Observed | June 22
In partnership with over 30 museums and institutions from around the world, Google Arts & Culture has launched
Faces of Frida, a massive collection of art, letters, essays, videos, and other artifacts about the life and work of Frida Kahlo. (via
Kottke.org) [BV]
Observed | June 21
Can design help New York City go
zero waste? [BV]
Despite modernism being recognised as an important architectural movement in the UK, many examples have been demolished.
Here‘s an illustrated tribute to lost modernist buildings. [BV]
Today’s
rainbow-colored logos reflect the joy and optimism inherent in the rainbow in a multitude of new expressions. [BV]
Observed | June 19
How
punk rock changed the course of design history. [BV]
Adobe is releasing
five fonts based on designs by Bauhaus figures, “lost to history”, which have been revived by German typographer Erik Spiekermann and a group of students. [BV]
Observed | June 14
The history of the
1940 Emeco 10-06 Navy Chair, made of bent aluminum, and strong enough to withstand an 8-story drop from a Chicago window. [BV]
Observed | June 13
Massimo Vignelli’s unused
maps for the D.C. Metro are amazing. [BV]
A
tale of two hats from Steven Heller. [BV]
Observed | June 12
About two years ago Brooklyn-based polymath Robby Kraft started
using algorithmic code to design new origami patterns and they are astounding. [BV]
Herb Lubalin was born 100 years ago. To celebrate,
join in to republish Herb Lubalin: American Graphic Designer (1918-81). [BV]
Observed | June 11
Super freaky recently declassified
NSA security posters. Seriously. [BV]
Observed | June 07
Encyclopædia Britannica wants to
fix false Google results with actual facts. [BV]
Observed | June 06
“Working with children, after all, was the rare field in which women’s gender was seen as an asset rather than an obstacle. As children gained their own spaces, their own toys, and their own diminutive furniture, beginning in the nineteenth century, refining, proselytizing, and testing designs meant for children was women’s work. We see their influence everywhere.” Alexandra Lange on
the hidden women of architecture and design. [BV]
Observed | June 04
Lab100 is a new type of medical clinic that will use data science to predict and prevent medical conditions instead of diagnosing and treating issues after-the-fact. [BV]
What if your surroundings never went in the garbage?
Taking recycling to the next level. [BV]
What
New York can learn from Europe about designing a city for people instead of cars. [MB]
Observed | June 01
Jaron Lanier was there for the creation of the internet and is convinced that
social media is toxic, making us sadder, angrier, and more isolated. [BV]
Observed | May 31
#TBT: The retro-futuristic
movie posters of Laurent Durieux. [BV]
Observed | May 30
What happens when speculative design goes corporate?...At its most disturbing, it’s a way of giving a company’s employees permission to think the unthinkable—to grapple with how omniscient and powerful that corporate entity might become. [BV]
An
explainer video from 1923—when films were still silent and the discovery of Pluto was 7 years in the future—about Einstein’s theory of relativity. [BV]
Observed | May 29
Arbys wants you to download their font,
Saucy_AF, to “say it with sauce”. [BV]
It wasn’t until the 1990s that public libraries realized their most loyal patrons were teens—
and started giving them room to act like teens. Alexandra Lange explores young adult architecture. [BV]
Observed | May 28
Meghan Markle has been granted
her own coat of arms; its design was approved by the Queen. (via
James I. Bowie) [BV]
Observed | May 24
“Design in this century has little use for anything that can’t be quantified. And yet, here is Apple’s App Store, presenting
new, original illustrations several times a week.” [BV]
Observed | May 23
Bill Gold, the seminal designer who created posters for some of Hollywood‘s most famous movies—from
A Streetcar Named Desire to
The Exorcist—has died. [LS]
Pilot and photographer Christiaan van Heijst captures
his stunning view of weather from the cockpit. [BV]
Goodbye Philip Roth,
designer manqué. [BV]
Observed | May 22
Sadly we must
say goodbye to Robert Indiana, who brought his world-famous LOVE sculpture to NYC in 1971. [BV]
Adherents to Design Thinking believe it
will save higher ed. Are they delusional? [BV]
Adrian Shaughnessy is a graphic designer and writer based in London. He is a senior tutor in Visual Communication at the Royal College of Art and a founding partner in Unit Editions a publishing company producing books on design and visual culture. Scratching the Surface, a collection of his journalism, has recently been published. 
