Design Observer

Climate change, Drake’s take on James Turrell, an IKEA horror catalog

Michael Bierut’s monograph, the lost art of album art, ugliness

IKEA and Facebook efforts for refugees, e-reading, Adrian Frutiger, Phil Patton

A wartime vestige in the air of San Francisco.

Aylan Kurdi, photojournalism, airline posters, early television

Google’s new logo, design thinking, and lessons from Oliver Sacks

Rainbows, selfie sticks, and the flag of New Zealand

Visualizing new horizons, from Pluto to Porto

Art, nostalgia, and community; Dannemora’s racist escape note; and Rachel Carson for the new $10.

Mentioned: Milan, Mario Batali, Michelle Obama, Moshe Safdie, Modernism, MOO (our sponsor), Michael Erard, metaphor design, Macintosh icons, Massimo Vignelli, Material Design (moronic!), metastasis, mapping expectations of the future world against a reality that is myopic.

The latest verbal sparring match between Jessica Helfand and Michael Bierut. Are boxing and photography hipster pleasures? Are they past their prime, or do they have a bright future? Plus: Michael on that time he got punched in the nose.

Michael and Jessica discuss the Doomsday Clock, Canada‘s anniversary logo, and Tim Geithner’s infographic challenge for MBA students.

A trip to San Francisco reminds Jessica that design can mean something very different in technology companies than it did for “classically trained graphic designers of a certain generation,” i.e. her and Michael. “Culturally, what has shifted is that they work in teams and they don't have the same kind of understanding of one person making one thing at one time.”

A new sonic tour of the Bay Area's fringes. This installment: Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz Island

Silence often demarcates power, while it can also be used as a tool in response. In the case of Bayview that afternoon, silence was a compounded diffusion of many agencies of power, from those who have been silenced to those who have chosen to remain silent. Surrounding a small vivacious street party, the only other thing left to hear in a few hours listen was the ominous quiet of the status quo.

Michael Bierut and Jessica Helfand discuss the The Grid, which uses artificial intelligence to design websites, the history of grids, and the unlikely success of coloring books for adults.

Michael Bierut and Jessica Helfand talk about death (not taxes): how designers have to think about preventing death and representing death, and whether death is “just another design challenge.” Also, the color blue.

Michael Bierut and Jessica Helfand talk about a panel they participated in at "Everything Is Design", the Paul Rand exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York, plus the return of Mad Men and the fate of photography giants Kodak and Polaroid.

A few weeks ago we bolted north up the I-80 to check out some sound art being performed inside one of Mare’s old concrete munitions storage magazines leftover from World War II. The Island (which is actually a peninsula), was established in 1852 by the Navy for ship repair, and later grew into the largest ship construction/repair facility in the world during World War II. Since 1996 the base on Ma...

Michael Bierut and Jessica Helfand talk about Jonathan Ive, Apple’s senior vice president for design, and the rollout of the Apple Watch. They consider everything from the questionable wisdom of rounded corners to the typography of the WATCH logo.

Michael Bierut and Jessica Helfand talk about graphic designers on screen, inspired by "FYI I’m a Graphic Designer", a supercut by Central St. Martins students Ellen Mercer and Lucy Streule. They also talk about highlights from Design Observer’s What Design Sounds Like symposium, and Michael’s trip to Design Indaba.

A new series of audio explorations of the Bay Area by Nick Sowers and Bryan Finoki.

Michael Bierut and Jessica Helfand look ahead to Design Observer’s "What Design Sounds Like", a one-day symposium in New York on February 21st, and to "Everything Is Design: The Work of Paul Rand", an exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York that runs from February 25th to July 19th.

Michael Bierut and Jessica Helfand talks about Jessica's Paris 140 series, and Michael describes his 100 Day Project.

Michael Bierut and Jessica Helfand discuss the midterm election and currency design. Plus Jessica imitates a London cabbie, and Michael nails the pronunciation of our sponsor, MailChimp.