We are lucky that Warren Lehrer didn’t heed his Queens College Art School drawing instructor’s advice that words and images operate in two different languages and hemispheres of the brain, so don’t combine them. Instead, Lehrer took from that his mission in life.

He doesn’t see himself as a designer or author in the traditional sense. But with his background in visual arts, words on the page have always married with the content. Steven Heller described Lehrer’s aptitude as performative design—creating stages for text to play.

And what gorgeous stages Jericho’s Daughter and Riveted in the Word are! The double release was serendipitous rather than planned. Both projects are based on short stories, have bifurcated formats (that dichotomy again), are led by visuals, and illuminate women whose lives have been torn apart and have to start over from scratch.

Our conversation was full of design geekery, like Do Si Do bindings, translating the reading experience into coding language, and storyboarding. There was also a rich discussion of the collaboration behind both books: Lehrer’s process with artist Sharon Horvath for Jericho’s Daughter and how words came together with music (composer Andrew Griffin) in the interface (designed by creative technologist  Artemio Morales) in Riveted in the Word.

Both books are available for presale. Riveted in the Word is sold through the Apple App Store (searchable under ‘book apps’). You can purchase Jericho’s Daughter through Earsay Publishing.

There are a bunch of upcoming book launch events (more info on Warren Lehrer’s website). If you are in NYC, you are invited to the May 31 double book launch at the Center for Book Arts.

Register here to watch the entire discussion.

For more, listen to Debbie’s 2019 Design Matters interview with Warren Lehrer.

It’s a two-fer at our next PRINT Book Club! Warren Lehrer, winner of the Ladislav Sutnar Prize for his pioneering work and lifetime achievement in Visual Literature and Design, will be on hand to preview two new books: the beautifully conceived Jericho’s Daughter and Riveted in the Word, a new kind of ebook.

Debbie Millman and Steven Heller will chat with Lehrer about these gorgeous stories, both told with bifurcated structures revealing lives torn apart and beginning anew.

Jericho’s Daughter is an anti-war, feminist reimagining of the biblical tale of Rahab, the Canaanite “harlot” who lived in a mud hut inside the outer brick wall of Jericho. One of only a few characters who appear in the Old and New Testaments, Rahab is lauded by both Jews and Christians as a reformed sinner and a symbol of faith. Lehrer places Rahab center stage, revealing a very different perspective of the enigmatic character and the meaning of her story. The beautifully produced, full-color book is illuminated with original images and objects created by Sharon Horvath. Given the horrific situation in Israel and Gaza, Rahab’s call to end the cycle of war and death takes on important urgency. A percentage of the proceeds from Jericho’s Daughter will go to Women Wage Peace, the largest grassroots peace movement in Israel.

EarSay is publishing Jericho’s Daughter simultaneously with Lehrer’s first fully electronic book, Riveted in the Word, inspired by the true story of a writer’s hard-fought battle to regain language after a devastating stroke. Written and designed by Warren Lehrer, this multimedia book app places the reader inside the mind of a retired history professor as she recalls her journey with Broca Aphasia. The custom interface toggles between columns of text that readers navigate at their own pace, and animated sections that evoke gaps between perceptions (thoughts, memories, desires) and the words needed to communicate. This deeply moving story about overcoming seemingly insurmountable obstacles is told in a dynamic new way, with kinetic typography and an original soundtrack by composer, multi-instrumentalist Andrew Griffin, programmed by Artemio Morales.

Warren Lehrer is a writer, lecturer, publisher, and speaker. His essays on design authorship, visual literature, and design education have been widely reproduced. He has been written about in scores of books and in many feature articles and reviews in print and broadcast media. Lehrer is a founding faculty member of the Designer As Author & Entrepreneur MFA program at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in NYC, and Professor Emeritus at the School of Art+Design at Purchase College, SUNY, where he Chaired the Design program for many years.

Over the last few years, Lehrer has been setting stories and text into animation, video, and interactive media. He’s also been collaborating with select poets visualizing their writing into books, animation, and live performance events.

Don’t miss our conversation with Warren Lehrer on Thursday, May 16 at 4 PM ET. Register for the live stream discussion. Links to buy Jericho’s Daughter and Riveted in the Word coming soon!

The first edition of Thinking with Type was published in 2004. Since then, it has remained a must-have resource for anyone passionate about typography and design. The latest edition features new and additional voices, examples and principles, and a wider array of typefaces.

A clear advocate for the culture of yes, Lupton talks about the ever-evolving field of typography from a deep historical appreciation to our current cultural context. She also shares some keen insights about aesthetics, why hanging punctuation marks look so much better than unstyled punctuation mixing typefaces, and the process of mixing typefaces to complement one another like wine and cheese.

If you missed the live stream and are thirsty for more type talk, you can register here to watch the discussion.

Don’t own a copy of Thinking with Type? You can order one here.

At our next PRINT Book Club, Debbie Millman and Steven Heller will chat with beloved design educator Ellen Lupton about the new edition of her seminal book, Thinking With Type.

