Steven heller on pop culture and graphic design.
He’s the art director at The New York Times, the author of more than 130 books and writes the blog The Daily Heller for Print Magazine’s website. Nary a book on design can be published nowadays without an introduction written by him. I’m talking, of course, about Steven Heller, who’s work reaches every dusty corner of the design world. He was recently on the Faith Middleton Show talking about the Nazi’s interest in graphic design – kind of a no-brainer if you’ve ever seen Nazi propaganda posters. I’m not sure if Nazi font choice counts as pop culture, but Heller does make some interesting points where that’s concerned.
“Pop culture is often maligned as fleeting, but history shows that sometimes what is pop in one culture has time-honored resonance in later ones. This book is an attempt to show that pop culture, especially as seen through the lenses of design, illustration, satiric and political art (and other things), is integral to a broader understanding of who we are and where we are going.”—Steven Heller, from the Introduction of “Pop: How Graphic Design Shapes Popular Culture”
How do popular culture and graphic design influence one another? What are the goals of design? Are they to sell? To package? To entertain? The answers to these questions are complicated and are intimately tied to the effect design has on the overall culture. POP is the first book to analyze the role of graphic design in the broader culture, as well as the impact of design on other art and entertainment forms, from album covers to baseball stadiums.
