Designing a Legacy: Preserving context in an age of endless content

How do designers preserve, contextualize and communicate the value of design in an increasingly fast, digital and AI-mediated world?
Join Steven Heller—celebrated art director, writer, critic, educator and editor in graphic design—in conversation with Diana Varma RGD as they explore what it means to build a lasting design legacy today. Moving beyond finished work, the discussion examines how archives, writing and publishing help shape cultural memory, authorship and relevance in a rapidly shifting industry.

About Steven Heller
Steven is the co-founder and co-chair of the MFA Designer as Author program at the School of Visual Arts, New York, where he also co-founded programs in design criticism, interaction design, and branding. A prolific author and editor of over 130 books on graphic design and popular culture, he has spent much of his career fostering design education environments. On the editorial side, he served as an art director at The New York Times for 33 years, including nearly three decades as senior art director for the Book Review. A recipient of the AIGA Medal for Lifetime Achievement, Steven continues to contribute regularly to major design publications and writes The Daily Heller blog for Print magazine.