Design Observer Twenty Years 2003-2023





Twenty Years of Design Observer
Humanism
Debbie Millman | Design Matters with Debbie Millman
Kevin Kelley
Twenty Years of Design Observer
Science
Twenty Years of Design Observer
Community
William Drenttel | Essays
Learning from Las Vegas: The Book That (Still) Takes My Breath Away
Jessica Helfand | Essays
Scrapbooking: The New Paste-Up
Francisco Laranjo | Essays
The Whitney Identity: Responding to W(hat)?
Steven Heller | Essays
The Thrill is Gone: A Collector’s Lament
William Drenttel | Essays
I Was A Mad Man
The Editors | Watch This Space
Design Observer Community Session: Barbara Glauber
Adrian Shaughnessy | Essays
Philosophy, Graphic Design and Virtue of Clarity
Jessica Helfand | Audio
S9E01: Ellen Mirojnick
Jessica Helfand + Ellen McGirt | Audio
S9E2: Melanie Keen
Connect 4 | Audio
Victor Newman and Ana Amaro: Becoming an Animator
Michael Bierut | Essays
Errol Morris Blows Up Spreadsheet, Thousands Killed
Connect 4 | Audio
Natasha Jen and Adnan Bishtawi: How Do You Survive as a Designer?
Alexandra Lange | Essays
Dot Supreme
Jason Grant | Essays
Against Branding: Part 1 — Design and Conflict
Steven Heller | Essays
Incompetence Is a Skill
Susan Morris | Essays
Design + Architecture at SXSW
Laura Scherling | Essays
How Micromobility Vehicles are Redesigning Global Transportation Systems
Susan Yelavich | Books
Beings: Unruly Things, Golems, Cyborgs
| Books
The New Art of Making Books
Jessica Helfand | Essays
Stan Brakhage: Caught on Tape
| Books
Origins of Design Patents
Connect 4 | Audio
Min Lew and Zaiah Sampson: Finding Your Creative Voice
Alexandra Lange | Essays
Standard Operating Procedure
Ellen Lupton | Terms of Service
Confidence Equity

The Design Observer Twenty: Our Partners


Observed


Ferryman—a Blackketter typeface for the contemporary reader—is the newest type family from type designer Felix Braden. Try it yourself here.

A feel-good story about paying it forward, one designer wedding dress at a time.

A miniskirt with a print of the Saudi Arabian flag stirs complex emotions—and controversy.

Net-zero superyachts may sound like an oxymoron, but think again: one company is proving that intelligent exterior design can significantly—and passively—reduce a superyacht's energy needs, and at the same time capture wind and solar energy almost invisibly.

Design justice is a framework for analyzing how design can both benefit and burden different groups of people, and how concepts of justice and equity should be considered in the context of design. MIT is bringing this work into the classroom—as many classrooms as they can.

Lillian Gilbreth was a pioneering scientist and businesswoman who was forced to reinvent herself after her husband and business partner died in 1924. Then she revolutionized the design of the kitchen.

Nodding to humanism and a “dash of science”, a new book just out from Rizzoli encapsulates design’s spirit—an unwavering quest to redefine our world.

Welcome to fall! Design Observer compatriot Jarrett Fuller reviews his favorite new design books.

Elegant, playful, speculative, and at times dystopian, Pavels Hedström wants nonhuman life to be so close as to be inescapable. He also wants to design—and build—a better world.

Rebranding the Irish Independent—with a harp, and the color green.

Carnegie Mellon seeks a new head for its School of Design.

Show me on the doll where the world hurt you: The weirdly cathartic world of TikTok’s doll roleplay community.

A new book pays tribute to more than seven decades of video game design.

From MIT: Could a new “living medical device,” made from human cells, eliminate the need for insulin jabs?

Want to teach people about the complexity of gerrymandering? Turn it into an art exhibit.

Coffee design—yes, you read that correctly—claims to be emerging “as as a valid, urgent form of art for the modern world, as vibrant and essential as any gallery painting or sculpture work”.

Far from whimsical origami, Fold is a research project based at Aalto University, working on industrial-scale green solutions for the paper and packaging industry. You can seem their work at Helsinki Design Week, and read more about them here.

Veteran graphic designer Linus Bowman highlights ten iconic Microsoft fonts to explain the company's outsized influence on type. (He also uncovers a font with a "shady" origin.)  "Love them or hate them, it's impossible to deny their significance." Also: Thanks for the memories, Calibri.

Resi is a female-led architectural tech start-up, founded by Alex Depledge and Jules Coleman, that’s on a mission to change, democratize, and have a sustainable impact on the UK residential home development market.

In an effort led by Reading Rainbow star Levar Burton, more than 175 actors, authors, and activists have signed an open letter opposing book bans in the U.S. “It’s only a matter of time before regressive, suppressive ideologues will shift their focus toward other forms of art and entertainment, to further their attacks and efforts to scapegoat marginalized communities, particularly Bipoc and LGBTQ+ folks.”



Jobs | September 23