Books
Adrian Shaughnessy
What is Post-Branding: The Never Ending Race
 A review of What is Post-Branding: How to Counter Fundamentalist Marketplace Semiotics.
Hannah Carlson
Schiaparelli’s Pockets
 Sensible aspects of clothing are “no sooner put into use than put into play,” dress historian Ann Hollander observed.

On Fighting the Typatriarchy
 "My intent was to make a typeface that stands for the strength of a woman at different times in her life. In Indian culture, a woman is expected to be the powerhouse of responsibilities." An excerpt from Feminist Designer.
Stuart Walker
Design Criticism
 An excerpt from Stuart Walker’s new book Design for Resilience.

William Kentridge: Prints and Posters
 A taste of the first installment in an epic catalogue of William Kentridge’s linocuts, etchings, monotypes, posters, and more.
Adrian Shaughnessy
Hello Human
 A review of Michael Horsham’s Hello Human: A History of Visual Communication, out now from Thames & Hudson.
Jessica Helfand
Henry Leutwyler: International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum
 An interview with photographer Henry Leutwyler that explores his photographic record of some of the nearly 30,000 objects in the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum in Geneva.
Manuel Lima
The New Designer: Design is Local
 An excerpt from Manuel Lima’s latest book, The New Designer.



Susan Magsamen, Ivy Ross
Your Brain on Art: Creating Community
 An excerpt from the book Your Brain on Art by Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross.
Don Norman
Design for a Better World
 An excerpt from Don Norman’s new book, Design for a Better World.
Dana Arnett, Kevin Bethune
S10E12: Decolonizing Design
 Decolonizing Design: A Cultural Justice Guidebook is a guidebook to the institutional transformation of design theory and practice by restoring the long-excluded cultures of Indigenous, Black, and People of Color communities.
Daniella Zalcman
What We See
 The inaugural book from Women Photograph, What We See, is a broad survey that represents the equally broad careers of our members.
Pamela Hovland
Ecological by Design: A History From Scandinavia
 Dr. Kjetil Fallan’s "Ecological by Design: A History From Scandinavia" is a book I will be thinking about for a long time.

A Story Made of Pictures
 An excerpt from A History of the World (in Dingbats) by David Byrne.




Snails & Monkey Tails
 There are countless books that can teach you the alphabet, but almost none that focus on the tiny designs that run interference among the letterforms: those easily overlooked punctuation and typographic symbols.
Sloan Leo
The Infrastructure of Care: Community Design, Healing & Organizational Post-Traumatic Growth
 This essay interrogates the relationship between power, decision-making, and organizational healing. It asserts that community design as a practice offers a theoretical framework for organizational dynamic healing that structurally enables those harmed to set the pace and nature of resolution and repair.
Maurice Cherry
Make the Path by Talking
 The Birth of Revision Path: The year is 2006.
adrienne maree brown + Lesley-Ann Noel
This Is Our Time!
 adrienne maree brown on design, liberation and transformation as told to Lesley-Ann Noel.

Health Design Thinking



Our Will to Live
 An excerpt from Our Will to Live, a new book out from Steidl featuring 250 rarely seen concert posters, programs, portraits and scenes rendered by imprisoned artists of the Terezín prison camp.

Jens Risom: A Seat at the Table
 An excerpt from Vicky Lowry’s new book "Jens Risom: A Seat at the Table", out this week from Phaidon.



Debbie Millman
Ai Weiwei
 Ai Weiwei joins Debbie Millman to discuss his new memoir 1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows, depicting a century-long epic tale of China told through a story of his family.
The Editors
Woman Made
 A new story of women product designers is told in Woman Made.



Tucker Viemeister
Drama
 A review of Drama, a new opus from David Rockwell, by Tucker Viemeister.

A Photographer at a Wedding
 Midwife. Funeral director. Wedding photographer. You meet them once on a delicate day. They quickly slip into the inner circle of a family to perform their role during this rite of passage, and then they are gone.