Lupton’s bestselling book is an essential guide to using typography in visual communication for everyone: designers, writers, editors, students, anyone who works with words on page or screen, and enthusiasts of type and lettering. Now in it’s third edition (March 2024), Thinking With Type has been expanded to include:

• More fonts: old fonts, new fonts, weird fonts, libre fonts, Google fonts, Adobe fonts, fonts from independent foundries, and fonts and lettering by women and BIPOC designers
• Introductions to diverse writing systems, contributed by expert typographers from around the world
• Demonstrations of basic design principles, such as visual balance, Gestalt grouping, and responsive layout
• Current approaches to typeface design, including, variable fonts and optical sizes and tips for readability, legibility, and accessibility
• Stunning reproductions from the Letterform Archive

Thinking with Type is to typography what Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time is to physics.

I Love Typography

Ellen Lupton is a designer, writer, and educator. In addition to Thinking With Type, her other books include Design Is Storytelling, Graphic Design Thinking, Health Design Thinking, and Extra Bold: A Feminist, Inclusive, Anti-Racist, Nonbinary Field Guide for Graphic Designers. She teaches in the Graphic Design MFA program at Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore (MICA), where she serves as the Betty Cooke and William O. Steinmetz Design Chair. She is Curator Emerita at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York City, where her exhibitions included Herbert Bayer: Bauhaus Master and The Senses: Design Beyond Vision.

Don’t miss our conversation with Ellen Lupton, hosted by Debbie Millman and Steven Heller, on Thursday, April 25 at 4 PM ET! Register for the live stream discussion and visit our Bookshop.org shop to buy your copy of Thinking With Type.

Allen Ginsberg was one of the foremost minds of his generation. He was also a prolific collector. From his extensive archives at Standford, Pat Thomas worked with Peter Hale of Ginsberg’s estate to pull nearly ten thousand items for consideration. From this, Thomas narrowed it to 1,000 items encompassing Material Wealth: Mining the Personal Archive of Allen Ginsberg.

The three most remarkable pieces, according to Thomas, are a satire of Ginsberg’s Howl written by screenwriter Terry Southern (below); a transcript of a call between Ginsberg and Henry Kissinger about ending the war in Vietnam, one in which the famously exhibitionist Ginsberg suggests they discuss the issue naked on national television (below); and (not pictured), a letter from the American Nazi Party to Ginsberg about all the reasons they wanted to assassinate him: likely a “commie,” possibly gay, definitely a Jew.

The book is a collection of 600,000 words and 300 pages, yet it is also light (uncoated paper!). Andy Outis took us through the myriad of design decisions that give this book its singular aesthetics. He began the project by reading Howl aloud to internalize it (during the pandemic). Outis leaned heavily on 90s graphic design, specifically deconstruction, for inspiration in creating a book that was more than just the sum of its artifacts—the unique open spine, the leveraging of low-resolution scans with all the original scratches, dirt, and flaws, and the use of color. Outis also typeset the accompanying text on an Underwood 315 typewriter. From there, he scanned it, making the book’s pages look very much like archival material they hold.

Ginsberg was neither conventional nor conservative. So, Andy went for it …
It’s a work of art.

Pat Thomas on collaborating with Andy Outis, designer of Material Wealth

For those who find the intersection of history fascinating, Thomas has a beautiful sentiment about this very thing as it relates to Allen Ginsberg, Stonewall, and The Beatles about 38 minutes in. You’ll also hear a surprising admission from Steven Heller, who, as a young Ginsberg fan, stole a copy of Howl from Doubleday Book Shop (eventually returning it to the shelves after he read it).

Our conversation wound from music to poetry to design to politics to culture, so there’s something for everyone. Register here to watch the discussion.

Don’t own a copy of Material Wealth: Mining the Personal Archive of Allen Ginsberg? You can order one here.

At our next PRINT Book Club, Debbie Millman and Steven Heller will discuss the book, Material Wealth: Mining the Personal Archive of Allen Ginsberg with writer Pat Thomas and designer Andy Outis.

Pat Thomas is an author, historian, and archival music producer (and liner-note writer). His books have enlightened many on the cultural and musical zeitgeist of the sixties and seventies, with topics ranging from the Black Panthers to Jerry Rubin, photographer Les McCann, Lou Reed, Jack Kerouac, and more.

His latest book takes us through the personal archives of poet, activist, and prolific collector Allen Ginsberg, promising “an unprecedented look inside one of the most prolific poets and agitators of cultural mores of the 20th century.“

“A poster for Patti Smith’s first-ever poetry reading. Correspondence from Allen’s stint as literary agent for William S. Burroughs and Herbert Huncke. Yippie manifestos from Jerry Rubin, Abbie Hoffman, and John Sinclair of the MC5. A ticket for a 1974 concert by Bob Dylan & The Band (with Yoko Ono’s phone number scribbled on the back). Posters documenting early Beat Generation readings in 1950s San Francisco as well as later ones capturing the 1960s Haight-Ashbury Hippie era.“

These are just some of the treasures in the book, alongside photographs and ephemera in what is a “visual annotated compendium that reveals one of the unparalleled minds of his generation.”

