Design Observer

A colleague of mine, a designer with over fifteen years of experience and someone I respect, recently came to me frustrated. Another senior executive showed up to a meeting with prototypes. Folks whose domain, until five minutes ago, was limited to PowerPoint or Excel. They were bringing AI-created prototypes and ideas to the table and, in his view, undermining the design team’s judgment, process, and role. I understood the feeling, but I also told him I thought it was a good thing. 

Is there nothing Zohran Mamdani can’t do? The charismatic mayor of New York City is barely six months in office, and kids are getting day care, potholes are being filled, and the Knicks are in the finals. NYC is in a very good mood these days. So, it should come as no surprise that his first big outreach to the design community is for city-owned grocery stores. “Grocery prices are rising faster than wages, so we’re launching 5 city-owned grocery stores with lower prices,”&nbsp

Editor’s note:This is the third installment of a 10-part series on design lessons learned from Reclaiming Value, Murmur Ring’s four-day multi-disciplinary immersion in Peru’s Sacred Valley. Read more of the series here.  When Latin American design is discussed, it is often framed through references to traditional Indigenous art or to the architectural legacies of Barragán, Niemeyer, and Legorreta. While these references indeed reflect a strong track record of innovation and design,

Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence, was signed on May 15, 2026 — the 135th anniversary of Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum — and formally released on May 25.  It weighs in at 42,300 words, and I confess I haven’t read it in its entirety yet. But a surprising number of people have — some turning it into an unboxing-style commentary event on social media, a throwback to simple

Read the introduction to this series. Decomposition 01  Archival ink on paper with pencil, conte crayon and waxed thread8 x 10 inches2026 I have separately begun a series of drawings exploring the line language that comes from combining an apparatus with a human form. Not quite cyborgs, these hybrid explorations tease at movement and stasis, veering into anatomical dislocation and a new (for me) kind of visual language. Pencil and paper. Some watercolor. Waxed thread, (because, w

larger than life: Portraits of Transgender People is an exhibition including nine (true to its name) larger-than-life 65×45 inch canvases with bright-colored portraits of trans people. “I didn’t know whether they were going be shown or what impact they were going to have. I just knew I needed to paint them,” says artist Nina Katz. And painting was the best way to humanize them. “It was the only way I knew to present them as the cool people they are,” she says.  Courtesy of the

larger than life: Portraits of Transgender People is an exhibition including nine (true to its name) larger-than-life 65×45 inch canvases with bright-colored portraits of trans people. “I didn’t know whether they were going be shown or what impact they were going to have. I just knew I needed to paint them,” says artist Nina Katz. And painting was the best way to humanize them. “It was the only way I knew to present them as the cool people they are,” she says.  Courtesy of the

Debbie Millman is a designer, brand expert, educator, master interviewer, and dear friend of Design Observer. Her most recent short TED Talk, “You Got What You Wanted, Now What?” was posted this spring. It’s a don’t-miss. She began with a powerful insight she gleaned after some 20 years at the helm of her award-winning podcast, Design Matters. “In one episode several years ago, I interviewed a famous painter about a recent exhibition, a show that had taken years to create. Given the m

Triumph’s End24 x 24 inchesOil on canvas2025 I am, I now realize, nearing the end of this exploration. Narratives unpacked, etymologies revealed, a story deconstructed, unpacked, reimagined. So many ups and downs in the studio. So many ups and downs in this story. Everyone forgets that Icarus also flew, Jack Gilbert writes in Failing and Flying. I believe Icarus was not failing as he fell  but just coming to the end of his triumph. I am thinking about the flight from the

Disturber of the Unseen24 x 24 inches2026 The poet Mary Bernard called Icarus a disturber of the unseen.   The New York Times called Lindbergh the Icarus of the twentieth century.  I wonder why we equate martyrdom with unfinished acts, as though an incomplete mission eviscerates its intention.   Lost Horizon20 x 16 inchesOil on canvas2026 (Sold) “We are never tired”, wrote Emerson, “so long as we can see far enough”. The post 18: Perspective appeared first

