Observed | June 17
Molly Young reviews Alexandra Lange’s new book,
Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall. (
Read an excerpt here.) [JH]
Can you quantify creativity? [JH]
Zimbabwean born designer, visual artist, and educator
Nontsikelelo Mutiti has been appointed the next Director of Graduate Studies in Graphic Design at Yale School of Art. [JH]
Observed | June 03
A
critique of poster design goes viral. [JH]
Colin Forbes—who, with Alan Fletcher, Theo Crosby, Mervyn Kurlansky and Kenneth Grange co-founded the international design firm, Pentagram, in the early 1970s—has died at 94. [JH]
Are school shootings a design problem? Texas Senator Ted Cruz thinks so. [JH]]
In the United States, there are
five requirements for design patentability. Do you know what they are? [JH]
Italian design legend
Riccardo Falcinelli on design philosophy—and reality. [JH]
Read It And Weep Department: Just when you thought a more diverse cast of characters (think women and people of color, for starters) might actually be on their way to getting some long-overdue airtime, Austrian brothers Jono and Benji Bergmann release a film on ...
Bruce Mau! [JH]
Observed | April 29
Creatives for Ukraine, an open platform with over one thousand digital artworks submitted showing solidarity with Ukraine. [BV]
Trained as an Industrial designer at Notre Dame, Michigan state senator
Mallory McMorrow takes on the GOP. [JH]
Yup. [JH]
Designers! They’re just like us! “Grey’s friend Jamie Lee Curtis helped design the cover of
Out of the Corner, using what she described in a phone interview as
“D.I.Y. photoshop phone app skills.” [JH]
Observed | April 26
Award-winning American artist and illustrator, Marshall Arisman, has died at 83.
Steve Heller’s tribute is here. [JH]
Observed | April 08
Kevin Lippert, the founder of Princeton Architectural Press, has died after a long battle with cancer. He was 63. [JH]
Forbes offers “
graphic design on a budget” advise—in the name of leadership. [JH]
The saga to
redesign Rhode Island’s license plate continues, with design educators weighing in. [JH]
An early Easter gift for a grateful librarian:
Charles Darwin’s notebooks, long missing, mysteriously returned! (Via Jen Renninger) [JH]
Educator, artist, activist and civil rights era photographer
Doris Derby has died. She was 82. [JH]
Observed | March 18
MIT announces
The Morningside Academy for Design, a new hub for cross-disciplinary education, research, and innovation across the design professions, and which will be housed at the School of Architecture and Planning. [JH]
Karen Hoffman, a seasoned educator and industrial designer, is named the next President of ArtCenter, in California. She will be the first female president in the college’s ninety-year history. [JH]
Observed | March 11
The 2020 National Security Law, slogans, and the art of the pictogram:
a thread on Twitter. (via Blake Eskin.) [JH]
Owning the apple—one logo at a time. [JH]
Observed | March 04
Emeline King, Ford’s first black female transportation designer, has a few things to say about trailblazing. [JH]
Observed | February 25
The value of
well-designed work. [JH]
In Berlin:
Konstantin Grcic on design, function, and the new normal. [JH]
How to
design a bike lane. [JH]
Ernest Beck is a New York-based freelance writer and editor. 