Andy Outis, Material Wealth‘s designer, began his creative journey as a graffiti artist. Before founding his own practice, Shift7.Studio, Outis led the in-house agency for a group of national media brands and was the Creative Director of events and marketing at New York Media, where he led the team responsible for brand management and revenue-driving creative for New York magazine and its websites including Vulture and The Cut.

Don’t miss our conversation with Pat Thomas and Andy Outis, hosted by Debbie Millman and Steven Heller, on Thursday, March 28 at 4 PM ET! Register for the live stream discussion and buy your copy of Material Wealth.

The award-winning New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast has been places … a conversation with Henry Kissinger at the dentist … cradling an adoring Danny Devito like a baby … a terrifying convenience store named Stop and Chop … something about her mother finding O.J. Simpson’s glove and renting it out for parties. All of these dreams are fodder for her real-life cartoons.

I’m very happy to wake up and ask, where did I go last night?

Roz Chast

In a hilarious conversation with Debbie Millman and Steven Heller, Chast discusses her start in cartooning, why she sent in her work to the New Yorker (her parents subscribed), and why she loves cartoons and to-do lists, sometimes one-in-the-same (they are shorthand for conveying bigger things).

The illustrator talks about her process and why/when she draws on both paper and her iPad. Chast also offers pearls of wisdom from her more than 50 years as an artist, particularly when it comes to dealing with rejection and creative block.

If you missed the live stream, register here to watch the discussion.

Don’t own a copy of I Must Be Dreaming? You can order one here.

At our next PRINT Book Club, Roz Chast will join Debbie Millman and Steven Heller to discuss her new graphic novel, I Must Be Dreaming. Since its release in October, the book has been named:

A New Yorker Best Book of the Year


A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice


A Washington Post Best Graphic Book of the Year

Need more convincing?

In I Must Be Dreaming, the New York Times bestselling, award-winning New Yorker cartoonist (check out the recent issue’s cover) takes us into the surreal realms of her mind, to help us untangle the mystery of our dreams and nightmares.

Roz Chast continues what the Ancient Greeks, modern seers, Freud, Jung, neurologists, poets, artists, shamans have all tried: to decipher the mysterious phenomena of dreams. Chast illustrates her own dream world, a place that is sometimes creepy but always hilarious, accompanied by an illustrated tour through “Dream-Theory Land” guided by insights from poets, philosophers, and psychoanalysts alike. Illuminating, surprising, funny, and often profound, I Must Be Dreaming explores Roz Chast’s newest subject of fascination―and promises to make it yours, too.

It perhaps comes as no surprise that the cartoonist Roz Chast―into whose unique and zany mind readers of The New Yorker have peeked, via her instantly recognizable, beloved cartoons―has some weird dreams. Now, fans can see these dreams illustrated, along with an exploration into the history and meaning of dreams as we know them.

The New Yorker, “Best Books of the Year”

Don’t miss our conversation with Roz Chast, hosted by Debbie Millman and Steven Heller, on Thursday, February 15 at 4 PM ET! Register for the live stream discussion and buy your copy of I Must Be Dreaming.

Curiosity is fuel for writer, design critic, and thinker Rick Poynor. He feels a tug toward an issue, a question, or a dilemma, and he explores and tests his ideas systematically through the process of writing. Poynor’s background is in art history and he’s been writing about the broader visual culture for decades at publications such as Blueprint, Eye Magazine (a publication he co-founded), and PRINT. He’s written and contributed to more books than will fit on your nightstand.

The 46 essays in his latest book, Why Graphic Culture Matters, are essential reading.

Debbie Millman’s and Steven Heller’s conversation with Poynor lobbed some meaty philosophical considerations into the air. The first is the vital and disappearing culture of critical writing about design. Poynor believes we should seek out more than a surface-level showcase of our output—that the conversation around graphic design (as part of visual culture, which includes art and film) should be the roots, sources, and cultural reflections behind the work (work, here, meaning not just our commercial deliverables).

This led nicely into the second big topic of the day: that design shouldn’t only be a net to catch consumers. Our favorite part of the discussion came when Poynor talked candidly about the marketization and bland-ification of design—of our trying to find appeal across the maximum audience.

Why must [graphic design] be the boring craft? Our culture isn’t!

If you missed the live stream, register here to watch the discussion unfold.

Don’t own a copy of Why Graphic Culture Matters? You can order one here.

Start the new year with a thoughtful conversation on the state of design at our next PRINT Book Club! Design critic Rick Poynor will join Debbie Millman and Steven Heller to discuss his book, Why Graphic Culture Matters.

Why Graphic Culture Matters is a collection of 46 essays about graphic design and visual communication, written by Poynor, a non-designer deeply immersed in the practice of graphic communication. Many of these essays – speculative, questioning, sometimes controversial – were first published in PRINT (he was a columnist for 17 years).

What a fantastic, compulsive book. There’s just so much in it! Every page opens up new rabbit holes for me to go down.

Brian Eno

Poynor covers such topics as the commercial takeover of design, design criticism and history, the interplay of word and image, design celebrity, the enduring intimacy between art and design, and whether graphic design is still an apt term for what graphic communicators do.

Don’t miss this sure-to-be provocative conversation on Thursday, January 18 at 4 PM ET! Register for the live stream discussion and buy your copy of Why Graphic Culture Matters.

