Stories
27 resultsTypographica Mea Culpa, Unethical Downloading
Essays by Steven HellerSteven Heller describes the guilty revelation experienced when he learned that typeface software licenses are sold for use on specific, not unlimited numbers of CPUs. He calls for the ethical treatment of type designers, i.e. respect for their copyrights.Otto Bettmann: Father of Retro
Essays by Steven HellerAbout the German-born founder of the Bettmann Archives in New York which houses over 5 million cuts, drawings, images and pieces of ephemera, collected since the 1930's.Ladislav Sutnar, Web Design before the Internet
Essays by Steven HellerSteven Heller laments the disappearance of refined modern design craftsmanship and organisation, and provides some background to Sutnar’s work, upholding him as a pioneer of just this sort of waning craft.Neal Gabler, media critic
Interviews by Steven HellerAmerica as the republic of entertainment, the way Americans’ freedom in a vast choice of cable TV stations, xenophobia and the putting forward of the theory that American culture is NOT run by the political Right: all in the context of European and American history.Merrill Berman, Design Connoisseur
Interviews by Steven HellerA discussion about the art and design ephemera collecting practices of Merrill Berman, who has amassed a vast portfolio of design history from the past century and more.Don Norman, Usablity Expert
Interviews by Steven HellerDesign errors in academic design curricula, the 2000 presidential ballot and aviation and nuclear accidents are considered, the concept of human error is called into question, and a call for human-centered design for the fallible user is put forward in this discussion from 2001.Paul Thompson, director of the Cooper Hewitt Museum
Interviews by Steven HellerA discussion about the role of design, museums and more in British and American culture.Cult of the Ugly
Essays by Steven HellerIn the early 1990s Steven Heller takes on the word ugly as he sees it applied to graphic design and design education. En route, his views of art history, pop culture and recent design trends are considered in his essay about style and meaning in design.Walter Herdeg, editor and founder of Graphis
Essays by Steven HellerThe “epitome of a post-war Modernist”, Walter Herdeg, backbone of Graphis magazine, is appraised by Steven Heller.The Object Poster:
Essays by Steven HellerWooden display types, Victorian chromolithography and the demise of Art Nouveau in the form of a poster for a German Match company in 1906...Graphic Design Magazines: Das Plakat
Essays by Steven HellerThe point-form story of a German dentist named Hans Josef Sachs and the magazine Das Plakat he founded on his love for posters. Responsible for the promulgation of early German advertising art abroad, his vast collection was confiscated by Goebbels for the Nazis’ collections and Sachs narrowly escaped the Holocaust. Steven Heller looks at the rise and fall of this significant early design periodical.Old Guns
Essays by Steven HellerIn 1999, Print magazine talked to 20 American design heroes and had them look at work from their halcyon days. Designers from Art Chantry to Massimo Vignelli discuss a piece of early work as a foil for Print’s ‘Designers Under Thirty’ section.Erik Nitsche: The Reluctant Modernist
Essays by Steven HellerThe life and work of the quietly pivotal Swiss modern design Erik Nitsche, who's clients ranged from the MOMA to RCA in a career that spanned the 20th century.Advertising Arts: America Becomes Modern(istic)
Essays by Steven HellerA history and analysis of the role played by this American precursor to the graphic design magazine, which sought to bring progressive commercial graphic and industrial arts into the mainstream.The Boulevard of Broken Dreams
Reviews by Steven HellerA review of a new comic strip novel by an ‘underground comix master’, full of complex plot lines and psychologies, stories about and parodies of the underbelly of the cartoon business, all drwan exquisitely.Ladislav Sutnar and Knud Lönberg-Holm
Essays by Steven HellerA history of the little-known collaboration of Ladislav Sutnar and Knud Lönberg-Holm, who together were a modern design team which was ahead of its time in the realm of information information design.Quick Cuts, Coarse Letters, Multiple Screens:
Essays by Steven HellerAn overview of the work of Cuban-born titling artist Pablo Ferro who broke ground with the titles for films like Dr. Strangelove and pioneered moving type for the screen.Zap Comics
Essays by Steven HellerAn anecdotal history and analysis of the racy work of Robert Crumb, and the cultural situationing of Zap comics then and now.The Small Crit
Essays by Steven HellerA brief look at the role of graphic design criticism.Graphic intervention
Essays by Steven HellerSteven Heller discusses the history and current state of guerrilla, activist and political design from posters to attached image files.