Clara Istlerová, Her Work and Life



äntrepō: Volume 1
 äntrepō is a studio project by the DC-based design practice Spaeth Hill.
Robert Finkel + Shea Tillman
The IBM Poster Program
 IBM’s mid-century corporate creative direction usually brings to mind Paul Rand, but it’s staff graphic designers and photographers developed posters as a platform for elevating internal communications and initiatives within the company.
Jessica Helfand + Ellen McGirt
S9E4: Na Kim
 Na Kim is an associate creative director at the book publisher Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Susan Yelavich
Beings: Unruly Things, Golems, Cyborgs
 Stories of the supranatural would seem to be among those childish things it is long time we put away. But somehow we never do.
Kaleena Sales
Teaching Black Designers
 The vibrant complexities of the urban landscape create visual impressions in the mind, eventually serving as a mental library of stored images to use or reference when necessary.
Ellen Lupton
Confidence Equity
 Are we born with confidence, or do we earn it? If we don’t have it, how can we get it?

Origins of Design Patents
 Although the story of design patents is closely intertwined with that of industrial design, in fact design patents predate the emergence of industrial design as an organized professional discipline by nearly a century.

Sign Painting
 In the last ten years or so we have truly witnessed a resurgence of the sign painter’s craft.
The Editors
Self-Reliance
 To think through making, to know yourself better through the process of producing something.

The New Art of Making Books
 Founded in Philadelphia in 2016, Ulises is a collectively run art bookstore and exhibition space, who edited the recently published Publishing As Practice.
Jason Hill
Artist as Reporter
 In the 1940s the New York daily newspaper PM’s experimented with the then already "lost art" of sketch reporting.
Sean Adams
How Design Makes Us Think
 An excerpt from Sean Adams’ new book "How Design Makes Us Think".
Augusta Pownall
Rational Simplicity: Rudolph de Harak, Graphic Designer
 An interview with Richard Poulin, the long-overdue first comprehensive monograph of Rudolph de Harak’s work.
Adrian Shaughnessy
Impact
 Today, we use the internet and social media feeds to stay abreast of developments, but we used to rely on the design press. Already, most of the major players have left the stage. Will the few remaining stalwarts be around in 10 years’ time?

Covering Black America
 Decades ago, the great artist, poet, musician, and author Gil Scott-Heron famously proclaimed, “The revolution will not be televised.” He was right...It was, however, delivered monthly to newsstands and Black homes within the pages of Ebony.
Steven Heller
A Month With President Obama
 I spent last month, approximately three hours-a-night, seven-days-a-week, with President Barack H. Obama.
Steven Heller
Imagine, Observe, Remember
 The poetically enigmatic title says it all: Imagine, Observe, Remember; it is a book about process, memory, remembrance and interpretation.
Jessica Helfand
On Learning
 What resonates most unequivocally here is Emerson ’s plea for individuality—that iron string—the sovereignty of selfhood.



Steven Heller
Milton Glaser’s First Last Hurrah
Sketch & Finish illustrates Glaser’s teaching agenda, which is to say, one makes sketches to explore the unknown.
Patrick Fry
Magic Papers
 Magic is largely a solitary endeavour, but the channels of its tips and tricks had a little-known heyday around a hundred years ago.
Jessica Helfand + Claire Weisz
On Architecture
 Herewith, the first in a series of conversations with artists, architects, photographers, cinematographers, designers and makers of all kinds, from all over the world.

Word Rain
 In fall of 1969, a strange and brilliant book came into the world.



Steven Heller
The Influence of Nightlife on Design
 Cabarets, cafes, and nightclubs are as essential to the development of Modern avant garde art and design movements as are galleries, salons, and museums.
Steven Heller
Let’s Give Thanks for Books About Magazines
 If you love print magazines and bemoan their demise Steven Heller has seasonal gift suggestions for you.
Steven Heller
The Novel That Took Me Down Jojo’s Rabbit Hole
 Steven Heller interviews the author of "Caging Skies", the novel the new film Jojo Rabbit is based on.