Images courtesy of Rick Poynor

For Edel Rodriguez politics is personal. As a child, he and his family fled Castro’s Cuba as part of the Mariel boatlift. Once settled in Miami, a young Rodriguez became fascinated with the Bill of Rights in school. His first adult job was working the New York Times op-ed page. As an illustrator, Rodriguez has always been in the business of political commentary, speaking truth to power through his art.

His truth unfolds in Worm: A Cuban American Odyssey.

The Cuban dictatorship was great about sending the ‘right’ kind of propaganda out into the world. I hope my book dispels some of this. A ‘hero’ like Che can be someone else’s oppressor.

Edel Rodriguez

Debbie Millman’s and Steven Heller’s recent conversation with Rodriguez covered a lot of ground, from how he devised Worm’s visual language to the reclaiming of a derogatory term as the title to the deeper philosophical reasons for why this book (and why now). Rodriguez also delves into the parallels between the Cuban Revolution and the January 6th insurrection. As for a future film adaptation (we’re calling it here!), he’d cast Pedro Pascale as his father.

If you missed the livestream, register here to watch the episode.

Don’t own a copy of Worm? You can order one here.

When challenged by his publisher to articulate 100 branding principles—it had to be one hundred (the book is part of a series with the number in the title, after all)—Mark Kingsley didn’t think it was possible. Two years later, with momentum behind him, Kingsley had done it.

Rather than principles, Kingsley thinks of the 100 nuggets in Universal Principles of Branding more as ethical admonishments, conversation starters, and what-ifs. And the “universal” banner? Kingsley and the publisher agreed to disagree. Because if you do brand work, you know tactics aren’t always the answer. Dogma doesn’t fly in a field that moves at the speed of culture.

Step off your position and just listen. Communication is THE METHOD.

Mark Kingsley

Debbie Millman’s and Steve Heller’s “brain stretching” conversation with Mark Kingsley often veered into philosophical territory, and we loved every minute of it. They covered Dapper Dan, The Simpsons, ‘Martha’ tables, Catholic propaganda, AI, and well, ‘yada yada.’ They might also have distilled down the difference between IDENTITY and BRAND. If you missed it, register here to watch the episode.

Don’t own a copy of Kingsley’s book? You can order one here.

We look forward to seeing you at our next PRINT Book Club with Edel Rodriguez on December 12.

Mark your calendars for our next PRINT Book Club. Artist and illustrator Edel Rodriguez, creator of over 200 magazine covers for publications such as The New Yorker, TIME, Newsweek, and Der Spiegel, will discuss his latest book with Debbie Millman and Steven Heller. 

Rodriguez’s work is singular, striking, and often controversial and his graphic memoir, Worm: A Cuban American Odyssey, is a stunning example. Rodriguez illustrates the story of his childhood in Cuba and his family’s decision in 1980 to join a hazardous flotilla of refugees, the Mariel boatlift. He uses his own experiences to capture what it’s like to grow up under an authoritarian government and sound an alarm for the future.

A sharply observed document of totalitarianism and its discontents—this gifted artist in particular.

Kirkus Reviews

Through vivid, stirring art, Worm tells a story of a Cold War boyhood, a family’s exile, and their tenacious longing for those they left behind. It also recounts the coming-of-age of an artist and activist who, witnessing America’s turn from democracy to extremism, struggles to differentiate his adoptive country from the dictatorship he fled. Confronting questions of patriotism and the liminal nature of belonging, Edel Rodriguez ultimately celebrates the maligned and overlooked immigrants who guard and invigorate American freedom.

Don’t miss this exciting talk on Tuesday, December 12 at 4 PM ET! Register for the livestream discussion and buy Worm: A Cuban American Odyssey by Edel Rodriguez.

Banner image: illustration from Worm: A Cuban American Odyssey. © Edel Rodriguez

For PRINT’s next livestream Book Club, Mark Kingsley will be in conversation with Debbie Millman and Steven Heller about his new book, Universal Principles of Branding. Register for our livestream and buy the book, here.

In Universal Principles of Branding, author Mark Kingsley deftly deconstructs the discipline of branding with intelligence, candor and a much-needed, remarkably original voice. In doing so, Kingsley has accomplished the impossible: he has created a book that finally—at long last—provides a confident, crystal clear, no-holes barred overview of what it really takes to create, define, build and deliver a brand.

Debbie Millman

Universal Principles of Branding presents 100 concepts, theories, and guidelines that are critical for defining, building, and delivering brands today.

 Richly illustrated and easy to navigate, this comprehensive reference pairs clear explanations of each principle with visual examples of it applied in practice. By considering these concepts and examples, you can learn to make more informed, and ultimately better, branding decisions.



Features diverse principles such as:

• Authenticity
• Social Responsibility
• World Building
• Gatekeepers
• Rituals and routine

Don’t miss this exciting talk on Thursday, November 30 at 4 PM ET! Register for the livestream and buy Kingsley’s book.

And stay tuned for information about the final PRINT Book Club of 2023, coming up on December 12!

