Steven Heller

Although I wasn’t aware of it until now, I acquired a portion of my designer’s instinct to critique the quality and effectiveness of logos from an introduction to automobile marques. While passing the time on long drives, as a passenger in my dad’s 1958 two-tone Buick—with its marque of triple shields in a chrome circle—I’d try to guess the make and model of other cars on the road (something I still do 60 years later) by looking at their logos. I got pretty good at recognizing particular enigmatic tags, too. This was the period when many autos were simply fun to look at; when they had aerodynamic tail fins that made them look like space ships, in addition to futuristic names that were style into chrome script letters. Marques could also be abstract pattern designs and distorted letterforms affixed onto a hood or grill.

Please take a few minutes today to wish Seymour Chwast good wishes on his 95th birthday.

Mixing culture and consumption with childhood desire.

Take a pull off of vintage cigarette packaging.

Steven Heller on his final interview with the legend.

Art was a weapon and tool of resistance and enlightenment during the interwar years of 20th-cenutry America.

Gary Taxali has found 100 new ways to employ the flag for critical commentary.

American illustration is not without legendary artists who influenced and defined their times and thereafter. When Brad Holland unexpectedly passed away in spring 2025, age 81, he was among the legends. He left a wealth of paintings, drawings, sketches and comic texts requiring months to rescue, preserve and organize (and the process continues). His family, friends, fans and connoisseurs discussed the necessity of a major memorial exhibition—but how could this be accomplished in a short amount of time? His former assistant and friend, illustrator Jonathan Twingley, organized an advisory committee, assumed the role of co-curator along with Stephanie Plunket and Tyson Skross. They are committed to mounting

A new documentary short explores a summer camp's printing program.

This has been a terribly sad week. Now departed are individuals who have broadened the culture while making their individual marks. Of these, the passing of artist Yayoi Kusama at 97 hits closest to me. Although I only became aware of her art world reputation in the early 2000s, I knew her, so to speak, when she was a young audacious “happening” artist in New York during the late 60s.