Steven Heller is co-chair and co-founder of the MFA Designer As Author and Entrepreneur program at the School of Visual Arts, NYC. He was the art director of The New York Times Book Review. He writes The Daily Heller at Printmag.com, a weekly design column for Atlantic online, and the VISUALS column for theTimes Book Review. He is author, co-author, and editor of over 165 books on the history and practice of graphic design, illustration, and satiric art. His forthcoming books include 100 Classic Graphic Design Magazines (Laurence King Publishers) and Raw Data: the Process Behind Information Graphics (Thames + Hudson). He is the 2011 Recipient of the Smithsonion National Design Award for "Design Mind."

Dictators used to put a bit of effort into galvanizing their subjects, but judging by Syrian President Assad’s Instagram feed, he’s just trying to be av normal leader, writes Steven Heller.