Steven Heller, Graphic Design’s Biggest Fan, to be Honored In SVA Exhibition

The world’s most prolific design writer, recently-named Design Observer, and subject of much obsession here on the old UnBeige, Steven Heller will be honored with SVA’s Masters Series Award, including an exhibition and catalog of his work that sounds like quite the spectacle:

Curated and designed by Kevin O’Callaghan, chair of 3D Design at SVA, the exhibition highlights the inspiration and collaboration behind Heller’s many achievements as a writer and art director. On view will be over 100 covers of The New York Times Book Review that Heller art directed and a visual anthology of his major publications, with select volumes available to peruse…Nearby, visitors will be able to browse Heller’s many contributions to American and foreign periodicals at a full-scale replica of a New York City newsstand. The centerpiece of the multimedia display will be a larger-than-life photo montage of Heller’s library with recorded commentary about his collection of design ephemera and its role in his research and writing. In a series of video podcasts specially commissioned for the exhibition, Heller will discuss design in the context of popular culture, politics and history.

Whew! Heller joins SVA’s long list of luminaries that includes people named things like Saul Bass, Milton Glaser, George Lois, Paul Rand, Massimo Vignelli, and Paula Scher, who coined the phrase we want made into t-shirts: “Steven Heller has been graphic design’s biggest fan.”

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