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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]



Jobs | January 16