Jessica Helfand

Michael Bierut|Audio

The Observatory: Dollars and Change

On this episode of The Observatory, Michael Bierut and Jessica Helfand discuss the midterm election and currency design.

Michael Bierut|Audio

The Observatory: Epidemics and Theater

On this episode of The Observatory, Jessica and Michael talk about design, performance, and fear of Ebola. 

Jessica Helfand|Critique

Deathiquette: A Design Problem

What does it mean to mourn in the modern world?

Jessica Helfand|Tributes

Howard Paine: 1929–2014

Remembering Howard Paine, National Geographic art director and stamp designer extraordinaire

Jessica Helfand|Critique

To Thine Own Selfie Be True

Photographing oneself has become a singular pastime, an instantly rewarding yet indisputably time-sucking activity poised somewhere between narcotic and sport.

Jessica Helfand|Case Studies

Publication as Parody

Stephen Colbert copied our cover and we were thrilled. But then we wondered: when does copycat design become inappropriate, or unethical, or illegal?

Jessica Helfand|Photos

Fast Thinking

Is this a slapstick fall captured as a slow-motion sideshow? Or an example of how accelerated exposure times tell a different story?

Jessica Helfand|Insights Per Minute

Jessica Helfand on Brevity

Jessica Helfand, a founding editor of Design Observer, is an award-winning graphic designer, writer, and educator.

Jessica Helfand|Essays

Our Shopping Lists, Our Selves

Jessica Helfand on lists: from the mundane to the historical, the shopping list to the Bill of Rights.

Jessica Helfand|My First Job

When Less Was More

Jessica Helfand reminisces about her first graphic design job.

Jessica Helfand|Essays

Ezra Winter Project: Chapter Twelve

In the end, Ezra Winter was a man whose devotion to the classical world virtually underscored his every move: it explained his ineffable pursuit of youth, his enduring worship of women, his unyielding obsessions with fantasy and grandeur, …

Jessica Helfand|Essays

Ezra Winter Project: Chapter Eleven

The 1930s would prove to be an enormously fertile period in Ezra Winter’s life: following the success of the Radio City murals, the artist embarked on major commissions for the United States Supreme Court, the Federal Reserve …