With the 4.5 hour “Dear Class of 2020” project yesterday, graduation season has largely come to a close. But just because schools had to go virtual and improvise this year, that doesn’t mean they were short on brilliant speakers and powerful messages. Here are five design school commencements and celebrations we appreciated—and some others thrown in for posterity. Savannah College of Art & Design, featuring Alicia Keys and Rachel Brosnahan University of the Arts, featuring Nj

The magnetic power of Poster House NYC to acquire special collections is getting stronger by leaps and bounds. A recent donation to Poster House from the School of Visual Art (SVA) consists of 98 of its Subway Series posters dating back to 1996, including works by Milton Glaser, Gail Anderson, Mirko Ilic (who in 2013 initiated a traveling exhibition of SVA Subway posters to 44 locales around the globe), Louise Fili, Marshall Arisman, and Paula Scher, among many others. These

I was walking to an early appointment at 7 a.m. on East 76 Street off Madison Avenue on a late July morning, when I was surprised to see Kevin O’Callaghan, the chair of the 3D Design Department at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) (where I work), so far up town. Almost a decade ago, Kevin designed my SVA Masters Series Exhibition and dozens more incredible conceptual SVA exhibits collected in his book Monumental : The Reimagined World of Kevin O’Callaghan (Abrams), for which I

Rome may look like this today but by May it will have warm air, sunny skies and hot type. So join us for the SVA Masters Workshop Design Rome, a typography and design workshop. This is our tenth year in the Eternal City where type new and old, classic and modern reign supreme. Apply now and enjoy the beginning of summer with a fabulous Italian faculty including Louise Fili, The Daily Heller and Lita Talarico. Poster by Louise Fili. The advantages of winning PRINT’s RDA stretc

By: Steven Heller | October 28, 2017 Kevin O’Callaghan, master artist, craftsman and teacher of 3D illustrative spectaculars, presents “One-of-a-Kind Luxury on Madison Avenue” (Oct. 20 through Nov. 15). The environmental design show celebrates the unique products and services found on the Avenue’s stores that makes it a shopping destination unlike any other retail experience in the world. Students from the School of Visual Art’s 3D department designed an outdoor exhibition of

The Complete Typographer, a program from School of Visual Arts, is no exaggeration (I hope). This online Kadenze program covers the history, geometry, terminology and technique of both handwritten and digital typography, all while preparing you for a career in the design field. This program is taught by seven professors from SVA, with cameo interviews featuring designers, typographers and type designers (including Gail Anderson, Deb Bishop, Dan Rhatigan and more). The introdu

[Call for Entries: The International Design Awards] One big factor that sets apart Arlen Schumer’s presentations on comics from the others is his acute understanding of graphic design. His delivery—like the superhero stories he’s discussing—is a dynamic synergy of words and images, of form and function. Mix that together with a heaping helping of contemporary “more is more” postmodernism—more on that in a minute—and voila: “VisuaLectures.” The view from the audience as Arlen

Marshall Arisman has been an illustrator, painter, sculptor, novelist, storyist, filmmaker and teacher. He’s also one of my oldest friends (I knew him when I was 17; he threw me out of SVA when I was 18 and asked me to teach in his MFA illustration program when I was 19). He is an artists’ artist. He is a seer and visionary. He is a master maker and thinker. On Aug. 22 his retrospective Marshall Arisman: An Artist’s Journey From Dark to Light, 1972–2017, curated by Francis Di

The SVA MFA Designer as Author + Entrepreneur program presents VENTURE 17, the annual forum where design entrepreneurs pitch their new wares. Join me for a fantastic experience on Tuesday, April 11. Doors open at 12:30 p.m., and the event starts promptly at 1 p.m. @ SVA Theatre 333 West 23rd. The 2017 PRINT RDA: Extended Deadline. Enter Now! Enter the most respected competition in graphic design—now open to both pros and students—for a chance to have your work published, win

There are still a couple of spots available for our ninth annual Rome Summer Typography & Design Workshop (June 11–25). It is a wonderful way to learn about the history and practice of type, epigraphy and inscriptions, while soaking in the majesty that is this beautiful city. Learn more about the program here. If you are considering joining, contact mfadesign@sva.edu immediately. And while you’re deciding, review some projects by our past participants below (click the images

