The Observatory Newsletter

Ellen McGirt|Holiday Gift Guide

Visions of sugar-plums

A year-end reflection on design’s evolving role—plus a thoughtful holiday gift guide featuring books to inspire curiosity, craft, and creative leadership.

Ellen McGirt

Dispatches from Design Week in Hong Kong

A necessary reminder of the role that design, and designers, must play in building a better world.

Ellen McGirt

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are.”

Honoring Tom Stoppard, the master of language and ideas whose six-decade career offers designers and creators a model for courage, curiosity, and craft.

Ellen McGirt|Commentary

AI can generate content, but it can’t generate feeling

There’s no shortcut for acquiring good taste, says Bindery's Kim Devall

Ellen McGirt|Books

No mandates, only opportunities: IBM's Phil Gilbert on rethinking change

Ellen McGirt interviews Phil Gilbert on IBM’s design-led transformation and why treating change as a product—not a skill—shapes the future of AI and creative work.

Lee Moreau|Commentary

The Wizards of AI are sad and lonely men

Lee Moreau on AI, the loneliness of power, the danger of wizards, and the designer’s role in keeping hope alive.

Ellen McGirt|Fresh Ink

What happens when the social safety net disappears?

Exploring how fear, design, and the loss of safety nets shape our ability to survive—and to care.

Ellen McGirt|Recommended Books

Booked and Blessed

Erik Carter’s new book, Design Harder, takes aim at the state of graphic design, critiquing capitalism, sameness, and creative complacency with humor and heart.

Rachel Paese|Cinema

Dread for dinner

Class anxiety is best served at the formal dining table

Delaney Rebernik|Moving Pictures

Fear is a design problem

This October, we explore the aesthetics of horror, and the horrors of design itself.

Sheena Medina

Fancy footwork

How artists, designers, and political organizers are rethinking human–AI collaboration.

Rachel Paese

Aesthetic, turbocharged by AI

AI fashion apps like Neuono promise custom couture in seconds, but at what cost? Exploring the tension between convenience, artistry, and true style.