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Teaching Graphic Design: Course Offerings and Class Projects from the Leading Graduate and Undergraduate Programs
This priceless teaching tool features more than 70 proven-effective programs from the country’s leading graphic design schools. Spanning from traditional, “bricks and mortar” approaches to the ever-widening digital frontier of graphic design, these syllabi include detailed introductions, weekly breakdowns, project suggestions, and selected readings, as well as offer valued background material on the history, social responsibility, and cultural impact of design. More than an instructor’s guide, Teaching Graphic Design is a self-contained chronicle of the past, present, and future of the art and the industry. • No other book on the market shares graphic design course syllabi in such a comprehensive manner• Allows first-time educators to build a lesson plan based on proven successful approaches • Features more than 70 contributors from almost every imaginable design arena, including multimedia courses, design history, and professional practice
288 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2003
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About the author
Steven Heller
325 books206 followersSteven Heller writes a monthly column on graphic design books for The New York Times Book Review and is co-chair of MFA Design at the School of Visual Arts. He has written more than 100 books on graphic design, illustration and political art, including Paul Rand, Merz to Emigre and Beyond: Avant Garde Magazine Design of the Twentieth Century, Design Literacy: Understanding Graphic Design Second Edition, Handwritten: Expressive Lettering in the Digital Age, Graphic Design History, Citizen Designer, Seymour Chwast: The Left Handed Designer, The Push Pin Graphic: Twenty Five Years of Design and Illustration, Stylepedia: A Guide to Graphic Design Mannerisms, Quirks, and Conceits, The Anatomy of Design: Uncovering the Influences and Inspirations in Modern Graphic Design. He edits VOICE: The AIGA Online Journal of Graphic Design, and writes for Baseline, Design Observer, Eye, Grafik, I.D., Metropolis, Print, and Step. Steven is the recipient of the Art Directors Club Special Educators Award, the AIGA Medal for Lifetime Achievement, and the School of Visual Arts' Masters Series Award.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 3, 2007
this is my bible - sort of
January 6, 2026
28/30
Steven Heller’s Teaching Graphic Design is, on the surface, a catalogue of graphic design programs from around the world, but its intellectual weight sits squarely in the introduction and framing essays, where Heller articulates a quiet but pointed critique of how graphic design is taught—and why that matters in a profession increasingly shaped by market pressures, technology, and cultural flux.
In the preface and introduction, Heller makes clear that the book is not intended to rank schools or prescribe a single model of education. Instead, it documents plurality. Design pedagogy, he argues, cannot be standardized because graphic design itself is contingent: it responds to culture, economics, technology, and politics. What matters is not whether students learn one correct style, but whether programs cultivate thinking designers—people who can analyze problems, understand context, and make formal decisions with intention.
Heller emphasizes the historical shift from apprenticeship and Bauhaus-inspired foundations toward university-based, theory-inflected programs. While this shift expanded design’s intellectual legitimacy, it also introduced tensions: between concept and craft, critique and production, experimentation and employability. The schools profiled in the book reflect these tensions. Some foreground typography and formal rigor; others emphasize social engagement, authorship, or interdisciplinary practice. Heller treats these differences not as flaws but as reflections of local conditions and pedagogical values.
The catalogue section reveals a global field grappling with similar questions under different constraints. In the United States, design education often mirrors the realities of a commercial, client-driven economy: portfolio development, software proficiency, and branding dominate. Elsewhere—particularly in parts of Europe and Asia—programs show stronger commitments to research, theory, and long-term conceptual inquiry, sometimes at the expense of immediate job readiness.
Heller’s implicit argument is that graphic design pedagogy sits uneasily between art school, trade school, and liberal education. The profession demands technical competence and speed, yet also critical judgment and cultural literacy. Teaching Graphic Design does not resolve this tension, but it documents it honestly.
Ultimately, the book suggests that the health of graphic design depends on education that acknowledges the messy reality of creative work—freelance precarity, technological churn, and cultural responsibility—while still insisting that design is more than service work. Heller’s contribution is not a manifesto, but a clear-eyed map of a discipline still negotiating its identity.
Steven Heller’s Teaching Graphic Design is, on the surface, a catalogue of graphic design programs from around the world, but its intellectual weight sits squarely in the introduction and framing essays, where Heller articulates a quiet but pointed critique of how graphic design is taught—and why that matters in a profession increasingly shaped by market pressures, technology, and cultural flux.
In the preface and introduction, Heller makes clear that the book is not intended to rank schools or prescribe a single model of education. Instead, it documents plurality. Design pedagogy, he argues, cannot be standardized because graphic design itself is contingent: it responds to culture, economics, technology, and politics. What matters is not whether students learn one correct style, but whether programs cultivate thinking designers—people who can analyze problems, understand context, and make formal decisions with intention.
Heller emphasizes the historical shift from apprenticeship and Bauhaus-inspired foundations toward university-based, theory-inflected programs. While this shift expanded design’s intellectual legitimacy, it also introduced tensions: between concept and craft, critique and production, experimentation and employability. The schools profiled in the book reflect these tensions. Some foreground typography and formal rigor; others emphasize social engagement, authorship, or interdisciplinary practice. Heller treats these differences not as flaws but as reflections of local conditions and pedagogical values.
The catalogue section reveals a global field grappling with similar questions under different constraints. In the United States, design education often mirrors the realities of a commercial, client-driven economy: portfolio development, software proficiency, and branding dominate. Elsewhere—particularly in parts of Europe and Asia—programs show stronger commitments to research, theory, and long-term conceptual inquiry, sometimes at the expense of immediate job readiness.
Heller’s implicit argument is that graphic design pedagogy sits uneasily between art school, trade school, and liberal education. The profession demands technical competence and speed, yet also critical judgment and cultural literacy. Teaching Graphic Design does not resolve this tension, but it documents it honestly.
Ultimately, the book suggests that the health of graphic design depends on education that acknowledges the messy reality of creative work—freelance precarity, technological churn, and cultural responsibility—while still insisting that design is more than service work. Heller’s contribution is not a manifesto, but a clear-eyed map of a discipline still negotiating its identity.
December 5, 2020
Good and practical examples of syllabi. Not really a true ‘read’ kind of book, but if you wanted to see what a first year graphic design class looks like, it is nice for that. I found it more if a skimmer.
I think (right or wrong) I was expecting more of a “how graphic design is taught... and why”—and this is mostly about how, very specifically.
I imagine one would have to have a pretty good idea of their overall curriculum to know how/if these syllabi or projects will fit the bill...
I think (right or wrong) I was expecting more of a “how graphic design is taught... and why”—and this is mostly about how, very specifically.
I imagine one would have to have a pretty good idea of their overall curriculum to know how/if these syllabi or projects will fit the bill...
September 10, 2016
An Excellent Book, must refer by the Applied Arts and Graphic Designer, into teaching thy arts
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews