Observed | January 13
Yves Béhar
designs a robot for the elderly he’s calling a “companion”. [JH]
Mr. Poopie explores the uncanny visual relationship between
poop and ice cream. (Via Modes of Criticism.) [MB]
Shepherd Fairey’s protest posters. [JH]
Beautiful data: NYC-style but open and available to all. [JH]
Observed | January 12
The newly-minted field of “behavioral design”
looks to have pretty much nothing to doing with design. Is taking design’s name in vain OK? I’m starting to wonder. [JH]
Sleep Mode is an exhibition on the
art of the screensaver at Het Nieuwe Institute, Rotterdam. [MB]
Engineers at UCLA have come up with
a design that offers unlimited phone bandwidth. [JH]
Everything you ever wanted to know about publishers, design, and newsletters. [JH]
Forget about robots taking our jobs: in Australia a new fashion startup lets customers design their own products. [JH]
The irresistible narrative behind the
legendary napkin sketch that upended US tax policy. [MB]
Observed | January 11
The folk power of
Jamaican dancehall signs. [MB]
Seven ways for architecture and design firms to attract top talent. [MB]
Is Thomas Heatherwick’s iconic update to the London double decker bus being
discontinued? [MB]
The shopping experience at every mall in America can be traced back to
one second-tier city in the Midwest. [MB]
In honor of his 86th birthday, a quick overview of
Massimo Vignelli‘s enduring NYC subway legacy. [MB]
Meet
Galina Balashova, the woman who spent three decades designing the interior of Soviet spacecraft. [MB]
Observed | January 10
Photographer Michael Wolf and
the dazzling and depressing architecture of density in megacities. [MB]
Thomas Hine‘s
Populuxe once imagined a sedan where four people could sit in the back seat and play bridge. That moment may be coming soon:
the future of the “occupant” experience in self-driving cars, from BMW. [JH]
Nielsen reports that most people scan web pages in a pattern—a “F” pattern, to be exact.
More on why UX is a science and not an art. [JH]
Service design,
when your client is New York City. [JH]
“We are not an advertising agency. We are
Hoodwink.” [MB]
“Architecture saved my life.” Did not see this coming:
Pablo Escobar’s son is a good architect now. [MB]
Observed | January 09
Aaron Betsky: "Architecture that constructs
a better world, not better bubbles, is the true task in this new year.” [MB]
Room at the top?
Sexism and the star system in architecture: a newly republished 1989 essay by Denise Scott Brown. [MB]
Inside the archive of
Trevor Key, music design’s unsung hero. [MB]
The
couple who saved China’s ancient architectural treasures before they were lost forever. [MB]
Observed | January 06
Trendy but ambiguous:
design thinking as a dubious term. Equally ambiguous and equally trendy:
agility! (Maybe “commitment” will be the new word of 2017.) [JH]
Biggest design failure of the year—and it’s only January! [JH]
“The irony is that we are seeing a medium and a set of tactics designed to confront fascism being used to produce a new authoritarianism.”
An interview with Fred Turner. [MB]
News flash! Being “design-centric” may increase your chances of funding. [JH]
