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05.14.13: Alexandra Lange
Anxiety, Culture and CommerceIs the museum store a distraction or an enticement?
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03.18.13: Alexandra Lange
Instagramming Around AustraliaLessons from contemporary Australian architecture, plus what I saw on Instagram.
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03.07.13: Alexandra Lange
After the Museum: The TumblrTo create metamuseum.tumblr.com, a multi-museum, multi-curator Tumblr @MADMuseum, I saw it as a kind of curatorial game: Show Me What You’ve Got.
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01.14.13: Michael Bierut
Graphic Design Criticism as a Spectator SportMichael Bierut on logo redesign outrages, what they mean, and why we should demand more.
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12.10.12: Mark Lamster, Alexandra Lange
Lunch With The Critics: Third-Annual Year-End AwardsIdiosyncratic awards bestowed on architecture, design and media.
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11.21.12: Alexandra Lange
3rd Annual Holiday Card ReviewHoliday card designs for 2012 reveal the social media preoccupations of their buyers, whether it is Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram or old-fashioned (perhaps Downton Abbey-inspired?) stationery.
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10.14.12: Alexandra Lange
Shopping With Sandro, and Other Tumblr DelightsDigitizing the Miller House Collection, and other museum and corporate visual archives on Tumblr.
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09.25.12: Rob Walker
Crowdcrit vs. Apple MapsAn instant Tumblr responds to Apple's maps app, and demonstrates the art of the creative takedown.
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08.21.12: Alexandra Lange
Critics Critical CriticismMeta-criticism all over the blogosphere (but why only about books?)
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07.31.12: Alexandra Lange
The Critical OlympicsWhat the best sports commentary does is just like criticism: it makes you care about the previously abstract.
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06.15.12: Alexandra Lange
The Charismatic Megafauna of DesignIdentifying the "charismatic megafauna" of design and the critical uses of their popularity.
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06.09.12: Alexandra Lange
Introducing Strelka PressOn Strelka Press, a new "digital first" publisher of longform architecture and design criticism.
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05.02.12: Alexandra Lange
Against Kickstarter UrbanismYou can Kickstart an edible spoon, but not a city.
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11.03.11: Rick Poynor
This Post has Been Declared a Link-free ZoneLinks can greatly enrich an online text, but are they also a counterproductive distraction from reading?
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09.06.11: Alexandra Lange
Stop That: Minimalist PostersMake a minimalist poster, see your work travel the digital world.
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08.31.11: Alexandra Lange
Announcing LetsGetCritical.orgMy new blog collects the best arts & culture criticism, essays and reviews.
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07.13.11: Rick Poynor
The House That Design Journalism BuiltPrinted design magazines continue to fail and close. Where does that leave design writing and criticism?
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07.07.11: Alexandra Lange
Would You Like Words With That?A meditation on how we shop, organize and get rid of stuff online.
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06.08.11: Rob Walker
Dedigitization“Digital goods” are increasingly seen as having real value. Increasingly, though, things from the digital world are crossing over into physical manifestations that can be bought and sold.
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06.01.11: Alexandra Lange
An Atlas of PossibilityThe Institute for Urban Design's By the City/For the City project provokes crowd-sourced possibilities for New York's future.
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05.21.11: Alexandra Lange
Vicarious Thrifting, via TwitterOn the lively, effective and erudite thrifting community on Twitter.
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04.12.11: Alexandra Lange
All That Glitters (and Swoops)What reviews of aberrant design and Van Cleef diamonds have in common: the death of the design show.
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02.21.11: Alexandra Lange
Neat FreaksOrganizing things neatly = what IBM, Ray Eames, Herbert Matter and Tumblr have in common.
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02.17.11: Alexandra Lange
I Was an Unhappy HipsterIn a renovation by an architect, for a critic, the bookshelves can be a battleground.
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01.09.11: Rob Walker
Ghosts in the MachineEveryday we are busy producing fresh masses of life-affirming digital stuff. What happens to this “stuff” when we die?
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12.22.10: Alexandra Lange
Shopping D/R at EtsyWant to recreate D/R this Christmas? Etsy provides the goods.
