SVA Archives

Page from Rick Valincenti's Thirstype font catalog, 1994.

March 16, 2026

From the Subject Files of Mr. Steven Heller

If you’ve ever searched a design or illustration topic, chances are something by design historian, author, and educator Steven Heller has popped up in your results. Heller is the superhumanly prolific author of books, articles, and blog posts (in the form of his column for PRINT, The Daily Heller) on every design subject imaginable. You have a question, he has the answer.

Heller recently donated his subject files to the Archives; this amounts to more than fifty boxes of notes, clippings, slides, and precious ephemera related to his research and writing. The subject files are an addition to his already considerable Archives Collection, which contains all sorts of research material. (The Heller subject files are not yet cataloged on our website; contact the Archives if you’d like to learn more.)

This semester we’re featuring a few of our favorite selections from the subject files related to typography in our vitrine. But for those of you who can't visit in person, here's a closer look at what's on display.

vitrine with ephemera display — Our vitrine in the SVA Library!

book title repeated on brown cover — Elaine Lustig Cohen and Arthur Cohen. *The Book Stripped Bare* exhibition catalog, 1973.

type, typographic symbols, and stock images in blocks of red, blue and black — Aaron Burns. Type Directors Club Call for Entries, 1956.

crowing rooster made of lines and dots — Alexander Ross. Davis, Delaney promotion, 1950s.

bitmapped type on green background — Emigre font catalog, 2022.

Art Deco typography on beige and peach background — Alfred A. Knopf Publisher promotion, 1980s.

elongated clown faces with distorted type — Rick Valincenti. Thirstype font catalog, 1994.

blue, green, and black text describing exhibition — The Composing Room exhibition announcement, c. 1960.

Steinberg in hand drawn lettering — Saul Steinberg exhibition catalog. Sidney Janis Gallery, 1969.

drawing of people visiting an art gallery — Bonus! Back of the Steinberg catalog.

Hot and Not exhibition poster for show of expressive typography with handlettering and irregularly placed letter — Ed Fella. Hot & Not: The New Expressive Typography exhibition poster. Center for Creative Studies Gallery, 1998.

red script type on type specimen cover — Lucian Bernhard. *Bernhard Types* type specimen booklet. The Bauer Type Foundry, Inc., mid-late 1930s?

circular label with industrial type on brightly colored abstract image — Art Chantry. *Pearls Are a Nuisance* exhibition catalog. Philip Slein Gallery, 2005.

western landscape with small script type — April Greiman. Miracle Manor promotional postcard, 2000.

book cover with hole in center for a finger to go throug — Stefan Sagmeister. Handarbeit, 1999.

Desert landscape, dashed lines, sans serif text, foreign bills — Nancy Skolos. *James River Presents the Colors and Textures of Curtis Tuscan Terr and Tuscan Antique* paper promotion, 1989.