School of Visual Arts: Underground Posters Let’s be real about advertising for a moment. In the digital age, we’re constantly bombarded with click-bait ads and promotional videos. Audiences are becoming more sensitive to these efforts, ad blockers are on the rise, and in 2017 we can expect advertising to continue its trend toward the hyper-personalized. People want human-centric design. But for the School of Visual Arts in New York City, that has never been an issue. Soon aft

Thursday night’s opening of “Louise Fili: The Masters Series” at The School of Visual Arts (209 E. 23rd St., New York City), was packed with attendees walking through the simulated Parisian and Italian streets, through the vintage storefronts and into the spaces that, like 19th-century tableau vivant, showed a life’s work of typographic elegance, historical acuity and fervent devotion to beautiful and functional graphic design, packages, logos, signs, wood type and, of course

Certain cultures honor and respect its elders for their knowledge and experience. The graphic designer tribe, not so much. What’s new, what’s hot, what’s trending: on it! Regardless, we now have 20 Over 80: Conversations on a Lifetime in Architecture and Design. 20 Over 80 is a collection of new and original interviews with twenty of the most successful and acclaimed post-80 seniors in the visual arts, most of whom continue to be significant movers and shakers, a couple of wh

Saluting the work of Good Samaritans over the past 100 years, “Help is on the Way!” is a satirical “museum” of vehicles designed in an attempt to help others. Students were asked to choose a mode of transportation and create a vehicle that could “deliver help” in some way. Accompanying the vehicles are fictitious stories of kindness composed of archival photographs from the past century. Select vehicles in the exhibition include a 1956 hot dog vendor’s cart, a Harley Davidson

Mirko Ilic’s latest SVA NYC posters are an optical freak-out: Produced in three fluorescent colors, this op-art mashup reveals itself when you least expect it. Up close the wild pattern is the dominant image. Don’t blink or you’ll have a psychotic reaction. But when far away … Zap! Now you see it! Poster design: Mirko Ilic for School of Visual Arts. AD: Michael Walsh. CD: Anthony Rhodes. Copy Writer: Steven Heller. PRINT’s Summer 2015 Issue: Out Now! The New Visual Artists ar

I have collaborated with Viktor Koen on two different series of SVA NYC posters. The most recent is up in the underground until May 31. Here’s what SVA has to say: Each poster of the pair’s latest series features a head/hand holding a particular artistic implement and surrounded by an array of additional creative tools, a way of communicating the wide range of courses that SVA offers as well as celebrating the infinite means of expression that are available to creative types

If you love studying, discussing and making design, you won’t be lovelorn this summer. All the transcendent riches of Rome plus the leading experts on Roman typography and graphic design are yours at our 7th annual Rome Summer Typography and Design Workshop. Give yourself a Roman holiday. Experience everything from vernacular signage to letterpress to the Roman letter. Meet new friends and share the passion of our faculty. “The lasting impression of seeing, touching and learn

This article from Grids + Guides in Print’s International Design Issue takes a brief look at the SVA 26th Masters Series Award recipient, Tom Geismar. Pick up an issue today for more design news, including advice from Geismar. Plus, take an in-depth look at graffiti across the world, Cuban poster design and more. Subscribe today and never miss another issue. Geismar Gets His Due Tom Geismar is a living legend. He’s created more than 100 identity systems for clients such as Mo

Designing for Someone Other Than Yourself World Studio‘s Mark Randall has been directing SVA’s Summer residency Impact: Design for Social Change, This year he is offering two chances to make an impact: One Week Focus: June 22 – 27, 2014 Implementing Impact! the Business of Social Design is a new one-week intensive workshop that will focus on the business of social design by exploring critical topics in hands-on modules ranging from analysis, marketing, management and operatio

Ventura’s Visual Voice Paolo Ventura, whose work I have written about many times in this blog, has produced one of his fantastical gems for the Edizioni Corraini series Un Sedicesimo (#34). “The Napoleonic Soldier and Other Stories” is a conceptual tour de force yet haunting in its subtlety. Ventura constructs three stories from each four to six photos, where he plays the protagonist. Known for his noir miniatures of war and ’30s intrigue, he’s now using himself and other act