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12.01.10: Rob Walker
Inside the Wild, Wacky, Profitable World of Boing BoingHow four people who do exactly what they want run one of the most popular blogs on the planet.
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11.24.10: Alexandra Lange
Criticism Kerfuffle 2010There are people trying to write their way to a future of architecture criticism. But it isn't just the writing that's the problem.
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11.05.10: Rick Poynor
Adventures in the Image WorldThis is a blog about visual culture. It reflects my interests, enthusiasms, concerns and bêtes noires across the spectrum of visual phenomena.
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08.03.10: Adrian Shaughnessy
Publishing in the Age of the InternetDesign/Research, published by Unit Editions, are collectable "papers" which, focus on design and visual communication, from the past, by placing it in a future context.
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06.02.10: Alexandra Lange
Bloggers in the ArchiveGeoff Manaugh’s announcement, on BLDGBLOG, that he would be blogging from the CCA this summer irritated me, partly because the idea is not brand new.
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05.21.10: Alexandra Lange
The Anti-EnthusiastsDesign Blogs: The Vacuum of Enthusiasm, my Design Observer manifesto on what the world of design on the internet needs, lives on in the comments.
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05.16.10: Alexandra Lange
The Naive TumblrThe recent changes on Tumblr are brilliant and not intuitive.
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04.02.10: Alexandra Lange
Design AdjacentThere’s a theme in the comments on my Design Observer piece on design blogs, The Vacuum of Enthusiasm, that there is little for me to say about.
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03.29.10: Alexandra Lange
On DO: Design Blogs: The Vacuum of EnthusiasmAs part of my new strategy of writing the conversations that go on in my head, I critique design (and architecture, to some extent) blogs today on Design Observer.
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03.15.10: Alexandra Lange
Playground AppsI wonder if the young, male inventors of foursquare haven’t missed a big market: moms.
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02.01.10: Mark Lamster
Observing DesignI'm pleased to announce that I've joined the distinguished slate of contributing editors to Design Observer, what I consider to be the premier site on the web for writing on design in its many disciplines.
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09.11.09: Alexandra Lange
Just LookingMy new favorite source of procrastination is Reference Library.
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09.09.09: Alexandra Lange
Healthy HomeMy project involving vintage paper placements was featured on Ohdeedoh.
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09.09.09: Alexandra Lange
GroundedAlexandra Jacobs's feature on Zappos didn't address my burning question: Why is Zappos so ugly?
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08.17.09: Rachel Berger
Significant Objects: #1 Mom HooksSignificant Objects is a much-discussed experiment conducted by Joshua Glenn and Rob Walker. The third of five stories is by Rachel Berger...
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08.17.09: Teddy Blanks
Significant Objects: Porcelain ScooterSignificant Objects is a much-discussed experiment conducted by Joshua Glenn and Rob Walker. The fourth of five stories is by Teddy Blanks...
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08.17.09: Jessica Helfand
Significant Objects: Elvis Chocolate TinSignificant Objects is a much-discussed experiment conducted by Joshua Glenn and Rob Walker. The fifth of five stories is by Jessica Helfand...
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08.17.09: Adam Harrison Levy
Significant Objects: Star of David PlateSignificant Objects is a much-discussed experiment conducted by Joshua Glenn and Rob Walker. The first of five stories is by Adam Harrison Levy...
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08.16.09: Alexandra Lange
Shelf LifeLizzie Skurnick's Shelf Discovery is a new book about rereading classic teen novels with an adult eye.
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07.29.09: The Editors
On CommentsReader comments are an important part of our site, with many visitors enjoying them as much as the original articles. So keeping the discussion as interesting as possible is to everyone's advantage. Here are the rules for comments at Design Observer.
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06.01.09: Alexandra Lange
Why This blog?I am starting a blog, because some opinions are too hot for casual conversation.
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03.11.09: Jessica Helfand
My Facebook, My SelfBut as projections of ourselves, one's Facebook identity, made visible through one's photo albums, inhabits a public trajectory that goes way beyond who and what we are.
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10.15.08: Dmitri Siegel
Design by NumbersDmitri Siegel discusses Stephen Baker's new book The Numerati and how data-mining and personalized content may impact design.
