Steven Heller

In 2008, Heller co-founded the MFA in design criticism program (D-Crit) with Alice Twemlow. The program was intended to help non-designers find a place in the design field. As of 2019, His on the faculty of the School of Visual Arts as co-chair of the MFA Design Department, special assistant to the president, and co-founder of the MFA Design Criticism, MPS Branding, MFA Interaction Design, MFA Products of Design programs. Heller's pupils have included Deborah Adler.

In 2007, he began transition from his 30 year career at the New York Times. The changes created a lot of stress, and his Parkinson’s was either triggered or exacerbated.

In 1996, he was inducted into the Art Directors Club Hall of Fame. In 1999, Heller received an AIGA Medal for what designer Paula Scher described as "lifetime achievement that comes from a workday existing roughly between 4:30 and 8:45 A.M. before a full workday at the New York Times Book Review." The Society of Illustrators honored Heller with the Richard Gangel Art Director Award in 2005. In 2017, the AIGA named an award, the Steven Heller Prize for Cultural Commentary, in his honor, citing his three decades of contributions to cultural discourse on design. In 2011, was awarded the Design Mind Award by the National Design Museum.

In the 1980s, he became interested in design through friendships with Seymour Chwast and Louise Fili, who he later married, as well as becoming the editor of the AIGA Journal of Graphic Design. Under his care, the Journal became a place of critical design writing, inviting authors from a variety of professions and nurturing the careers of fledgling critics, who documented design writing. In 1984, Heller helped create the master’s program for illustration at the School of Visual Arts.

In 1974, Heller became the art director for The New York Times Op-Ed page, replacing Jean-Claude Suares. His interest in illustration employed on the Op-Ed page led him to publish collections on the subject. He became the art director of The New York Times Book Review in 1977.

Steven Heller (born July 7, 1950) is an American art director, journalist, critic, author, and editor who specializes on topics related to graphic design.

Steven Heller was born July 7, 1950 in New York City to Bernice and Milton Heller. He attended the Walden School, a progressive prep school on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, as well as military school. In 1968, he became the art director of the New York Free Press without formal education or credentials because of his leftist leanings, later attending some New York University lectures utilizing his press pass. He met illustrator Brad Holland who convinced him page layouts and type choices mattered, of which Heller was previously unconcerned with. After the Free Press, he moved on to various publications, including porn tabloid Screw.