Business

Michael Bierut|Essays

You're So Intelligent

Wanting to be taken seriously, designers yearn to be respected for their minds. Yet they take their real gifts — a miraculous fluency with beauty, an ability to manipulate form in a way that can touch people's hearts — for …

Jessica Helfand|Essays

Another Myth Brilliantly Debunked

Popular Science, June, 1956.In 1933, just three months after the inauguration of Franklin D. Roosevelt, 13 folding-carton manufacturers met in Washington DC to organize objectives and clarify for their constituents a proposed Code of Fair …

William Drenttel|Essays

The Presidential Rash

Lyme Disease. No caption necessary.[Warning: Another occasional post on Design Observer that involves and invokes political content and satire. Do not read if you do not like your design commentary mixed with politics.]It was reported this …

John Thackara|Interviews

Design for (Im)mobility: Interview with Domus

John Thackera defines and explains the importance of ethnoecology.

Steven Heller|Essays

Martin Weber in the Third Dimension

Pages from "The Weber Process," promotional brochure for the Martin J. Weber Studio, c. 1952When he died on June 9, Martin J. Weber was 102. You may not know his name. I didn't. Like other toilers in the art service bullpens of New York …

Debbie Millman|Audio

Bad Boys of Design IV

Designers Marc Alt, Mike Essl, Alberto Rigau and others.

Debbie Millman|Audio

Josh Liberson + Ethan Trask

Josh Liberson and Ethan Trask are designers and the founders of the firm Helicopter.

Debbie Millman|Audio

Alan Dye

An interview with former Kate Spade Design Director Alan Dye who is currently Creative Director at Apple.

William Drenttel|Essays

Al Gore for President

In Al Gore's just-released book, Assault on Reason, he argues that the Bush Administration has used "the language and politics of fear" to "drive the public agenda without regard to the evidence, the facts or the public interest." The key …

Debbie Millman|Audio

Jan Wilker + Hjalti Karlsson

Jan Wilker and Hjalti Karlsson are partners in karlssonwilker and the authors of Tell Me Why.

Debbie Millman|Audio

Alice Twemlow

British-born Alice Twemlow is a design critic and the author of What Is Graphic Design For? She also chairs the Design Criticism department at the School of Visual Arts in New York.     

Debbie Millman|Audio

Luke Hayman

Previously Design Director at I.D. Magazine, Brill’s Content,Travel + Leisure, and New York Magazine, Luke Hayman is now a partner in the New York office of Pentagram.