Representatives from New York’s School of Visual Arts (SVA) will travel to Japan and Korea this spring to raise awareness of design and its power to improve lives and transcend cultures. Public events include lectures and book signings by Steven Heller and Lita Talarico, co-founders and co-chairs of the MFA Design Department at SVA and co-authors of The Design Entrepreneur: Turning Graphic Design Into Goods That Sell (Rockport Publishers, 2008).

Lita Talarico stated, “For more then a decade, the MFA Design Department at SVA has flourished due to, in part, a diverse student body including many international students, some of whom are highlighted in The Design Entrepreneur.” According to Steven Heller, “The Design Entrepreneur is the first book to showcase design innovators. It features over fifty case studies including Shepherd Fairey, Paul Budnitz, Maira Kalman, Contstantin Boym, Dave Eggers and more.”

Tokyo, Japan
There will be a lecture and book signing on Friday, March 13 from 7pm - 10pm by Steven Heller and Lita Talarico entitled The Design Entrepreneur. The event will take place at SPAZIO event space at Cassina, Ixc. in Ebisu. To RSVP for the Tokyo event, please visit www.el-tokio.com/sva/.

Seoul, Korea
Steven Heller and Lita Talarico will present their lecture, The Design Entrepreneur, along with a book signing on Wednesday, March 18 from 4pm - 7pm. The event will take place at Hongik University. To RSVP for the Seoul event, please visit http://www.design2.co.kr/sva/.

Steven Heller is the author or co-author of over 120 books on design and popular culture, including Paul Rand (Phaidon Press, 2000), a biography, and Design Literacy (Allworth Press, 2004). For over 33 years, he was an art director at the The New York Times and now writes the Visuals column for The New York Times Book Review. Heller is the co-founder and co-chair (with Lita Talarico) of the MFA Design Department at SVA, where he lectures on the history of graphic design. He is also the co-founder of the MFA Design Criticism and MFA Interaction Design Departments at SVA. Heller is the editor of Voice: AIGA Journal of Design and is a contributing editor to PRINT, Eye, Baseline and I.D. magazines. He is the recipient of the 1999 AIGA Medal for Lifetime Achievement and SVA’s 2007 Masters Series Award, which honors a great visual communicator annually.

Lita Talarico has spent her entire career working in the art, architecture and design fields. She is the co-founder and co-chair (with Steven Heller) of the MFA Design Department at the SVA. Talarico has played significant administrative and organizational roles in prestigious conferences, the Pritzker Architecture Prize, numerous publishing and competition ventures and the selection of architects and designers for commissions. She holds an MFA in Art Criticism and Writing and is the co-author of Design Career (Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1987) and the forthcoming Design School Confidential (Rockport, 2009), Design Schools North America (Lawrence King, 2010) and Designer Sketchbooks (Thames & Hudson, 2010).

The MFA Design Department at SVA prepares students to excel as both form givers and “authors” of original concepts across a broad range of media. Building on fluency with the languages of graphic design and typography, the department focuses on the independent creation of ideas. With the aim of transforming designers into entrepreneurs, the program encourages students to think for themselves in creating objects of value to others, drawing inspiration from visual communication in the fine as well as applied arts. As a capstone in its tenth Anniversary, MFA Design is introducing a two week Masters Workshop in Design, Practice and Theory in Venice and Rome, from May 24 - June 6. Please visit http://design.sva.edu/site/events/show/30 for additional information.

School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York City is an established leader and innovator in the education of artists. From its inception in 1947, the faculty has been comprised of professionals working in the arts and art-related fields. SVA provides an environment that nurtures creativity, inventiveness and experimentation, enabling students to develop a strong sense of identity and a clear direction of purpose.

Media Contact: For more information please contact John Wyszniewski, assistant director of communication, at 212.592.2010 or jwyszniewski@sva.edu.