Is Stefan Sagmeister the eternal optimist? Yes. But he believes that optimism makes rational sense. Many things in our current moment need fixing. Sagmeister’s philosophy and the thesis of his new book Now Is Better is that we have a much better chance of solving them from a headspace of progress and positivity than we do if we let ourselves succumb to doom and gloom.

The challenge of our time: figuring out how to make positive news interesting.

Stefan Sagmeister

In this conversation with Debbie Millman and Steven Heller, Sagmeister discussed the inspiration behind his new book, Now Is Better. It’s been generations in the making. The artwork foundation for the book’s data visualizations came from the leftovers of Sagmeister’s great-great grandparents’ antique store, sourced in his parents’ attic. That 18th- and 19th-century paintings serve as the canvas for contemporary data is a metaphorical and literal interpretation of his thesis. When Sagmeister compares his life to his great-great grandparents, the data comes alive in a personal way alongside the personal history of his family.

For Sagmeister, Now Is Better isn’t just a familial story. It’s a global story told with cold, complex data about improvements in the lives of humans over the past 100 to 200 years. The art is there to provide a visual bridge. People can appreciate the painting for its aesthetics, but the data story is included on the back if people are curious about it.

Despite data telling us that things are better now than ever in human history, you might be skeptical, given the news cycle.

“If I’m in a good mood, I’m more useful to my community.

Stefan Sagmeister

What’s the cure for pessimism? You must override your amygdala, that part of our brain wired to latch onto perceived threats and keep us safe. Seeking the positive in an ocean of negative is hard work. One of Sagmeister’s favorite spots on the internet to send his amygdala packing is David Byrne’s Instagram editorial project @reasonstobecheerful.

If we can let in the positive, as designers and creatives, we’ll be able to put all of our might into working on solutions for the pressing challenges of our day.

Here are ten reasons for optimism from Now Is Better.

Don’t own a copy of Sagmeister’s book? You can order one here.

For PRINT’s next livestream Book Club, Stefan Sagmeister will be in conversation with Debbie Millman and Steven Heller about his new book, Now is Better.

Now is Better, as described by Phaidon:

Stefan Sagmeister’s newest project encourages long-term thinking and reminds us that many things in the world are improving. Sagmeister has created a book that looks at the state of the world today, illuminating, through collected data, how far we’ve come, and encouraging us to think about where we can go from here. Statistics are vividly brought to life, as numbers are transformed into graphs, inlaid into nineteenth-century paintings, embroidered canvases, lenticular prints, and hand-painted water glasses. The book includes a foreword from psychologist and leading authority on language and the mind, Steven Pinker; a featured essay by graphic designer and historian Steven Heller; and a conversation between Sagmeister and Hans Ulrich Obrist, curator and artistic director of Serpentine Galleries in London and will appeal to all visually minded readers, providing a positive reaction to the tumultuous news cycle of recent years. Now is Better is an intriguing and thoughtful visual meditation on our daily lives.

Don’t miss this exciting talk on Wednesday, October 25 at 4 PM ET! Register for the livestream and buy Sagmeister’s book.

Ever wonder what connects Dada to TikTok? Neville Brody does. His thoughts on this and more will expand your mind.

As a designer with origins borne in industrial and avant-garde music, it’s no surprise that Neville likens graphic design to jazz: an complex environment of improvisation enabled by the mastery of techniques and tools. There’s also no better metaphor than jazz about our discussion of his latest monograph.

Moderated by Debbie Millman and Steven Heller, our fascinating conversation with Neville bounced from the reasons for the thirty-year gap between his last monograph and The Graphic Language of Neville Brody 3 (“NB3”), to the six-year process of curating the work that went into this book, to why the visuals occupy the pages the way they do.

Neville was candid about AI’s role in the design process and why we must work towards reclaiming open digital spaces. We also learned exactly what was said in his tense-yet-clarifying interview with Steve Jobs.

Complex ideas don’t tend to have big audiences, but big ideas come from complex processes.

Neville Brody on why complex models are necessary

Be challenged, be inspired, and be wowed by watching the full interview here. If you haven’t yet purchased your copy of Neville’s incredible new book, The Graphic Language of Neville Brody 3, buy it here.

Our next PRINT Book Club will be a conversation with another design legend. Stay tuned for details!

For PRINT’s next livestream Book Club, Neville Brody will be in conversation with Debbie Millman and Steven Heller about his third monograph, The Graphic Language of Neville Brody 3, released earlier this year. Picking up where his 1994 second edition left off, Brody’s collaboration with writer and designer Adrian Shaughnessy is essential reading if you want to understand the evolution of design over the last 30 years.

For over four decades, this seminal designer, typographer, and brand strategist has received global acclaim for his ‘visual language,’ experimentation, and knack for pushing creative boundaries in all aspects of his practice.

Steven Heller called The Graphic Language of Neville Brody 3 an “ongoing history featuring work by one of the most innovative designers of Century 21.” Read his Daily Heller write-up and Angela Riechers’ review for a sneak preview, and don’t miss this exciting talk on Thursday, September 14 at 3 PM ET! Register for the call here and buy Brody’s book here.