Steven Heller
Dave King (RIP)
 Last January I thought I had received an email from a ghost.



Steven Heller
Booklover’s Guide to Le-Tan
 Steven Heller on illustrator Pierre Le-Tan and his daughter Cleo Le-Tan’s A Booklover’s Guide to New York.



Steven Heller
The Motivational Industrial Complex
 This publishing season I’ve found three motivational books, each on the benefits of creative activity that, despite the biases noted above, I would suggest you read, if only to be entertained.
Jonas Banker + Ida Wessel
Process
 The purpose pf this book is to reveal how physical sketching intertwines with critical thinking in the creative process, well beyond theoretical design jargon.
Steven Heller
The Bauhaus is Forever
 You can never have too much Bauhaus.
Debbie Millman
Austin Kleon
 Debbie talks with Austin Kleon, who describes himself as ’a writer who draws’.
Alex Cameron
On The Graphic Design Reader
Teal Triggs’ and Leslie Atzmon’s The Graphic Design Reader is as challenging as it is necessary.
Steven Heller
Don Wall: Brave New Book Design
Steven Heller talks to architect Don Wall about his radical book from 1971: Visionary Cities: the Arcology of Paolo Soleri.
Brian LaRossa
Why it Matters to Me if Designers Read and Write
 Literacy means being an engaged and responsible citizen. It means building sympathy and empathy. It means being radically curious and pursuing meaning with a sense of purpose.
Ken Gordon
Designers Like You Should Read Machines Like Me
 People, you might have noticed, are wracking their brains to understand artificial intelligence.
Debbie Millman
Elizabeth Gilbert
 Debbie talks with Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of Eat, Pray, Love about the love of her life and her latest book City of Girls.
The Editors
Whose Book and Cover Designs are the Best of 2018?
 Announcing the 2018 50 Books | 50 Covers selections.
Brian LaRossa
Should Book Publishing Leave New York City?
 America’s publishing trade took root and flourished in New York because the city’s cultural and geographic conditions created an optimal environment for that to happen.
Steven Heller
Seymour Chwast: Few Words, Many Letters
 Seymour Chwast, a man of few words, wishes there were more than 26 letters in the alphabet.
Ken Gordon
In the Future, Life Online Could Be “The Trial”—Unless We Design Something Better
The Trial is seen as prophetic by many.
Steven Heller
Photographing Science
 The role that image makers have in the fields of science and engineering is more vital, especially now.
Steven Heller
Born to be Posthumous
 Your book on Edward Gorey has been a long term journey for you. I know why I want to spend time reading it, but why did you want to invest so much of your life in Gorey’s head?
Jon Contino
Branding Baseball By Hand
 Baseball, survivial, tradition, make-believe: the most exciting way to spend an afternoon.



Observed


Turns out, Thomas Edison once tried to claim credit for an invention created by the most prolific Black inventor of the 19th century because, of course he did. Granville T. Woods was the first to patent the induction telegraph, which allowed moving trains to send messages to stations. Edison lost a nuisance suit he filed against Woods over the patent, but the world got the last laugh: Woods is still widely known as the “Black Edison.”  

The 2023 winners of the Prototypes for Humanity Awards honor innovations in the design and development of synthetic yeast, weed-generated plastic alternatives, and an app called Kapak that flags suspicious procedures and raises awareness about corruption risks. 

Humorist, cartoonist and unparalleled observer of ennui, Roz Chast also does embroidery.

Now that human-centered design has had its moment—let's all say a big hello to LOON-CENTRIC DESIGN.

"Every aspect of her—her voice, her carry. her tone, her charisma—all these things spoke to me visually and sonically," observes designer, sculptor, and afrofuturist Angelbert Metoyer. His statue, I am Barbara Jordan, was unveiled last weekend in Houston. And in Pittsburgh, Daniel Liebeskind reflects on his monument honoring the victims of the 2018 synagogue attack. “It’s not a cemetery,” notes the architect." It has to be an affirmation of life.”

