Designer Things

I used to think the crossbar on a letter was just, you know, there. But here’s the thing—typography researchers have been obsessing over crossbar

I used to think Olympic logos were just… logos. Then I spent an embarrassing number of hours staring at decades worth of them, and here’

I used to think packaging design was just about making things look pretty on shelves. Then I spent three months watching focus groups react to disability-inclusive

I used to think textile patterns were just pretty designs people slapped on fabric. Then I spent three weeks in Cajamarca, Peru, watching a weaver named

I used to think environmental portraits were just fancy background shots. Turns out, the space around a subject does something far more complicated than I’

Political cartoons hit different when you realize they’ve been dragging politicians for something like 400 years, give or take a decade.

I used to think user-centered design was just common sense—like, of course you’d ask people what they want before building something. Turns out, it’

I used to think the recycling symbol was just, you know, universal. Turns out the three-arrow Mobius loop—the one we’ve all seen on everything from

I used to think photography was about capturing single, perfect moments—until I stumbled across Bernd and Hilla Becher’s water towers.

I used to think luxury brands sold products. Turns out, they’ve been selling something far more intangible for decades now—a visual dialect that