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.

After it’s debut at the South by Southwest Film Festival in 2007, “Helvetica” has grown in popularity. It has presently been shown and presented in more than 300 cities in some forty countries. “Helvetica” opens the big picture and details the power that simple typefaces like Helvetica have on our world in general. The typeface is used almost exclusively in advertising mediums, especially in urban spaces.

Exit Through the Gift Shop starts off detailing the explosive world of “Street art”, that wonderfully creative medium we so often see on garage walls and bridge abutments. An eccentric shop keeper decides to capture some of the world’s most notorious vandals in the act of their art form; graffiti. What entails is that one of the artists turns the camera on the shop keeper, revealing his inner madness and emotions.

David states on his website, “My business is successful because I make it less about me, and more about my clients; about the direction their companies are heading and about the success they will achieve. Not only do the brand identities I design ensure my clients stand-out, they also provide visual expressions that stand the test of time, enabling clients to engage and connect with their own customers…

I hadn’t seen Tim in nearly a decade when I bumped into him at that Jim gig in 2008, but we’d been part of the same clique back in high school and I’d always respected both his intelligence and his down-to-earth manner. All our friends knew that Tim was bright and came from a great family, but I never saw him brag or be a snob.

Mike Monteiro at the March 2011 San Francisco CreativeMornings event. Mike is the Design Director, and co-founder of Mule Design Studio. This event took place on March 25, 2011 and was sponsored by Happy Cog and Typekit (who also hosted the event at their office in the Mission). CreativeMornings is a monthly breakfast lecture series for creative types.

Paul Rand is responsible for creating world-renowned logos for some of the largest corporations. You only need to look at the simplicity of the ABC television logo for American Broadcasting Company or the UPS logo for United Parcel Service. IBM and Westinghouse are classical and semi-timeless logos created by Paul Rand, as well. Born in August of 1914, Peretz Rosenbaum died as Paul Rand in 1996.