Design offers so much more than an aesthetically pleasing logo, banner, or beautification add-on after the heavy lifting has been accomplished. In Reimagining Design, Kevin Bethune shows how design provides a unique angle on problem-solving and how it can be leveraged strategically to cultivate innovation and anchor multidisciplinary teamwork.

In the process, he describes his journey as a Black professional in corporate America, revealing the power of transformative design, multidisciplinary leaps, and diversity. Bethune, who began as an engineer at Westinghouse, moved on to Nike (where he designed Air Jordans), and now works as a sought-after consultant on design and innovation, showing how design can transform both individual lives and organizations.

In Bethune’s account, diversity, equity, and inclusion emerge as recurring themes. He shows how, as we leverage design for innovation, we also need to consider the broader ecological implications of our decisions and acknowledge the threads of systemic injustice in order to realize positive change. His book is for anyone who has felt like the “other,” as well as for allies who want to encourage anti-racist, anti-sexist, and anti-ageist behaviors in the workplace. Design transformation takes leadership: leaders who do not act as gatekeepers but, with agility and nimbleness, build teams that mirror the marketplace.

Design in harmony with other disciplines can be incredibly powerful, and multidisciplinary team collaboration is the foundation of future innovation. With insight and compassion, Bethune provides a framework for bringing this to life.

RSVP for our next Book Club on June 22 at 4 PM EST to learn all about Bethune’s refreshing story and mission.

Don’t yet own this book? Order your copy now and support small bookshops.

Milton Glaser’s designs changed the way we see the world.

Think you’ve seen all of Milton Glaser’s work? Even his archivist, Beth Kleber, was surprised while creating this book with Mirko Ilic and Steven Heller. In our latest PRINT Book Club, Debbie Millman interviewed Milton Glaser: POP authors Steven Heller, Mirko Ilic, & Beth Kleber. Watch their conversation on-demand here.

From 1954, when he co-founded the legendary Push Pin Studios, to the late ’70s, Milton Glaser was one of the most celebrated graphic designers of his day, whose work graced countless book and album covers, posters, magazine covers, and advertisements, both famous and little-known. Glaser largely defined the international visual style for illustration, advertising, and typeface design, and his legacy continues to influence modern creatives. For example, in 2014, Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner enlisted Glaser to design the ad campaign and branding for the show’s final season.

His renowned work garnered solo exhibitions at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. As the creator of the iconic ‘I Love NY’ logo (featuring a heart symbol in place of the word ‘love’) and cofounder of New York Magazine, Glaser received numerous accolades and lifetime achievement awards. Across thousands of works across all print media, he invented a graphic language of bright, flat color, drawing, and collage, imbued with wit. This collection of work from Glaser’s Pop period features hundreds of examples of his design that have not been seen since its original publication, demonstrating the graphic revolution that transformed design and popular culture.

Watch our latest PRINT Book Club meeting to hear the books’ authors discuss Glaser’s work during this period and the role it played in the ’60s and ’70s as Glaser invented a new standard for editorial and advertising art and typography.

Don’t own your own copy of Milton Glaser: POP yet? You can order one here.

Earlier this week, PRINT Book Club welcomed Dr. Elizabeth “Dori” Tunstall to discuss how we can challenge hierarchical structures in the design industry by replacing judgement, pain, and repression with equity, inclusion, and diversity. Her new book, Decolonizing Design, was the backdrop for a robust conversation about the processes by which institutions, instructors, and the rest of us can transform design theory and practice by bolstering creatives from oft-excluded cultures of BIPOC communities.

Dr. Tunstall is a leading figure in the movement to decolonize design, Dean of the Faculty of Design at Ontario College of Art and Design University (OCAD U), and the first Black (and Black female) dean of a design faculty anywhere in the world. As she spoke with Debbie Millman, Steve Heller, and an engaged audience, Dr. Tunstall shared her practical ideas, lived experiences, and extensive research to explain what decolonizing design means, how it heals, and how to practice it in our institutions today.

But this is just a taste of this exciting dialogue— you can learn more about Dr. Tunstall’s process and practice by registering for the on-demand PRINT Book Club here. For an even deeper dive into her groundbreaking ideas, you can purchase a copy of Decolonizing Design here.

Niemann produces scores of surprises without breaking a sweat or pencil point. Never content to cloak himself in a single method or style, he employs many—sometimes all at once. He makes the art director’s job a veritable holiday. Just give him a subject, and off he goes to his bat cave only to return, in what always seems to be (and often is) minutes (an hour if he’s in the middle of another job), with ideas that the average mortal would not—could not—have imagined.

This may sound like hyperbolic fanboy exuberance, but I exaggerate not (well, not entirely). I was reminded of this prowess during the Book Club when he showed one of his favorite ideas—one of the many he did for me, which is among the five best I have ever commissioned out of thousands from other great artists. But enough superlatives! Just look at what I mean:

Anyone with their eyes open and synapses firing can see that this simple, unadorned image is about a popularly held incontrovertible belief—right or wrong, left and right—in the sanctity of the 2nd Amendment guaranteeing a citizen’s right to bear arms. Yet it nonetheless goes further as a critical commentary about this widely held belief being much more than an essential constitutional right; it argues that these rights are so existentially inextricable to Americans that guns have evolved beyond law and ethos into biology and pathology, indeed the very structure of the nation’s anatomical self. There have been thousands of editorial images commenting, critiquing, protesting and supporting gun rights. Every time there is a mass shooting, the litany of clichés is rolled out of the cartoon arsenal. Some are clever, others are brutal, most are didactic. But none brings the fundamental issue home as clearly, cleverly and daringly as this. At the moment it was presented everyone who saw the rough sketch understood that the issue could not be expressed in a more bold or acerbic manner.