Design, as a professional field, feels broken to some practitioners. A new book, What Design Can’t Do: Essays on Design and Delusion by Lisbon-based designer and writer Silvio Lorusso, offers sanctuary. “What was once a promising field rooted in problem-solving has become a problem in itself,” he writes. “The skill set of designers appears shaky and insubstantial – their expertise is received with indifference, their know-how is trivialised by online services…If you see yourself as a designer without qualities; if you feel cheated, disappointed or betrayed by design, this book is for you.”

Designers are podcasting now! (We know, we know.)

Is it a car? Is it an art installation? Behold solar designer Marjan van Aubel's genre-bending sculptural interpretation of the Lexus Future Zero-emission Catalyst (LF-ZC) concept car.

Art Basel Miami Beach: ain’t nothing but a party. 

Mice, evidently, are now self-aware. (Which may explain why none are running for U.S. president.)

Leading us ever closer to a landfill-free circular economy, designers are turning to waste as an increasingly flexible material. Using fruit peel, orange seeds, and coffee ground waste collected from businesses in Italy, Krill, a Milan-based design firm, creates products that can be redistributed to the same businesses for use in their offices, instead of furniture made from common plastics. They've created (and patented) a plastic-like biomaterial they call Rekrill: it's fully organic, biodegradable, and can be used over and over again. (Spoiler: it's also expensive.)

Volkswagen, Volvo, Chrysler, BMW, Porsche, Bugatti, Audi, Ford, Kia, General Motors, and Mercedes-Benz all have male design heads, yet women buy more than 60 percent of all new cars sold in the Unted States. Will the rise in the design and production change all that? Debatable.

How Samuel Ross thinks about the design of a park bench as an opportunity to “house” the body.

Did you know that the humble graham cracker was once a symbol of dietary restraint? That chewing gum was once a substitute for rubber? That away from the bar cart, brandy has been used as a cardiac catalyst and a sedative? Design (and intentionality) in food and flavor profiles: a compendium!

The entirety of Logan Airport's candy apple red Terminal E was designed around the concept of efficiency, for travelers and airport workers alike. A curvy structure boasting floor to ceiling windows, ultra-high ceilings, and literally no right angles in sight, Spanish architect Luis Vidal has introduced an iconic structure painted a prismatic red and clad in more than 52,000 square feet of something called photovoltaic glass. (Which, as it turns out, generates its own electricity.) Internal innovations include a sensory room, a space for anxious fliers or neurodivergent travelers who might need a visual and auditory respite from a bustling terminal. “Airports are the cathedrals of the 21st century,” observes the architect. “They serve as the main gateway of countries, requiring a bold presence to leave a positive and lasting impression on the traveler. They must be design-focused because ultimately, everything in a well-designed airport revolves around the freedom of the passenger.”

Through December 16, The Italian Cultural Institute in Lima, Peru is exhibiting a series of posters designed by graphic designers and artists between 1923 and 2022, which collectively tell the story of the 23 editions of the Triennale Milano International Exhibition to date. (You can explore the posters online here.)

Nigerian designer Nifemi Marcus-Bello is an empath, an optimist, and an (aptly) self-described archivist. In addition to his own robust and increasingly global practice, his personal research project (entitled Africa – A Designer)  will be exhibited in Europe next summer. The project looks to document and archive unauthorized Indigenous designed objects that have found their way into our daily lives. 

Long-time Design Observer contributor (and self-professed "student of mall history") Alexandra Lange reviews The Well, a mixed-use space in Toronto. “The result,” Lange observes, “is a bit like adaptive reuse gone Vegas: bigger, smoother, and more mechanically “different” from building to building than a neighborhood that has grown organically.”

