Jessica Helfand

Jessica Helfand|Essays

Freedom of Speech or Filching of Style? The New Law of Eminent Lo-Mein

Fonts found at The Dollar Store, December, 2005.There has been a considerable amount of debate recently about the impact of DIY on the design disciplines, and nowhere has this issue seemed more unresolved than in discussions of …

Jessica Helfand|Essays

The D Word

Online promo for House Hunters, HGTV, 2006.People who own homes understand the true meaning of the phrase "money pit." Expenses are constant, upkeep unstoppable, and the most vexing decisions are often dominated by things you never see: …

Jessica Helfand|Essays

Civilian Typography: The Power and The Fury

Left: Cover of Spoiled, Tom Varisco, 2005; Right: Photograph by Steph Goralnik, 2005.John Updike once wrote that the "itch" to make dark marks on white paper is shared by writers and artists. As for designers, that same itch translates to …

Jessica Helfand|Essays

Calling All Angels

Detail, Madonna di San Sisto, Raphael, 1519In traditional religions, the cosmological order of the universe recognized the primary function of the angel as a messenger of God. (The word "angelos" in Greek means messanger.) Angels were …

Jessica Helfand|Essays

Face Value

Facial transplants mapping our future: how much is the world of design responsible?

Jessica Helfand|Essays

Cease and Design

When my daughter, Fiona, was five years old and first learning to write, she came home from school one day and set to work. Pencil gripped firmly in her tiny hand, she wrote a word — then plunked her first and second fingers down …

Jessica Helfand|Essays

On Considering the Source

A friend of mine, a painter, recently saw a group exhibition at PS1 in New York in which he was struck by the absence of primary source material. Although intentionally abstract works, these paintings all referenced extremely specific …

Jessica Helfand|Essays

The Shock Of The Old: Rethinking Nostalgia

Nostalgia has always been a bad word for designers. Like "retro" and "vintage" it smacks of a sort of been-there-done-that ennui — looking backward instead of forward, nostalgia presents as the very antithesis of the new. Even …

Jessica Helfand|Essays

On Citizenship and Humanity: An Appeal for Design Reform

It has been a hectic month here in the United States: a month of unspeakable hurricane devastation, two Supreme Court nominations and just this morning, a national address by our President reinforcing the White House's steadfast support of …

Jessica Helfand|Video

John Stossel on Graphic Design

This film was made in 2005 for 20/20, a beloved AIGA National Conference segment in which twenty designers are asked to talk about something for one minute each. This particular year, the conference itself had no theme, leaving Jessica …

Jessica Helfand|Essays

Eye of the Storm

Several days ago, the first photographs showing the damage from Hurricane Katrina were published here in the American press. They were oddly disquieting, but mostly just enigmatic: one photo in particular showed the partially submerged …

Jessica Helfand|Essays

A Mosaic of Vision and Memory

I have always tried, and urged my students to try, to think of writing as more than a mere accompaniment to graphic design. Rather, it is perhaps its most deeply resonant evocation: the degree to which language can imply, conjure, suggest, …