Steven Heller (1) (1950–)

[Graphic d]esign is not decoration but, rather, the intelligent solution of conceptual problems; it is the manipulation of type, image, and, most of all, the presentation of ideas that convey a message.

It was from IDEO CEO Tim Brown that I first heard stressed that design is not a tweak, made near the end of a process to fine-tune or make pretty, but rather is a substantive, beginning-to-end way of thinking. It discourages me to see that designers still have to fight that characterization. show more But this book encourages me, with its collection of Q&As with ~80 designers, and hundreds of full-color examples of their work, that showcase the substantive contributions of graphic design.

The subtitle says it’s “A Guide to Careers in Design,” but I think it’s closer to “An Exposure to Careers in Design,” specifically graphic design. It’s not a mind-focusing, how-to book; it’s a mind-blowing primer on possibilities. It exposes the potential design student to a wide variety of content such as design genres and sub-genres, both print and digital, from fonts to images to layouts and entire installations. It touches on design markets like publishing, packaging, commerce and advertising. It also considers the workplace experience as an employee vs. independent vs. with partner, and how to stay inspired and motivated.

As a reader and writer, I enjoy author interviews for their behind-the-curtain peeks at other creatives at work. So it was for me with this book, too, where the designers’ curiosity and creativity inspired more of my own.

(Review based on a copy of the book provided by the publisher.) show less

I was interested to read this as Heller was on the ground at a time in design history when significant change was happening. Call it the first-wave of the Democratization of Design. Photo-type and press-type (Letraset) opened the doors to the public’s ability to “set” type without the need for traditional (costly professional) sources.

That written, I will admit I have not finished it.

A comment on the design. It’s an odd set of choices. Strictly from a book design standpoint, the show more stingy margins seem at once to be expected –get as many words on a page as possible to keep the page-count down– but also a flaw given that this is a book at least tangentially, about graphic design. Following on to that, and more problematically, it appears the text is set in 8- or 9-point Centaur. Rather small for running text. Further to that, and perhaps most curious, it’s being set in Bruce Rogers’ famous Bible face which seems incongruous given the title. In the very least BR’s “white letter Venetian” is designed to be read best from maybe as small as 12- to better at 16-point. Couple that very traditional, arguably “fine press” choice of faces with a forgettable sans serif display (one of Adobe’s wood types?) and it’s a weird look. Iirc, Heller didn’t have anything to do with the design. It was done by someone on Louise Filli’s staff (Filli is Heller’s spouse). Writing as a book designer, I can’t say it’s success. It tired my eye to read which is why I bailed. That written, tons of color photos and examples of work. So there’s that in the plus column.

What I did read was fascinating enough. It certainly described the possibilities for self-invention in a not-yet-entirely “financialized” New York in the late 60s/early 70s. There was still transgressive grit, protest on the right side of history, a nascent punk rock scene, ground zero for art and opportunity before the computer leveled the landscape of possibility and everyone’s tool became a brushed aluminum enclosure and a screen of various dimension. (Ick.) Imagine the pre-digital world with thousands of different ways of making design and illustration, dozens of ways of getting ink on paper, and myriad possibilities untethered to a SaS subscription.

Interestingly, Heller was mentored by, and at times teamed with, the illustrator Brad Holland whose work I’ve been familiar with since the early 80s pouring over back-issues of “Communication Arts” as an ad intern. I’m probably in the 2% that would recognize that Holland it seems was a fan of Leonard Baskin. Several of his illustrations shown in the book are less a “nod” to Baskin’s line work, than direct stylistic copies of LB’s grotesque, chimeric imagery. Huh.

Well, so maybe Centaur makes sense? Baskin and the Western Mass. Fine Press scene at the same time were heavily reliant on Centaur, and certainly Gehenna was (along with Palatino). Is there a thread there? Eh, probably not.

Anyway, there you go. Interesting content if poorly presented. Lots of good pictures. show less

I'm a long-time fan of Gorey, but had no idea about his long career designing books for other authors. I feel I ought to have realised—his John Bellairs' covers are so obviously his—but somehow I failed to make the mental leap. And as I pored through the book, I noticed cover after cover of book that I'd owned, or read—Lermontov's A Hero of Our Time, or deCoulange's The Ancient City, where the cover is really the only thing I remember about it, but I would never have known they were show more his.

The short text at the beginning is adequate, but a fuller volume with more discussion would have appealed to me (if not to all). I was pleased to learn about Gorey's debt to Edward Ardizzione, if only because it reminded me who Edward Ardizzione is ... in my opinion, the high-water mark of Children's book illustration (I prefer gentle and illustrative to showy and garish) are his charming black-and-whites, as well as those of Pat Marriott (for Joan Aiken's novels), Pauline Baynes, Garth Williams, and Robin Jacques. (Maurice Sendak is a genius and in his own category!)

Several of the books illustrated were unknown to me, but looked like my kind of thing—so now I've also found a new source of reading material, as apparently the editor of Anchor Books and I have similar taste.

(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s). show less

Really, this is less an 'art book' than social commentary in pictures. Sometimes the 'angry' side overwhelms any sense of logic and results in some amusing images. Here's an example: a poster showing a Charles Manson (looking alarmingly like Viggo Mortenson) with the caption, 'IF SOCIETY CAN PROVIDE HOUSING FOR A MAN LIKE THIS, CAN'T WE DO MORE FOR THE HOMELESS?' Consider, for a moment, what the practical consequences would be if Reagan and/or Bush had decided to remedy this.