Niemann’s Idea Diary is a wellspring of intelligence, humor, play and the essence of ideation. This image shows how a powerful idea is invaluable. It also underscores an important lesson: Good ideas are valuable, great ideas are invaluable and super-powered ideas are invincible.

Recently, Debbie Millman and Steven Heller interviewed the grand master of the deceptively simple, Christoph Niemann, about his new artist book, IDEA DIARY. This self-published work from the author and designer’s artist-centric business Abstractometer Press features 240 pages of his wry visual observations. During PRINT Book Club, Niemann shared insights and told stories about the images he created and the processes he used to get ideas out of his head and onto the page.

While Niemann is known for his witty illustrative style, IDEA DIARY proves that it extends to the written word as well. You can see this immediately in his list of the ten rules that shape his idea drawings:

1. If the reader doesn’t think it’s funny, it’s not funny.
2. If I can act out the drawing on a stage with people and props, it’s usually not good enough.
3. If I can adequately explain the drawing over the phone, it’s usually not good enough.
4. An idea drawing is like solving a problem that I just invented. If the solution doesn’t, the problem might be the problem (and not the solution).
5. Start by getting the easy ones out of the system.
6. Any idea that pops into my head without drawing probably has popped into somebody else’s head.
7. It usually gets interesting when the drawing on paper doesn’t work as I had imagined in my head.
8. Feeling a little angry is bad for thinking but good for drawing.
9. I need 30 so I can kill 20 and end up with 10.
10. There’s always another idea.

But this is just the tip of the iceberg— you can learn all about Niemann’s process by registering for the on-demand Book Club here. If you wish to purchase this book (it comes signed and with a letterpress print) it can only be found on Niemann’s website here.

What does it mean to craft the life you want as you grow older? For author Ayse Birsel, the answer draws on key principles of design—like optimism, empathy, collaboration, open-mindedness, and holistic thinking—as well as the experiences of older people on the pioneering frontiers of long life.

For our recent PRINT Book Club, Debbie Millman and Steven Heller spoke with Ayse about her new book, Design the LONG Life You Love. In her book, Ayse explores how love, purpose, well-being, and friendship are the foundations that can provide meaning and impact in our lives. And, throughout the hour of Book Club, not only did we find out more about Ayse’s perspective, but also shared inspiration and ideas about how we can all find joy together.

You can be inspired as well by watching the full interview here. Stay tuned for more information about our next PRINT Book Club!

At last week’s PRINT Book Club, we had the distinct privilege of sitting down with the artist, author, designer, and educator Richard Poulin to discuss his new book, Rudolph de Harak: Graphic Designer: Rational Simplicity. This substantial retrospective is perfect for getting a clear picture of how the legendary designer’s style evolved over five decades, and it of course comes in a gorgeous package. In addition to collecting high quality photos of de Harak’s designs, this copiously researched work features in-depth essays about his influences, personal life, and what was going on in the world around him.

While we obviously could only cover so much in our hour with Poulin, he provided us with an extremely rich amuse-bouche for the book. In our talk, Poulin revealed why he’s so passionate about the designer and what inspired him to publish the book. He talked about how de Harak helped him make his debut in the design world during their nine years of working together, as well as the unconventional way they met. While Poulin dug deep into professional projects like de Harak’s Exploded Engine for Ford, he also told us about the artist’s coming of age in Astoria, New York alongside lifelong friend, musical legend, and secret watercolor expert Tony Bennett. Poulin talked about the jazzy fearlessness of de Harak’s work, why it was so revolutionary at the time, and why his influence is still so strong today.

Below, we’ve collected a few pictures from the book for a sneak preview, including de Harak’s striking, patriotic cover for a spring 1961 issue of PRINT! Click here to watch our full conversation with Poulin, and watch this space to find out what we’re covering in February!

If you don’t immediately recognize the name Rudolph de Harak, you’ve definitely seen his work before. This midcentury icon managed to make simple, minimal design feel playful and innovative with his use of bright colors and psychedelic textures. He brought his unique vision to the covers of groundbreaking psychology books, covetable classical record sleeves, and even Seventeen magazine, where he served as Art Director for over a year. In his five decades of work, de Harak made significant strides in the field of graphic design and influenced countless imitators.

But what made de Harak tick? Who were his favorite artists, and how did his style evolve over time? Artist, author, designer, and educator Richard Poulin unpacks everything you’d ever want to know about this titan in his new book Rudolph de Harak: Graphic Designer: Rational Simplicity. In our latest edition of PRINT Book Club, we’ll have the distinct pleasure of talking to Poulin about the artist and why his work still feels so inventive today.

