Observed | June 14
The late William Helfand had an incredible collection of medical prints, posters, and advertising emphasized "quack" pills, potions, and snake oil cure-alls.
Hear his daughter, and our co-founder Jessica Helfand pay tribute to his "quackery” obsession. [BV]
Observed | June 11
“Beer cans are officially the new record sleeve.” The rise in craft brewing has spurred a
beer aisle design renaissance. [BV]
Observed | June 10
Seeking 1000 people who eat. ZOE‘s experts are marrying nutritional science with machine learning to perform the world‘s largest study of individuals‘ unique nutritional responses. Visit
joinzoe.com to sign up.
Read this NYTimes article to see why. [BV]
A new exhibit at the Saint Louis Art Museum
celebrates amateur photography from 1890–1970 through the recent gift of 150 amateur photographs from St. Louis collectors John and Teenuh Foster. John Foster assembled this collection of anonymous found images over the past 20 years, some of which can be seen in
his Design Observer column. [BV]
Observed | June 06
An in-depth look at an urban mall designed to revive downtown San Diego that is set to be destroyed, from Alissa Walker. [BV]
Observed | June 05
Congratulations to Susan Kare, Patricia Moore, MIT D-Lab, Tom Phifer, Tobias Frere-Jones, Tobias Frere-Jones, Derek Lam, Ivan Poupyrev, Open Style Lab and
all the winners of the 2019 Cooper Hewitt National Design Awards! [BV]
Observed | June 03
The first in a series of articles about the early days of the space age, in celebration of this summer’s 50th anniversary of the first Moon landing: How NASA selected the first astronauts (and why no convicts have walked on the Moon). [BV]
Observed | May 30
Felice Frankel has donated hundreds of images taken during her early career as a landscape architecture photographer—Louis Kahn’s Salk Institute, Maya Lin’s Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial, Richard Haag’s Bloedel Reserve, and Dan Kiley’s Miller Garden—to MIT libraries to create a learning resource. [BV]
As a kid, I had no idea that Peter Max was so derivative (Heinz Edelmann, Andy Warhol, Push Pin). I just knew his work was everywhere, and he got to sign it. To me he was the most famous artist in the world.
That makes this story so depressing. [MB]
Observed | May 29
London Street Photographer Nick Turpin highlights
five photographers making candid public photographs on the fringes of street photography. [BV]
Observed | May 28
An essay from Rob Walker on
the tension inherent in what we do with the time we have, and how we try to make more. [BV]
NBA players are no longer waiting for shoe companies to give them
personal logos — they are creating their own. (via
James I. Bowie) [BV]
Observed | May 24
Congratulations to Michael Bierut + Jessica Helfand! The Observatory made dezeen’s
list of 14 of the best architecture and design podcasts to subscribe to. [BV]
Observed | May 23
From Atlas Obscura:
18 of the world’s most wondrous public transportation options. [BV]
Iceland’s environmental ministry says Justin and his Belibers have
nearly ruined Fjadrárgljúfur canyon. But even for the non-famous,
selfies are ruining national parks and the great outdoors around the world. Go outside but leave your phones at home. [BV]
Observed | May 22
How do you create a logo for a presidential candidate?
On this week‘s The West Wing Weekly: West Wing & fonts. The guests are our co-founder Michael Bierut, who designed Hillary Clinton‘s 2016 logo, and Leslie Wah, who made the campaign logos in Season 6 of the West Wing. [BV]
Observed | May 21
Wanna play with some Brutalist buildings? Skyline chess has a new offering of London’s most-notable architecture from the Brutalist movement including the Trellick Tower, Petty France, Centrepoint and Cromwell Tower. [BV]
Design Observer co-founder @jessicahelfand is heading to Malta this week as an external critic working with Professor Vince Briffa,
recipient of the Tribute to Art and Innovation award at this year’s Venice Biennale. [BV]
Observed | May 20
Book lovers will want to pay close attention to a new collaboration between Designers & Books and Peter Kraus’s Ursus Books & Gallery in New York. This installment:
A Flowering of Creativity: Ladislav Sutnar and F. T. Marinetti. [BV]
Observed | May 15
We can‘t wait to explore Boston this fall when we host The Design of Business | The Business of Design conference at MIT.
Bike-commuting, T-riding, and monorail-tweeting around Boston with transit-oriented 20-something NUMTOT founder Juliet Eldred. [BV]
Observed | May 14
What year is it? Why does it matter? While chronology and dating might not be exciting, they are the stuff that history is made on, for
dates do two things: they allow things to happen only once, and they insist on the ordering and interrelation of all happenings. [BV]
“We should not be excessively interested in books”, wrote
Roy Gold, biblio-graffiti outsider artist, and a bookish man. [BV]
Observed | May 13
You may not love sports, but it’s hard not to enjoy sports photography, especially for it’s innovativeness. Case in point:
Sports Illustrated photographer Neil Leifer hit a grand slam when he
set out to capture a double play on film. [BV]
Observed | May 10
In the 1950s and 1960s artists from the Soviet Union looked to the skies and
foresaw a Utopia in space. [BV]
Observed | May 09
Early cinema is often remembered as an exclusively black-and-white affair—the bold and often fantastical colors that flickered across the earliest film reels are frequently left out of our greater cinematic history.
More neglected still are the women responsible for those dazzling hues. [BV]
Observed | May 08
We’re addicted to likes, retweets, and reshares, and our addiction makes us distracted and depressed.
Tristan Harris believes that tech is ‘downgrading humans’ and that the words we use to describe the problem are tepid and insufficient. It’s time to fight back. [BV]
Created for animators aiming to perfect their rendering of animal gaits,
this video combines illustration, biology, and physics, and is a joy to watch! [BV]
The compelling history and impressive prints of
the earliest printing press in the Uruguayan territory. [BV]
Observed | May 07
Our very talented friend Rob Walker has a new book out today! Get yourself a copy of
The Art of Noticing: 131 Ways to Spark Creativity, Find Inspiration, and Discover Joy In the Everyday and be inspired. [BV]
Observed | May 02
Gail Bichler and Jake Silverstein look back at a year
designing The New York Times Magazine. [BV]
