Steven Heller

Steven Heller|Essays

Christoph Niemann’s Creative Powers: A Mystery Investigated

Steven Heller uncovers what makes Christoph Niemann a veritable illustration Superman.

Steven Heller|Essays

Chris Ware’s Really Big Novelty Book

The first time I was introduced to Chris Ware’s work was at R.O. Blechman’s Ink Tank office on West 46th Street.

Steven Heller|Essays

Earnest Elmo Calkins: Founder of Modern Advertising and a Designer You Probably Don’t Know

“It is arguable that without the puritanically raised Calkins, Modern art would never have washed up on American advertising’s shores, creative advertising teams might not have existed, and graphic design would be a different …

Steven Heller|Essays

Victims of the Image: Yellow Peril

Visual hazing in popular art and design of Asians was long maintained for different purposes.

Steven Heller|Essays

Finding Treasure

On the joy of collecting.

Steven Heller|Essays

Victims of the Image: Black Smears

The power of mainstream, routinely accepted, racial and ethnic stereotype images widely published in the United States during the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries did more to foster the stigma of being different than even more …

Steven Heller|Essays

Victims of the Image: Vintage Jewish Stereotypes

Racial, ethnic and gender stereotypes did not materialize from the miasma. They were, and continue to be, made by people, designers and illustrators for whom visual language is reduced to a tweet-like image short-hand.

Steven Heller|Essays

Something to Read This Summer, Or Now!

If you are going to read one thing this summer (or now), I suggest an essay in Ben Shahn’s The Shape of Content titled “Biography of a Painting.”

Steven Heller|Essays

The Commencement Address I Never Gave

There are few greater honors than to be the one who launches graduates into the world.

Steven Heller|Essays

State of the Union Rats

“Scabby,” as it is appropriately nick-named, is the labor movement’s most effective protest icon and guaranteed to grab the attention of even the most blasé passersby.

Steven Heller|Books

Cosmos of Signs

The universe of signs and symbols devised throughout the ages of human history is head-spinningly immense and forever expanding.

Steven Heller|Essays

Being Sensitive to Insensitivity

Pepsi’s Kendall Jenner advertisement won the insensitivity prize of the week. But was this truly insensitive or silly exploitation? Or was it just the proverbial good intention that misfired?