Almost 250 years ago in Scotland, the first set of Britannica encyclopedias were printed. In 2012, the final set is being sold on the for $1,395. Sometimes the end of an era is mistaken for a bad thing, and such may be happening here, but the transition to digital format is anything but a negative.

Youth Art Month involves civic organizations, art museums and 1000s of schools from across the United States. Every year “School Flags Across America . . . Flying High”, a national student flag design program is held. This event sees a representative from each state assign a theme to student artists that represents the spirit of Youth Art Month and the state itself.

They have served a huge variety of purposes, from functional to entertainment. Now, 25 years after the first GIF was created, they are experiencing an explosion of interest and innovation that is pushing them into the terrain of art. In this episode of Off Book, we chart their history, explore the hotbed of GIF creativity on Tumblr, and talk to two teams of GIF artists who are evolving the form into powerful new visual experiences.

Steven Heller, Co-chair of the MFA Designer as Author program at The School of Visual Arts, speaks with AIGA Philly on the outpouring of posters for Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. Heller also compares today’s political graphics to the campaign posters of a previous generation, and the relationship between democracy and design. Produced by Peter Camburn & Craig Schlanser for AIGA Philadelphia

I recently came across this rare 3 part interview with Graphic Designer Pioneer Paul Rand. I have written on the “Godfather of Graphic Design” here on this site and like any designer consider him one of my many heroes. What I was not expecting to learn was that the gentleman interviewing Rand, Miggs Burroughs, was by definition a graphic design icon himself.

Saul Bass was a graphic designer best known for his work on motion picture title animations. He worked with the greats like Alfred Hitchcock (Psycho), Otto Preminger (The Man with the Golden Arm) and Stanley Kubrick (2001: A Space Odyssey and A Clockwork Orange) among others. You have probably seen much of his design and film work and never thought about where it might have come from.

A couple months ago, naturally being a graphic designer, a child of the 80′s and of course a semi-passive Star Wars fan, I started looking into the the Star Wars logo and the designer behind the work. To my surprise, I soon learned of some of the controversy not only behind this logo, but behind it’s use of Helvetica (which comes with the territory if you choose to use it to this day).

Today, posters are used less often than they have been for well over a century. Posters have a special place in the history of graphic design. They were one of the first commercial opportunities to explore design and its impact. They’ve also been with us for over 300 years, serving as a canvas for generations of graphic designers. While the poster may not be the primary method of message …