An overwhelming amount of media is disproportionately owned by a uniform, wealthy class of global industrialists. Which makes Nukhu—a model and forum for community minded cinema, based in New York—an etraordinary thing to behold. Founded in 2016 by Sanjay Singh, Nukhu's mission empowers independent BIPOC artists and in so doing, nurtures an enlightened artistic community. In an industry where financial backing and recognition remain formidable challenges for independent filmmakers, Nukhu emerges as a beacon of hope and empowerment, standing at the forefront of a movement dedicated to facilitating opportunities and reshaping the narrative for independent artists. (Read more about their Nukhu-powered celebration—called Nukhufest—here.)

Climate TRACE (Tracking Real-time Atmospheric Carbon Emissions) is a global coalition of nonprofits, tech companies, and universities working to make meaningful climate action faster and easier by independently tracking greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, harnessing satellite imagery and other forms of remote sensing, artificial intelligence, and data science expertise to identify human-caused GHG emissions when and where they happen. The website is fast, responsive and frankly, brilliant.

Also in Miami this week, the Japanese female wrestling league Sukeban will be taking over Miami’s Lot 11 Skatepark for one night only to crown its first-ever World Champion. (Stream it here.) In Japanese, Sukeban translates as “delinquent girl,” a nod to the female equivalent of the male banchō in Japanese culture. According to Olympia Le-Tan, a fashion designer and the league’s creative director, the importance of projecting each wrestler’s personality and character through their costume was crucial. (Don't miss the belts.)

Remember Tilly Talbot—billed as the world's first AI designer? She was first announced by our friends at Dezeen last spring, made an appearance at Milan Design Week and beginning today, is “in residence” at The Standard in Miami, for Miami Art Week. Tilly—a bot—was invented by Snoop Studio founder Amanda Talbot after “pondering the relationship between AI and human loneliness, programming her under the studio’s principles of human-centered design that prioritizes nature.” Adds the human Talbot: ”Tilly will challenge you on materials." 

Seventh-generation Diné (Navajo) designer, textile artist, and weaver (and according to her Instagram, part time skater and model) Naiomi Glasses is the inaugural artist in residence … at Ralph Lauren.

The 22nd annual ArtReview 100 is here — click through for an eclectic and inspiring array of artists, many of whom use their platforms to speak truth to power. Photographer Nan Goldin tops the list; her most recent work has been dedicated to exposing the art world’s complicity in the opioid epidemic by accepting money from the Sackler family.  

Love Odih Kumuyi offers an excellent blueprint for designing meetings for inclusion and innovation. It’s all about the psychological safety. “Based on current dynamics or past experiences, individuals have a generalized sense of whether their voices will be received with respect or silenced and dismissed. Leaders asking for individuals to vulnerably share ideas must carefully curate an environment where the rules of engagement are in alignment with principles of psychological safety.” 

The controversial president of the COP28 climate summit, Sultan Al Jaber, does not seem to be on board with fossil fuel targets. “[P]lease, help me, show me a roadmap for a phase-out of fossil fuels that will allow for sustainable socio-economic development, unless you want to take the world back into caves,” he said at last month's She Changes Climate summit. 

London-based designer Brendan Callaghan obscures typography through a series of imagined destinations in his project, Untold Roads—an exquisite site for adventurers—or, frankly, for anyone who appreciates a beautifully articulated demonstration of what happens when form reinforces content. See the case study here.

In Boston, Northeastern University is looking for a full-time Professor in Design, Civic/Social Values and Democracy. Details here.

Minnesota flag finalists' entries into a statewide competition all reflect common themes and elements: all of them have a star, a nod to the state's motto "L'Etoile du Nord," and some shade of blue (for the land of 10,000 lakes). FairVote Minnesota—an organization which advocates for implementing ranked choice voting—conducted the election, and more than 12,000 people cast their vote. Here's the winner.

The first graphic appeared on a Kansas plate in 1942, with sunflowers on the lower left and right sides. Since then it's been a wild ride. (If you're late to the Plategate party, here's a primer.)



Jobs | December 11