Don’t miss the chance to dive into design history with an expert of the form on Thursday, January 26 at 1 PM EST! You can preview images from the book below, register for the call here and buy Poulin’s book here.

Have you ever wondered how malls got to be so ubiquitous? Are you intrigued by their widespread closure? Who still goes to malls, and what are their future?

Curbed architecture critic Alexandra Lange dived into all of this and more in last week’s PRINT Book Club, where she sat down with Debbie Millman and Steven Heller to discuss Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall. In this book, Lange unpacks the surprisingly long history of a modern institution and why it plays such a large role in how the average American city operates.

Lange revealed all kinds of wild facts about the mall in her talk— like did you know malls are 70 years old? Or that Santa has always been a fixture of them around the holidays? Did you know that the vast majority of an average mall’s land is devoted to parking space? Lange goes into detail about a wide range of surprising influences for the mall we know today, like playgrounds, The World’s Fair, and European streets.

If you missed out on the discussion when it happened, no need to fret! We’ve got a recording of the whole thing below. If you want to learn more about Alexandra Lange’s exciting research, you can buy a copy of Meet Me by the Fountain online or wherever books are sold.

Our first meeting of 2023 will take place on January 19th at 1 PM Eastern, when we’ll talk to Richard Poulin about his work on iconic graphic designer Rudolph de Harak. Watch this space for our official announcement, and don’t miss our Book Club meetings on the third Thursday of every month!

Historian Kenneth T. Jackson once wrote, “the Egyptians have pyramids, the Chinese have a great wall, the British have immaculate lawns, the Germans have castles, the Dutch have canals, the Italians have grand churches. And Americans have shopping centers.” In her new book Meet Me By The Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall (Bloomsbury), design critic Alexandra Lange unpacks the rise, fall, and future of this iconic American social mecca and consumer playground. For PRINT’s third livestream Book Club, Lange will discuss the design impact of shopping malls and their consequence on the American psychology and economy.

Other books by the critic and historian include The Design of Childhood: How the Material World Shapes Independent Kids (2018) and Writing About Architecture: Mastering the Language of Buildings and Cities (2012). She was a Loeb Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and received a publication grant from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts. She has taught design criticism at the School of Visual Arts Masters in Design Crit program and New York University.

Don’t miss this exciting talk with a design expert this Thursday at 1 PM ET! Register for the call here and buy Lange’s book here.

Mauro Porcini has racked up some pretty impressive titles over the years. The PepsiCo Senior Vice President is also the company’s first ever Chief Design Officer, and GQ once named him one of the 30 Best Dressed Men in the World. He’s worked around the world, managed teams of all different sizes, and lived a rich life, and he’s put everything it’s taught him onto paper in his new book, The Human Side of Innovation: The Power of People in Love with People.

Yesterday, PRINT‘s own Debbie Millman and Steven Heller got up close and personal with Porcini to learn all about the how and why of his book. Porcini revealed that this “love story about design” is a collection of tips he wished someone would’ve told him; things he wrote with his daughter and coworkers in mind.

Porcini also spoke about why COVID was instrumental to his writing process, why he sees design as an act of love, and why true innovation is human-centered above all. He gives a bounty of helpful professional advice, like how to navigate sustainability, the necessity of kindness in any work environment, and the importance of compassionate audience engagement.

If you missed out, don’t fret! You can watch the conversation in full here and order Porcini’s book here. We’ll be announcing our next Book Club pick for December soon!

From a traumatic haircut to a slew of great (and not so great) roles as an art director— well, everywhere— Steve Heller shared personal stories from his long, illustrious creative career at yesterday’s inaugural meeting of the PRINT Book Club. Debbie Millman helmed the discussion for readers around the world.

Heller’s new book, Growing Up Underground, is no ordinary memoir. It’s a coming-of-age tale about his colorful youth, surrounded and inspired by the ’60s and ’70s creatives who were riding the waves of beatnik, hippie, and punk counterculture.

Heller vulnerably, humorously reflected on memorable moments from his career, beginning with stints at The New York Free Press, The New York Review of Sex, and The New York Times Op-Ed page, where he was the youngest art director in the publication’s history.

If you happened to miss yesterday’s conversation, you can sit in on the recorded Book Club here, and order your own copy of Growing Up Underground here.

In the meantime, watch this space for more information about next month’s meeting. We’ll dive into The Human Side of Innovation: The Power of People in Love with People, by PepsiCo SVP & Chief Design Officer Mauro Porcini.

It may seem like an obvious pick, but we’re kicking off the inaugural PRINT Book Club with Steven Heller’s new memoir, Growing Up Underground: A Memoir of Counterculture New York. While you don’t have to have the book on hand to join, you can buy your own copy before the event on Amazon (we earn a teeny-tiny commission to support the Book Club), or wherever you love to buy books.

In our first meeting, Debbie will talk to the award-winning designer, writer, and former Senior Art Director at The New York Times about his deeply entertaining coming-of-age memoir. Growing Up Underground takes readers on a visually-inspired look back on being at the center of New York’s youth culture in the 1960s and ’70s, featuring 100 immersive color photographs.

Register here and join the Book Club on October 25, 2022, at 4 PM EST on Zoom— no membership fees required!