Jessica Helfand, a founding editor of Design Observer, is an award-winning graphic designer and writer. A former contributing editor and columnist for Print, Communications Arts and Eye magazines, she has written for numerous national publications including  Aperture, Los Angeles Times Book Review and The New Republic. She is the author of Screen: Essays on Graphic Design, New Media, and Visual Culture (Princeton Architectural Press, 2001), Reinventing the Wheel (Princeton Architectural Press, 2002), and Scrapbooks: An American History (Yale University Press, 2008) which was named one of that year’s best books by The New York Times. Appointed by the Postmaster General to the U.S Citizens Stamp Advisory Committee in 2006, she is a Life Fellow of the American Antiquarian Society, a member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale and a laureate of the Art Director’s Hall of Fame. With William Drenttel, Ms. Helfand was the first-ever recipient of the Henry Wolf Residency at the American Academy in Rome. In the spring of 2013, she was awarded the AIGA Medal.