Lefteris Heretakis

How to Become a #Designer (The Version No One Wants You to Read) thenewartschool.substack.com/p/how-to-bec...

Cal Swann. We explore Swann's education in typography, his academic leadership and the relationship between language and visual communication. It is particularly valuable for students who regard typography primarily as visual styling. designeducationtalks.buzzsprout.com/1969986/epis...

Craft for the AI Age. This essay argues that craft should be understood as a cultivated form of intelligence rather than a nostalgic attachment to traditional techniques. It connects making, attention, judgement and ethical responsibility. newartschool.education/2025/10/17/c....

Post-War Precision and the Pedagogy of Clarity. I examine Frederick Lambert's historical survey and the relationship between typography, editorial design and institutional authority, revisiting graphic design as a cultural and intellectual practice. heretakis.medium.com/graphic-desi....

Craft for the AI Age. This essay argues that craft should be understood as a cultivated form of intelligence rather than a nostalgic attachment to traditional techniques. It connects making, attention, judgement and ethical responsibility. newartschool.education/2025/10/17/c....

A partnership is not an education because two institutions sign an agreement. Its value begins when students investigate a shared problem, make and revise together, and develop capabilities they did not possess before. Exchange should be measured by learning, not logos.

The tea master judges the leaf, the weather and the moment. Mastery means learning to notice before acting. What might design schools learn from that?

I have a long piece at @theconversation.com about AI and the university theconversation.com/friday-essay...

The spectacular ceiling of the Palatine Chapel at Aachen Cathedral, Germany, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, first constructed in the 8th century / and the soaring Gothic Choir (1414), modelled on Sainte Chapelle in Paris (photos: Loïc Lagarde)

What if imagination were treated as literacy rather than enrichment? An art school for the mind would teach curiosity, experiment and public responsibility.

Design Education Talks, Ep. 78: Martin Salisbury on drawing, authorial illustration and why children’s books deserve serious academic attention.

A drawing is not valuable merely because it resembles its subject. It matters because it reveals whether we have actually looked. Remove the resistance of observation too early and we may produce images without developing perception.

Medium | The palette offers countless possibilities. Institutions prefer predictable outcomes. What happens when artistic education teaches students to question imposed limits?

New Art School | Apple's iPhone 17 Pro makes typography shout. But does visual force necessarily produce good design? On proportion, restraint and branding spectacle.

Design Education Talks | Ep. 73: Emanuel Barbosa connects Portuguese design education with years of creative work in China. A perspective on international design practice.

We talk endlessly about interdisciplinary education, but what happens when students have never developed substantial knowledge of a discipline? There is little value in crossing boundaries if we have never understood what lies within them.

The Palette of Possibility: An Exploration of Why Creative Freedom Terrifies Institutionss. Institutions prefer predictable outcomes. What happens when artistic education teaches students to question the limits imposed upon them? Read heretakis.medium.com/the-palette-...

When Form Forgets Function: Apple's iPhone 18 Pro makes typography shout. But does visual force necessarily produce good design? An examination of proportion, restraint and the limits of branding spectacle. Read newartschool.education/2025/10/29/w...

Design Education Talks - Ep. 73: Emanuel Barbosa connects Portuguese design education with years of creative work in China. A valuable perspective on international design practice. Listen designeducationtalks.buzzsprout.com/1969986/epis...

We talk endlessly about interdisciplinary education, but what happens when students have never developed substantial knowledge of a discipline? There is little value in crossing boundaries if we have never understood what lies within them.

Surrealism taught us to distrust appearances. AI hallucination gives us a new reason to do so. The distinction between deliberate artistic imagination and fabricated factual authority matters. heretakis.medium.com/there-is-a-w...

The danger of AI hallucination is not merely that machines invent falsehoods. It is that those falsehoods can look more convincing than the truth. When appearance becomes evidence, human judgement becomes indispensable. My new essay: heretakis.medium.com/there-is-a-w...

We do not always know what we think before we begin making something. Sometimes it is through drawing, working with materials, making mistakes and trying again that understanding develops. This is why the experience of making matters as much as the work itself.

The real value of international artistic education is not simply travelling or studying elsewhere. It is encountering another way of seeing, thinking and making, and discovering how much of what we previously considered obvious was simply what we had been taught.

Not everything students make needs to be useful. Drawing, experimenting, failing and following uncertain ideas can develop capabilities that endure long after the work is forgotten. The purpose of artistic education is not simply to produce better work, but more capable human beings.

Some are teaching students how to produce creative work without giving them the time to develop the understanding behind it. Drawing, typography, illustration are not simply skills to be acquired. They are ways of learning to observe, think, question and understand the world.

IP can be transferred or licensed, offered to enter into cooperation agreements or contributed as capital in a joint venture. Protecting and managing IP through well-drafted agreements is key for business success. intellectual-property-helpdesk.ec.europa.eu/news-events/...

The Future of Design: Dylan Field and Pontus Wärnestål on AI, Collaboration and Creativity Designers are increasingly responsible for systems that influence human behaviour, relationships and social conditions. heretakis.medium.com/the-future-o...

Balvir Nandra questions the institutional structures, professional expectations and educational assumptions shaping contemporary art and design education. He challenges art schools to recover observation, drawing, reading and independent judgement. newartschool.education/2022/11/11/b...

Design Education Talks podcast: Cal Swann (Ep. 74) on a lifetime in typography, from Leicester art school and Saint Martin’s to pioneering online design education. designeducationtalks.buzzsprout.com/1969986/epis...

A design school can teach students to generate forms in seconds. But can it teach them to recognise why a form is right? The real frontier of AI education is not production, but perception, understanding and independent human judgement.

In 2020, our Valencia Design Education Forum asked how we could rebuild creative education through drawing, history, experimentation and practical reform. Six years later, the question is more urgent than ever. newartschool.education/2020/11/17/v...

Creativity is not simply inspiration. It is sustained practice, experimentation and the discipline to keep working. In The Freedom in Structure, I explore why a strong process can liberate imagination rather than constrain it. heretakis.medium.com/igniting-cre...

When building a new art school, new buildings, technologies and degrees are not genuine educational progress. The real question is what kind of human beings these institutions will develop and whether they will learn to think truly independently.