Daily Heller - Print Magazine

Noir is Dark: Black Scat Publishing

Black Scat Publishing is responsible for visual and literary books, including “Nickle Noir: the Art of John Nickle”. Founder Norman Conquest provides insight into his evolution in the publishing world. “There’s nothing wrong with digital books, mind you, but only as a convenience. An accessory. Not a replacement!” he says.

The Faces of Clarendon, The Typeface

Clarendon — a thick-faced condensed type with heavy serifs — first appeared in the 1930s. See the many ways this typeface can be worn.

The Paradox of Juxtaposition

Poster stamps were used to advertise and commemorate things, people, events and, of course, products and services. These particular poster stamps are a curious amalgam of politics, government, history, tea and irony.

Marks on China

Despite the crudity of ledger pages, these marks — china pattern maker logos — exude a design elegance consistent with the era in which they were made.

Weekend Heller: Lustig Cards, Travel Porn, Recovering Classics

New Directions, the publisher for who Alvin Lustig produced many covers, is coming out with new editions of IN THE AMERICAN GRAIN, THE PRINCESS OF CLEVES, or SEASON IN HELL. In conjunction they are also offing a box of 50 …

Run It Up the Totem Pole and See Who Salutes

Have you ever thought about the totem pole as environmental signage before the age of the advertising towers? View these conceptual totem pole designs featured in SVA’s “Tall Tales” exhibit, through May 25.

Dubious Typeface For Sale

Signal is a German script typeface, designed in 1931 by Walter Wege for H. Berthold AG in Berlin. It was inspired by brush script created in the late 1920s and rooted in the sachplakat aesthetic of the time. In 1932, …

The Jacket Racket: Vintage Book Cover Design

The first book or dust jacket protected bindings from the corrosive effects of the elements. Later it was used to advertise the contents of a book and was routinely discarded before it was entombed on the bookshelf. Interior book designers …

Cheeky Chick: The Chick-fil-A Corporate Presence

Being a New Yorker, I did not know about or ever heard the name Chick-fil-A before the corporation’s president Dan Cathy made his public comments opposing same-sex marriage. So, when the opportunity presented itself during a recent trip to LA, …

The Cave

My son, NIcolas Heller (a.k.a. Ricky Shabazz) recently directed and edited a short interpretive video about the apartment where I keep benign, volatile and explosive artifacts of design and commercial media that I use in some of my books on …