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02.07.08: Adrian Shaughnessy
Look and Feel / Nip and TuckIf clients are happy to refer to the output of graphic designers as
look and feel,where's the harm?
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12.27.07: Steven Heller
What's In A Name?In only a few short years, blogs have significantly evolved. And if blogs, and the people who engage with them, are to be respected, then we should all know who everyone is, and everyone — whoever and whatever they have to say — should not hide behind the digital veil.
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06.06.07: Adrian Shaughnessy
The 2012 Olympic Logo Ate My HamsterDesigners often bemoan the lack of coverage given to graphic design in mainstream media. Yet when design catches the attention of journalists and commentators it usually results in a vicious mugging rather than hearty praise.
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08.29.06: William Drenttel
What Ever Happened to Half.com, Oregon?But back in 1999, in its Netflix-like heyday, Half.com was hot. And it did something quite remarkable. As a publicity stunt, it bought a town and renamed it. Someplace in Oregon. I wondered what ever happened to Half.com, Oregon — the first dot com city in the world?
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08.17.06: Dmitri Siegel
World 6.0: Same as the Old World?Edward Castronova's recent book Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games sheds some light on the increasingly tangled relationship between MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games) and the game of life.
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08.03.06: Adrian Shaughnessy
Living Without The InternetThe "community" that I find on the internet is the communality of shared enthusiasms for marginalised subjects.
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11.10.05: Rick Poynor
Emigre: An EndingIssue 69 of Emigre will be the last. In its heyday, it was the most consistently interesting design publication produced by anyone, anywhere. By 1990, it was one of those magazines you simply had to get hold of and read straight away.
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07.01.05: Rick Poynor
We Are All Editors Now. Or Are We?Many designers aspire to be editors. But being an editor is not simply about choosing some things you like and throwing them together. Editing is about deep engagement with content and the construction of meaning.
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05.30.05: William Drenttel
Maps of CyberspaceIt is the internet that has changed our perception of space, precisely because the sheer volume of interconnectivity is beyond our imagination, whether it be language-based, data-based, or community-based. Add black holes and photographs of asteroidal moons around Jupiter, and our world seems increasingly expansive. Yet, if we cannot map it, how can we understand it?
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12.03.04: Jessica Helfand
Time, Space and The Microsoft ColonialistsIf Microsoft displayed its marketing genius by introducing "Spaces" three weeks before Christmas, its failure as a compelling editorial product — as evidenced by its restrictive format, its templated narrowcasting, its uninspired design parameters — illuminates its ultimate weakness: these spaces have nothing to do with space, in all its rich, fascinating and deeply human complexity.
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09.24.04: Jessica Helfand
Gentlemen Prefer BlogsWatching Annie Duke beat out a half-dozen male competitors in the World Poker Tournament this week, I experienced an odd case of déjà vu. It wasn't because of some Proustian memory of my own poker prowess — far from it, infact. Rather, what I felt was an odd sort of parallel universe with something I've been ruminating about for some time: namely, my presence here on Design Observer as the sole female contributor, and the scarcity of women who regularly participate in discussions here on this site.
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01.11.04: Michael Bierut
Vladimir Nabokov: Father of Hypertext?The innovative narrative technique developed by Vladimir Nabokov for his 1962 novel "Pale Fire" -- essentially a single epic poem with footnotes and commentary -- anticipated hypertext, the internet, and the interconnected world of blogs.
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01.02.04: Jessica Helfand
Mind the Light, Light the MindAs I began to describe Quaker Meeting for Worship — where one sits in silence for some period of time, in a large room with any number of other congregants, and where one stands to speak, on virtually any topic, when moved to do so — I realized that this presented a compelling metaphor for blogging.
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12.16.03: William Drenttel
Design URLsAs a service to our readers over the holidays, here is a list of the twenty URLs we found to be available, and more interestingly, the close to one hundred URLs we found to be taken.
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11.12.03: Jessica Helfand
Implausible FictionsAt what point does the designer's interpretation threaten to skew, or misrepresent or somehow implausibly amplify information in a manner that might be considered irresponsible?
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