Cheryl Heller, Founding Chair of MFA program in Design for Social Innovation at the School of Visual Arts, Founder of CommonWise and author of the Intergalactic Design Guide, speaks with Sarder correspondent, Vanessa Tyler, about her career and her interest in social design. She explains why after a career in the corporate world she decided to look for more purpose in her life and how social design has fulfilled that need.
Author & Founder of CommonWise
Cheryl Heller is the Founding Chair of the first MFA program in Design for Social Innovation at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan, and is President of the design lab CommonWise. She is the recipient of the AIGA Medal for her contributions to the field of design, and a Rockefeller Bellagio Fellowship. Her clients have included Ford Motor Company, American Express, Pfizer, Mars Corporation, Seventh Generation, L’Oreal, and The World Wildlife Fund. She created the Ideas that Matter program for Sappi in 1999, which has given over $13 million to designers working for the public good. Her book, The Intergalactic Design Guide, was published by Island Press in 2018.
