Visions of sugar-plums

I enjoy the ritual of looking both backward and forward at the end of every calendar year.

Back to put my accomplishments and disappointments into perspective, and ahead to plan my next moves, hopefully with new wisdom and optimism.

Design Observer has had, in many ways, a banner year, with a growing crop of expert contributors, three podcast seasons, and a new presence at meaningful convenings like Config, Shapeshift Summit, Coqual, and Fortune’s Brainstorm Design. At a time when things continue to feel politically and emotionally divided, showing up matters.

Especially now.

Looking ahead, the world of design feels fraught with risk and promise.

With the rapid advent of new technological tools that will bring the cost of prototyping and iteration to near zero, the designer’s job will increasingly be about facilitating outcomes rather than creating artifacts. (We will dig more deeply into the trend next year.) It will be a new way of working and demonstrating value for many people, one that will require a mastery of processes, systems, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and, of course, leadership.

While I’m not a big fan of predictions, I am confident on this front: a new age of design relevance is coming to business and civic life. I’m excited about Design Observer’s role in documenting this re-emergence of design as an essential force in the world. As you may know, we love a good redesign story.

So, let’s get ready. And yet: we cannot lose the spark that makes beauty, meaning, and impact.

If there is one enduring insight from the now dozens of opinion pieces and reported stories we’ve published over the last year, it is that focus, craft, attention to detail, and deep observation — of self and world — remain the most critical tools in the toolbox.

I hope you’re able to devote some of this season of reflection to your own curiosity, growth, and creative spirit.

All of this is good for your soul, of course, but also the community of souls to which we must turn in order to thrive. If you want to be part of a creative village, start by being a creative villager.

Feed your instinct to wander and wonder. Follow your curiosity. Doodle. Notice when you linger on an image, a sound, a scent, an idea. Make note of your inner life.

Read some books.

Design Observer has long gravitated to the long-form for inspiration. Because we seek to serve a community of makers and thinkers, we spend a significant portion of our editorial bandwidth elevating the books, films, projects, and other long-form work that require time and expertise to create and that offer genuine, slow-release creative nourishment.

Below is our version of a gift guide, featuring excellent books for you to consider this season of giving, many of which are recommended by the amazing people we cover. Don’t be a Grinch; pick a couple from the list for yourselves.

Proceeds from sales at our Bookshop.org affiliate shop help fund our small newsroom; if you’ve enjoyed our work this year, we’d welcome your support. (Make sure to subscribe to our newsletters, listen to our podcasts, and share our content, too.)  It is a joyful way to make a living, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to do it.

But for now, a break. The Observatory newsletter will be back in January, along with a whole lot of inspiration in the form of new content, franchises, and ideas.

Many thanks to our new contributors and to the extraordinary editorial geniuses who have made this year shine: Sarah Gephart, Alexis Haut, Tom Hazlett, Adina Karp, Sheena Medina, Lee Moreau, Rachel Paese, L’Oreal Thompson Payton, Delaney Rebernik, and Katica Roy.

Have a lovely holiday season. Now go outside and play.

Ellen McGirt
Editor-in-Chief
[email protected]
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P.S. Did someone who loves you send you this newsletter? Welcome! Subscribe here.

This edition of The Observatory was edited by Delaney Rebernik.

This is the web version of The Observatory, our (now weekly) 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.

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DO holiday gift guide

Orbiting the Giant Hairball, Gordon McKenzie
“If I could put one book in the hands of a young designer looking to succeed today, I’d pick Gordon McKenzie’s Orbiting the Giant Hairball,” says Tony Bynum, the director of the Institute for Design’s new ID Academy. ”It’s an account of his time at Hallmark, where he tried to be creative in an environment that wasn’t conducive to creativity. Orbiting the big messy hairball of resistance is what we need to do in creative fields — and that often includes policy, bureaucracy, and bias. The hairball can be a lot of things; it’s how you navigate it that matters.”

