Red, white, and much ado

After Memorial Day, Independence Day is the next major summer bash in the U.S., historically an occasion for noise, overconsumption, water sports, and propaganda.
 
In the early 1900s, postcards celebrating the occasion were all the rage, cartoonifying the imagery of freedom — Uncle Sam, the Goddess of Liberty, eagles, cannons, flags, the Liberty Bell, fireworks, the Statue of Liberty, etc. — and turning now unknown illustrators, such as Ellen Clapsaddle and E. Nash into the influencers of their day.  Even today, the images continue to work their magic, creating memories of an America that never actually existed — a project that never fully succeeded.
 
And they had jokes! 

The advent of July 4 firework celebrations prompted safety-minded activists to launch the “Safe and Sane” movement, an earnest campaign aimed at preventing firework-related injuries. One cheeky postcard sums up the humor of the day: “How to prevent your boy being killed on the Fourth of July — kill him on the third.” Nice! The Playground Association of America took a different tack, lobbying in 1910, “The killed and injured at the battle of Bunker Hill were only 1,474 as compared with 1,622 killed and injured while ‘celebrating’ the fourth of July in 1909.”
 
The postcards have become collectors’ items, long replaced by digital versions of image-making, propaganda, and campaigning. ​​Speaking of which, Samuel C. Woolley, assistant professor of journalism and project director for propaganda research at the University of Texas at Austin’s Center for Media Engagement, has a fascinating essay on the changing ways online actors are impacting societies around the world. You know, for when you want to take a break from the parades and barbeques. It’s a tough read; let’s just say that the Playground Association would approve its direct and urgent tone.
 
Americans and their allies are facing a long, hot summer of worry about democracy, the rule of law, frayed partnerships, and existential interdependence. What is a Safe and Sane movement for a modern age? What would those images look like?
 
Let us know on the socials, wherever you find us.

More observations below. And jobs! We’ve got jobs. Visit our jobs page, which is updated daily.
 
Wishing you a better future, every day.
Ellen McGirt
[email protected]
LinkedIn
Instagram
Threads

This edition of The Observatory was edited by Delaney Rebernik. 

The big think

If you’re ready to get your game on, don’t miss the latest episode of the Design Of Business | Business of Design podcast with WNBA legend Candace Parker. The three-time WNBA champion and two-time Olympic Gold medalist talks about her new book, The Can-Do Mindset: How to Cultivate Resilience, Follow Your Heart, and Fight for Your Passions, and a new and necessary type of leadership.
 
“We’re sitting in a world now where we’re looking at women’s basketball through a whole other lens and through a whole other light. But y’all, it’s been pretty exciting for a while,” Parker says. “And I think it goes across the board. Within leadership, you look at the impact sports has had on women in business — 97% of C-suite women in business played a team sport… People are going to lead different. That’s just the reality of it. So I just think that we, as humans, in creating those opportunities, have to realize what our own misconceptions are. Like the time is now. I’m tired of firsts in the year 2025.”

Some fine print

Here’s a sampling of our latest and greatest  from the Design Observer editorial and contributor network.

Fight a system that shuts out women and caregivers with gender economist Katica Roy’s latest Equity Observer column.

Lean in to radical R&R with entrepreneur Dr. Courtney L. McCluney’s bold vision for rest as reparations.

Dream — and feast — beyond borders with food packaging designer Seher Anand.

Staunch the noise with sound designer Eddie Gandelman’s meditation on how to design a quieter place.

Put on a happy face with ‘Deli Boys’ makeup head Nesrin Ismail’s reflection on cosmetics as masks and mirrors.

Observed

How the Fourth of July was celebrated (and protested) in 1968.

The NYC mayoral primary “hot take” you didn’t know you needed: the bodega-inspired aesthetic of the Zohran Mamdani campaign’s visual identity. “Nobody would credit Zohran Mamdani’s campaign graphics for his win, but they were, like his campaign, like nothing else in politics,” writes Christopher Bonanos, doing the Lord’s work, in Curbed. Meet Forge, a tiny design co-op, co-led by designer Aneesh Bhoopathy, with locations in Queens and Philadelphia.
 
