Uploaded June 2022 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Steven is graphic designer, art director, design critic and author. He has held the position of senior art director at New York Times Book Review and is also a prolific writer, having authored and co-authored over 200 books about the history and practice of typography, illustration, graphic design, popular culture and propaganda. He also worked as an editor for the prestigious AIGA Journal of Graphic Design.
He is the co-founder and co-chair (with Lita Talarico) of the MFA Designer as entrepreneur program at the School of Visual Arts in New York, where he lectures on the history of graphic design and teaches a writing class in SVA Design Writing, Research and Criticism. He also was co-director for ten years of SVA’s Modernism & Eclecticism: A History of American Graphic Design symposiums.
With Seymour Chwast, he co-founded Push Pin Editions, a packager of visual books, including the forthcoming "Hell: The People & Places" illustrated by Chwast; and with his wife Louise Fili he has produced over twenty books and design products for Chronicle Books, PA Press and other publishers.
Steven is the recipient of the Smithsonian Institution National Design Award for "Design Mind," the AIGA Medal for Lifetime Achievement, among other honors. And in 2017, the annual Steven Heller Prize for Cultural Commentary was created to spotlight individuals who best exemplify the tradition of prolific writing and boundless curiosity.
In Fall 2022 his book, "Growing Up Underground: A Memoir Of Counterculture New York" will be published by PA Press.
Steven is graphic designer, art director, design critic and author. He has held the position of senior art director at New York Times Book Review and is also a prolific writer, having authored and co-authored over 200 books about the history and practice of typography, illustration, graphic design, popular culture and propaganda. He also worked as an editor for the prestigious AIGA Journal of Graphic Design.
He is the co-founder and co-chair (with Lita Talarico) of the MFA Designer as entrepreneur program at the School of Visual Arts in New York, where he lectures on the history of graphic design and teaches a writing class in SVA Design Writing, Research and Criticism. He also was co-director for ten years of SVA’s Modernism & Eclecticism: A History of American Graphic Design symposiums.
With Seymour Chwast, he co-founded Push Pin Editions, a packager of visual books, including the forthcoming "Hell: The People & Places" illustrated by Chwast; and with his wife Louise Fili he has produced over twenty books and design products for Chronicle Books, PA Press and other publishers.
Steven is the recipient of the Smithsonian Institution National Design Award for "Design Mind," the AIGA Medal for Lifetime Achievement, among other honors. And in 2017, the annual Steven Heller Prize for Cultural Commentary was created to spotlight individuals who best exemplify the tradition of prolific writing and boundless curiosity.
In Fall 2022 his book, "Growing Up Underground: A Memoir Of Counterculture New York" will be published by PA Press.