How To, Michael Bierut

“It was the critical writing essays on design that Michael Beirut was collecting in his series of books that really shifted my worldview on how we should think, write, and explore the importance of our craft,” says Dave Snyder, partner and chief design officer of Siberia. “Design with the capital ‘D.’”

The Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron

“The book that made me a better designer was, without a doubt, and unsurprisingly, The Artist’s Way,” says designer and entrepreneur Dionna Dorsey. “If you’re a creative and you haven’t yet read this book, drop everything and read it now.”

The Real World of Technology, Ursula Franklin

“This is the one book I wish I’d read at the beginning of my career,” says Ethan Marcotte, who coined the term “responsive design” in 2010. “Franklin argues that ‘technology’ needs to be understood as a social force, one capable of reshaping — and, if we’re not careful, harming — people’s lives. Franklin’s writing rewired the way I think about my practice, and I wish every designer read this book.”

The Unknown Craftsman, Soetsu Yanagi

“A Japanese insight into beauty. A quiet, internal question that continuously resounds for me — what makes something beautiful?” says Jonsara Ruth, interior designer and co-founder of Parson’s Healthy Materials Lab. “I feel filled when I read these insights from the perspective of craft, clay, and the human interaction with materials. I have returned to this book for several decades.”

Lo-Tek:Design by Radical Indigenism, Julie Watson

“The book so beautifully exposed me to international, deeply imaginative, yet also incredibly eco-friendly and sustainable ways to solve human problems while always considering the health of the Earth,” says Ari Melenciano, artist, creative technologist, educator, and the founder of Afrotectopia, a social institution fostering interdisciplinary innovation.

Design for the Real World, Victor Papanek

Design for a Better World: Meaningful Sustainable, Humanity Centered, Don Norman

“I personally feel as a designer, especially now, we’re not just focused on one single challenges: form or shape or color,” says Sheng-Hung Lee, a Ph.D. researcher at the MIT AgeLab and Board Director at IDSA. “We’re focused on complicated challenges. It’s a collective decision process. And it’s cross-discipline.”

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Some fine print

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

‘Adulterations Detected:’ on the human impulse to prettify our food with poison. Do I detect a hint of copper in this Christmas pudding? Essay by Sithara Ranasinghe.

Dorothy and friends: Top film festival docs spotlight the women who’ve shaped media. Just a click tick after the release of ‘Wicked: For Good,’ DO’s arts commentator curates the best new documentaries on women who’ve captivated us on stage and screen — including Dorothy Gale herself. Essay by Susan Morris.

Making ‘change’ the product: Phil Gilbert on transforming IBM from the inside out. In a wide-ranging conversation with Design Observer, the architect of IBM’s “Hallmark” transformation explains why most corporate transformations fail, and why treating change like a premium product may be the only way organizations thrive in an AI-driven future. Interview by Ellen McGirt.

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Job board

Senior Designer for Widgetsmith at Cross Forward inc, Remote

Automotive Creative Designer at Stellantis, Auburn Hills, MI

Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at College for Creative Studies, Detroit, MI

Tenure-Track Assistant Profession in Architecture / Interior Architecture at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago, IL

Intermediate Interior Designer at MIKO Interior Design in York, PA or Remote

Lippincott – Senior Designer at Lippincott in New York, NY

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Yesterday and today

Michael Bierut on his love of The Nutcracker ballet and a chance meeting with a ballerina:

“My favorite part occurs at the end of the first act, during the Waltz of the Snowflakes. As they begin their dance, snow begins to fall on the stage of the New York State Theater at Lincoln Center, first a few flakes, then more, then a virtual blizzard. The dancers create dizzying patterns on the stage as their feet cut through the mounting drifts. The effect is breathtaking and, yes, magical. I’d like to think that I’ve become sophisticated after years of design practice, but I must say this staged snowstorm affects me as if I were a nine-year-old,” he writes. “What’s the snow made of?”

This is the web version of The Observatory, our (now weekly) 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.

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