Oh, and what is a design co-op, you ask? From Forge’s website: “Though we are a small team at the moment, we are constituted as a co-op, which means we operate as a democratic workplace and ascribe to the seven cooperative principles” as set forth by the International Cooperative Alliance. And they donate labor to causes they care about! Take that, capitalism.

By Design is a new podcast series about user experience and design from Fast Company. Hosted by Mark Wilson and Liz Stinson, it is a winner out of the gate. Their first episode is a deep dive with Pentagram partner and Design Observer co-founder, Michael Bierut. Michael has forgotten more about how design shapes the world than most people will ever know, and yes, he still works with pen and paper. Check out By Design here.

AI is coming for your SAAS. Come for the hype; stay for the massive security risk.
 
I now pronounce everyone. Reflecting on the 10th anniversary of the Obergefell v. Hodges SCOTUS ruling, which cleared the way for same-sex couples to marry, Jim Obergefell says, “It was this moment of, wait, we exist. Our nation’s highest court sees us and our relationships, our marriages, our families can actually exist on an equal footing with others.” 
 
Donald Trump wants a Nobel Prize. Well, join the club. Here’s a sharp analysis of who typically gets nominated (elites in Europe, scientists of humbler origins in the U.S.) and why. Turns out, opportunity is not equally distributed.  
 
Speaking of opportunity, spend some time wandering around the Opportunity Atlas, a fascinating interactive database created by the United States Census Bureau. The tool uses reams of anonymous data to uncover economic mobility trends for any demographic in any city or county in the U.S., allowing anyone to “trace the roots of today’s opportunity back to the neighborhoods where people grew up.”
 
For more opportunity and innovation news you can use, sign up for the Design of Business newsletter here. 
 
Experiential design is dead; long live experiential design. While this essay begins with a particular example that centers, unfortunately, on Cheez-its — specifically a retro diner with Cheez-It flavored milkshakes and an Instagrammably orange vibe — the point is a valid one. “When we experience a brand through our senses, it resonates on a more emotional level. We don’t just recognize it, we remember it,” says Jolene Delisle on Creative Bloq.
 
Congratulations to the winners of the 2025 Core77 Design Awards!
 
Critics of design and “design thinking” aren’t new, reminds Celine Nguyen, a designer and writer, in her review of The Invention of Design, a new book by designer and educator Maggie Gram. “Design works best when it knows what it can achieve and what it can’t; the history of design is full of utopian projects that failed to make a difference.” That said, there’s hope.

What if Leonardo da Vinci had designed drones? What if he actually did?
 
Urban food forests are an innovative and delicious way to mitigate heat and hunger in cities. Looking at you, Boston. Wicked smaht.
 
Parts of the U.S. are hotter than they’ve been in years.
 
Monotype, one of the world’s largest type design companies, has opinions on AI and has published them in a new report. Look for typefaces to come alive, to “leverage emotional and psychological data,” to tailor itself to the needs (and attention spans) of the reader. As designers increasingly turn to Midjourney as a sketchpad and use ever-evolving coding tools to build, a question arises: do we need this? “All over the art and design space, creatives are joining the ongoing gold rush to find the use case of AI in type design,” notes Geoffrey Bunting.

Working for a living

Cre8Play in Minneapolis, MN is looking for a Play Experience Designer.

As a Play Experience Designer, you’ll help shape one-of-a-kind playgrounds and custom play structures from concept to creation. More here.

Freedom unsung

“To look at the Declaration of Independence even now is to feel something profoundly genuine, deeply impactful, and comparatively primitive. The penmanship alone is redolent of a kind of seriousness of purpose that has rightfully endured, though not, it should be noted, without significant and widespread struggle,” said Jessica Helfand in 2011. “Two hundred and thirty five years after the signing of this legendary document, freedom remains imperiled in too many parts of the planet, and the States, though formally united, are not impervious to such issues. It is easy — too easy — to overlook such things here in the land of plenty, where bold advertisements from big-box stores promise happiness through discounted s    ales — materialistic nudges to remind us that party time is near, and we’d better get moving.”

This is the web version of The Observatory, our twice-monthly dispatch from the editors and contributors at Design Observer. Want it in your inbox? Sign up here. While you’re at it, come say hi on YouTube, Reddit, or Bluesky—and don’t miss the latest gigs on our Job Board.