-inspired illustration.

· Jun 24, 2026 · Interview

Steven Heller’s article for PRINT Magazine highlights the Jewish Museum’s exhibition 'Modernity and Opulence: Women of the Wiener Werkstätte,' which explores the overlooked contributions of Jewish women artists and patrons to the early 20th-century Viennese design collective. Curator Kristina Parsons discusses the exhibition’s aim to reframe modernist design history through a more inclusive lens, emphasizing the multidisciplinary work of these women across textiles, ceramics, and graphic design.

· Jun 23, 2026 · Interview

Steven Heller interviews Colombian illustrator Catalina Estrada about her richly detailed, nature-inspired work that merges Latin American culture with global influences. Estrada discusses her education, process, and long-term collaboration with Paulo Coelho, as well as her evolving exploration into motion and procedural animation. The article highlights her belief in color and beauty as transformative tools connecting people and cultures.

· Jun 22, 2026

Steven Heller reflects sentimentally on Father’s Day, exploring its commercial origins and personal meaning. He contrasts the holiday’s profit-driven history with his own memories of his father and the emotional value of genuine appreciation. The essay blends humor, nostalgia, and critique of consumer culture while celebrating fatherhood’s enduring significance.

· Jun 22, 2026

PRINT Magazine’s June 2026 Book Club discussed *The Art of Saving Democracy*, an interactive publication presented as an action kit featuring posters, postcards, and artworks by notable artists. Debbie Millman and Steven Heller hosted a conversation with Svante Myrick, Tracie Ching, and Na Eng about how art can inspire civic engagement and community participation. The discussion emphasized art’s power as a democratic tool and a catalyst for collective action.

· Jun 19, 2026

Steven Heller reports on the New York Botanical Garden’s 'Flower Power' exhibition, a summer event celebrating the art, activism, and aesthetics of the 1960s and 1970s. The show features works by iconic artists such as Andy Warhol, Milton Glaser, and Corita Kent, alongside new installations by contemporary artists Eugenia Mello and Amie Jacobsen. The exhibition explores themes of peace, protest, and environmentalism through vibrant, flower-inspired art and design.

· Apr 20, 2026

Steven Heller’s Daily Heller column spotlights Fabulatorio’s new book, 'ABC Seoane', dedicated to the Galician designer Luis Seoane. The publication, co-published with the Luis Seoane Foundation, aims to introduce Seoane’s graphic and design legacy to new generations through an alphabet book format. The project celebrates Seoane’s influence on Galician visual culture and his multidisciplinary contributions to art and design.

· Apr 17, 2026

Steven Heller’s Daily Heller column spotlights isolarri’s pocket-sized book series, particularly the new release AH!MERICA, adapted from Allen Ginsberg’s lectures on William Blake. The article praises the publisher’s sustainable, whimsical approach to print and the tactile pleasure of reading a miniature book in a digital age.

· Apr 16, 2026

Steven Heller’s Daily Heller column critiques an AI-generated image posted by Donald Trump depicting himself as a savior figure. The article highlights the backlash and ethical concerns surrounding AI-generated political imagery and the potential dangers of unregulated AI use by public figures.

· Apr 15, 2026 · Interview

Steven Heller interviews Matt Lamont about the growth of his Design Reviewed archive, a vast collection of graphic design magazines, posters, and ephemera. Lamont discusses his mission to make design history more accessible and inclusive, the expansion of his holdings, and his upcoming book with Unit Editions. The piece highlights his process of scanning, cataloguing, and sharing materials online for public and academic use.

· Apr 14, 2026

Steven Heller’s Daily Heller column spotlights the revival of Roy Kuhlman’s distinctive hand-lettered style through a new typeface designed by Steven Brower, Craig Welsh, and David Jonathan Ross. The Kuhlman font, released through Ross’s Font of the Month Club, has already been adopted by major brands and cultural institutions. The article explores the typeface’s origins, aesthetic influences, and its unexpected popularity among contemporary designers.

· Apr 13, 2026 · Interview

Steven Heller interviews comic artist Michael DeForge about his new book 'All the Cameras in My Room,' published by Drawn & Quarterly. DeForge discusses his approach to satire, emotional storytelling, and the use of multiple visual styles to explore themes of technology, grief, and identity. The conversation highlights his influences and creative process behind several stories in the collection.

· Apr 10, 2026

Steven Heller reflects on illustrator Brad Holland’s lesser-known passion for poster design, revealing a large body of work discovered after Holland’s death. The article discusses Holland’s approach to creating original posters, his typographic sensibility, and plans for a posthumous exhibition curated with the help of his former assistant, Jonathan Twingley.

· Apr 9, 2026 · Interview

Steven Heller interviews Houston-based designer Jennifer Blanco of Field of Study about her self-published book 'How Not To Run a Graphic Design Studio & Other Hard Lessons.' The conversation explores the realities of running a small design business, balancing creativity with sustainability, and the design philosophy behind the book’s approachable yet rigorous visual style. Blanco reflects on lessons learned from experience and the importance of authenticity and continual learning in studio practice.

· Apr 8, 2026

Steven Heller reports on the debut of the Peanuts Symphony, a new concert experience performed by the Seattle Symphony and produced by Gershwin Entertainment Corp. The event celebrates Vince Guaraldi’s music and marks key anniversaries for both his career and the Peanuts television specials. The production features original animated backdrops from classic Peanuts episodes.

· Apr 7, 2026

Steven Heller reflects on the renewed excitement surrounding NASA’s Artemis II mission and his lifelong fascination with space exploration memorabilia. He recalls his youth collecting NASA ephemera and praises the design legacy of the agency’s visual identity, particularly the worm logo by Danne and Blackburn. The piece connects nostalgia for mid-century space design with optimism for the future of exploration.

· Apr 6, 2026

In this short Daily Heller column, Steven Heller reflects on the recurring claim that 'print is dead' and the new wave of anxiety surrounding AI’s impact on design. He argues that while technological and economic shifts are real, the doomsday narrative about design’s demise is overstated. The piece revisits an older essay of his to question whether such fears remain relevant today.

· Apr 3, 2026

Steven Heller’s Daily Heller column spotlights Ghostly International’s 25th anniversary book, designed by James Goggin of Practise. The 488-page volume, published by Hat and Beard Press, chronicles the label’s visual and musical history through essays, interviews, and archival artwork. Goggin discusses his design process, balancing clean structure with the label’s eclectic visual identity.

· Apr 2, 2026

In this Daily Heller column, Steven Heller reflects on the enduring appeal of Japanese miniature food models, praising their meticulous craftsmanship and cultural authenticity. He describes his personal fascination with collecting these tiny plastic meals, viewing them as exercises in design appreciation rather than toys. The piece blends humor, nostalgia, and design critique to explore why such small-scale creations remain so visually satisfying.

It's Nice That · Apr 2, 2026

In this opinion piece, designer and writer Elizabeth Goodspeed argues that design writing benefits when designers themselves take part in it. She explores how writing helps designers articulate their thinking, connect their creative and analytical practices, and make design discourse more reflective and nuanced. The article highlights examples like Ray Masaki, Michael Bierut, and Steven Heller to illustrate how writing and design can inform each other.

· Apr 1, 2026

Steven Heller revisits George Lois’s 1965 Esquire cover for John Sack’s Vietnam War story, a typographic design that shocked readers with its stark message and minimalist power. The article reflects on how the once-provocative image has lost some of its impact in a world desensitized to wartime atrocities.