Steven Heller

Monday13th
We all met with Steven Heller to interview him for our project. Steven Heller is an American self taught designer who has worked as an Art Director for the New York Times. He currently teaches on the MFA Graphic design course at the SVA in New York and writes and edits many design based books, including those on design education such as:'The Education of a Graphic Designer.', which was based on a conference entitled: 'How we learn what we learn'. Consequently Steven was a perfect candidate for our interviews.

Steven barely experienced a formal education. He applied to The SVA to escape being enlisted in the Vietnam War and on acceptance, he was soon asked to leave the course due poor attendance. It is debatable that Steven is 'unteachable' or without need for education to flourish however, when we asked him about this he claimed that everyone can be taught. In Graphic Design there are skills that can be taught, but you have to be patient enough to learn.
The subject of money verses design education has frequently been discussed during all of our interviews and by and large our theories about the differences between the UK design education and that of America, being as a result of different tuition fees has been dispelled. However, Steven did highlight that the current economic ball and chain would have an effect on Design and the education of it.