In his recent oral arguments, Chief Justice John Roberts described Louisiana’s newly defunct 6th Congressional District as a snake, a caustic nod to the way it wound across the state, spanning some 200 miles connecting parts of Baton Rouge, Shreveport, Alexandria, and Lafayette.   (We’ve been describing it as a sash, but why quibble?) Credit: Wikimedia Commons District 6 is now gone, erased by new lines drawn by a familiar hand, a voting map created after a mara

Editor’s note: This is the fourth installment of an ongoing series on design lessons learned from Reclaiming Value, Murmur Ring’s four-day multi-disciplinary immersion in Peru’s Sacred Valley. Along with insights from individual participants, the series explores the question: what makes a meaningful convening?  Read more here. At 11,700 feet above sea level, surrounded by mountains and on the edge of an Inca ruin, I learned about an ancient Andean principle that prompted me to reflect on how

Sam Furness, cultural producer, experience designer, and founder of Channel Twelve, hates the word hobby.  “‘Hobby’ implies that it’s an activity that doesn’t go anywhere. Try telling that to somebody who works a 9 to 5 soulless job, but they have an art studio in their spare bedroom. That’s where they like bring their soul to life.” “Hobbies” are exactly the things that take you places, he argues. Furness knows the power of pouring into his own creative

Solar ComplexOil on canvas30 x 17 inches2025 An Icarus Complex is a psychiatric classification characterized by extreme ambition, high-risk behavior, and recklessness. To be Icarian is to be excessively ambitious. Foolhardy. Possibly (probably) to some extent delusional. Once upon a time, this was called a Solar Complex. (Which sounds like a utility farm.)  Although the idea of converting sunlight into electricity feels right, somehow. Moth seeks flame. Man seeks fame.  May

Sam Furness, cultural producer, experience designer, and founder of Channel Twelve, hates the word hobby.  “‘Hobby’ implies that it’s an activity that doesn’t go anywhere. Try telling that to somebody who works a 9 to 5 soulless job, but they have an art studio in their spare bedroom. That’s where they like bring their soul to life.” “Hobbies” are exactly the things that take you places, he argues. Furness knows the power of pouring into his own creative curiosity. Years ago, wh

As someone guiding design leaders and their teams through this rapidly changing era of AI and automation, it’s my responsibility to understand their vulnerabilities and the ways they can get ahead. To gain this insight, I spoke to friends and colleagues who are in operations, in finance, C-suite, and management consultants. What emerged was an understanding that right now, businesses are being blindly driven to use AI for efficiency, at the expense of everything else. They aren’t looking past

“I love gossip,” says Deborah Khodanovich, MFA student at the Rhode Island School of Design and creator of her very own gossip-inspired typeface. She took Gutenberg’s first lead type font, Textura, and subverted its authoritative, biblical connotations, turning it into a tool for storytelling.  Culminating in a downloadable typeface, an icon set inspired by Susan Kare’s Cairo glyphs, a textile project, a book of images of women gossiping, and a sociological study, this project aimed to a

Design Observer was invited to visit Elixir Design studio in San Francisco, to learn more about their 27-year quest to create brand experiences that reflect their client’s best and truest qualities.  We were immediately set upon by two adorable curly dogs. This is a clue. Elixir is a branding agency, best known for the diversity in the types of companies they work with — from San Francisco community staples like SF Jazz, Tipping Point Community, SF MoMA, and UCSF to co

Design Observer was invited to visit the Elixir Design studio in San Francisco, to learn more about their 27-year quest to create brand experiences that reflect their client’s best and truest qualities.  We were immediately set upon by two adorable curly dogs. This is a clue. Elixir is a branding agency, best known for the diversity in the types of companies they work with — from San Francisco community staples like SF Jazz, Tipping Point Community, SF MoMA, and UCSF to com

A Boy Who’s Gone Too FarOil on canvas24 x 24 inches2026 Today was a hard day in the studio. I made a lot of mistakes. I had to start over and over and over again. I hated everything I did. Poor decisions. Many of them. Most, actually. Then, I went in too intensely with the red at some point around the eyes, and something happened. Red eyes happened. Of course. The first thing to heat up—tears, burning, inflammation—all of it. This is a violent story, and red sounds the alarm.