Designer Things

I used to think pesticide labels were just legal jargon slapped onto bottles. Then I spent an afternoon in a rural clinic outside Fresno talking to a farmworker who’

The colossal stone heads stare at you with this unnerving weight, you know? I’ve spent maybe three years now looking at how Olmec art—those massive

The first time I stood beneath the serpent columns at Tula, I kept thinking about PowerPoint templates. Which sounds ridiculous, I know, but here’

I used to think the Nabis were just footnote painters—you know, the ones who came after the Impressionists but before anyone really cared about modern art.

I used to think stem weight was just about making letters bold or light, but that was before I spent three years staring at Garamond italics trying to

I used to think hotel logos were just, you know, logos. Then I spent three months staring at them—Marriott’s crisp serifM, Hilton’

I used to think packaging was just the thing you threw away to get to the good stuff. Turns out, beauty brands have been running what amounts to a visual

I used to think label regulations were straightforward—slap some text on a bottle, add a warning, call it done. Turns out the visual communication standards

I used to think poster design was just about making things look cool. Then I spent three months in Warsaw, stumbling through archives at the Academy of

I used to think weather icons were just little pictures. Then I started paying attention to how they actually work—how a single curved line can mean “