Observed | December 22
Jason Santa Maria on Slate and its experimental approach to design. [JH]
“Fixing” Tiffany, and the design director who’s going to do it. [JH]
What does innovation have to do with heroin?
An interview with James Wynn at SYPartners. [MB]
Observed | December 21
“Rational and emotional, hot and cool.”
A new book by, and about all things Mercedes. [JH]
Grids in urban planning and the utopian vision behind
the layout of Salt Lake City. [MB]
How do stamps get designed?
Watch and learn! [JH]
Here is some
haiku architectural criticism. [MB]
Observed | December 20
AP photographer Burhan Ozbilici‘s astonishing account of
how he came to document the assassination of Russia‘s ambassador to Turkey. (Warning: graphic images.) [MB]
How
four little letters made Raymond Loewy the most influential designer of the 20th century. [MB]
Dorothea Lange’s
censored photographs of FDR’s Japanese concentration camps were unseen for more than 60 years. [MB]
End of an era: the Morbid Anatomy Museum closes. [JH]
From
New York Magazine,
the ten best art books of 2016. [MB]
Observed | December 19
“The 2016 election probably wasn’t won or lost on a hat or a branding system, but
the hat serves as a powerful proxy for how blindsided many were by the forces that led to Trump becoming president-elect.” [MB]
How the
Tampa Bay Times took a
complicated story about traffic engineering and made it engaging and accessible...with
Legos. [MB]
Sad news: the wonderful
photographer Roddy Smith is dead at 68. [MB]
Observed | December 16
Set design for the upcoming film
Passengers shows spaceship design with influences from Norman Foster, Santiago Calatrava, and others. [JH]
Explore Google Earth satellite images through gesture using
Land Lines, an experiment from Google Chrome. [MB]
How much design can make—or break—a startup? [JH]
Travel photography of the year, from
The Guardian. [JH]
Emma Lawton is a graphic designer with Parkinson’s disease.
This is the invention that changed her life. [MB]
Apple’s “Mac vs. PC” ad campaign:
an oral history. [MB]
Observed | December 15
Radically rethinking design—and news—from someone who is neither a journalist nor a designer, but asks some penetrating questions. (Via NiemanLab.) [JH]
Take the edge off the stress of the new administration
with a Chrome extension that replaces photos of Trump with—yes, you guessed it—pictures of kittens! (Thanks to John Bielenberg.) [JH]
Design Observer alums Mark Lamster and Alexandra Lange
review the year in architecture. [JH]
Observed | December 14
And for your viewing pleasure:
the ten best film title sequences of all time. [JH]
You have to apply for membership, but
the Mysterious Package Company brings the promise of immersive, unbidden, cabinet of curiosities-worthy wonders right to your door. [JH]
This sounds like the plot for a movie but it’s real:
a new public document invites discussion (from technologists, primarily) about the ethical boundaries of artificial intelligence. [JH]
Some speculation on this year’s Oscar contenders for production design. [JH]
Book cover design in dangerous times:
an interview with Peter Mendelsund. [MB]
Observed | December 13
Everything you ever wanted to know about
the design of the Quaker Oats package. [JH]
