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10.21.11: William Drenttel
Design Matters Wins People's Choice Design AwardCooper-Hewitt National Design Museum announced the People's Choice Design Award — and Design Observer's own Debbie Millman, the creator of the popular Design Matters series of podcast interviews, was the surprise winner.
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06.08.11: The Editors
Announcement: Rob Walker Joins Design ObserverWe are pleased to announce that Rob Walker is joining Design Observer as a contributing writer — and as the newest blogger in our Observers Room.
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01.06.11: Gail Anderson
Gail Anderson's Collection of Salt and Pepper ShakersGail Anderson shares her collection of Salt and Pepper Shakers.
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12.31.10: William Drenttel
Best of DOG 2010Hardly exhaustive, here are some of the highlights of essays and blog posts on the Design Observer Group during 2010.
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08.26.10: William Drenttel
Dogs and Their DesignersDesign Observer posted an open call for designers to submit photos of themselves with their canine companions. These are the results...
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03.05.09: Jessica Helfand
Cats and Their DesignersBehold: our collection of feline wonders, and the designers who named them.
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01.20.09: Dmitri Siegel
Paper, Plastic, or Canvas?Dmitri Siegel explores the explosive popularity of canvas totes and the history of the plastic bags they aim to replace. From Anya Hindmarch to Ireland's PlasTax, Siegel examines the role of design in sustainability.
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12.07.08: The Editors
10 Reasons to Buy a Design Observer T-ShirtBuy the Design Observer T-Shirt for a holiday gift.
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10.15.08: The Editors
Design Observer T-ShirtDesign Observer offers a T-shirt through Artefacture.
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10.06.08: The Editors
People's Design AwardsThe People's Design Awards are happening as we speak — with public voting open until October 21st. Design Observer welcomes the support of our readers: VOTE TODAY.
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09.21.08: The Editors
Design Observer's Aniversary Party: 11.05Design Observer 5th Anniversary Party. NYC. 11.05.08.
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05.28.08: Julie Lasky
Cranbrook Commencement Address"I come to you, like all commencement speakers, as an emissary from the future." The commencement address delivered by Julie Lasky at the Cranbrook Academy of Art on May 9, 2008.
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04.21.08: Allan Chochinov
"Ode To My Toaster"Ode To My Toaster, a poem by Allan Chochinov.
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12.19.07: Steven Heller
It's Easy to Criticize. . . NotConvention was disrupted last Thursday night in New York City at Designism 2:0 when the sometimes "self-congratulatory" nature of the Art Director Club's social conscience-raising event was upended by Vanity Fair media critic Michael Wolff's unforgiving critique of design's do-goodery.
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09.10.07: Rob Kimmel
Coney Island Bin LadenIn 2004, the paper targets at the Coney Island shooting gallery featured a hand-drawn Osama Bin Laden.
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08.30.07: Steven Heller
The Designer As GumshoeThe aim in this essay is not to raise mass consciousness about gum pollution. Over the past year, I've been something of a gumshoe, investigating and documenting patterns of gum goop, and talking to perpetrators and victims alike. Now I'm ready to share my findings.
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07.28.07: William Drenttel
Project MIt is clear that in the last decade, the rural poor in America have gotten poorer. But having safe water is not something most of us think of as a problem in our country. If you'd like to help, Buy A Meter.
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07.10.07: Jessica Helfand
Cock-a-Doodle-Don'tWhere food is concerned, the relationship between what things look like and how we respond exists at its most primal level: what is a gut reaction, after all, if not something that attacks your gut?
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05.28.07: Jessica Helfand
My Dirty Little SecretGardening is its own infuriating design challenge. You fret and you rethink and you second-guess yourself constantly, and then for one delirious, thrilling moment something blooms and you feel utterly triumphant. And then it dies and you are back where you started.
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11.27.06: Jessica Helfand
How Hollywood Nailed The Half-PipePixar and Animal Logic have mastered a particularly persuasive (and as it turns out, rather literal) form of spin that makes Road Runner look like dryer lint.
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11.01.06: William Drenttel
Polling Place Photo ProjectThe Polling Place Photo Project seeks to advance innovation in citizen journalism by documenting local voter experiences during the U.S. midterm elections on Tuesday, November 7...
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09.29.06: William Drenttel
Winterhouse Awards for Design WritingIn partnership with AIGA, we launched the Winterhouse Writing Awards for Design and Criticism, an initiative to increase the appreciation of design — by recognizing new voices in design criticism and commentary. Here are the 2006 recipients.
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08.14.06: William Drenttel
Threat Advisory Pandemic Alert System (TAPAS)How do we measure the danger level from the Avian Influenza A (H5N1) virus? What we lack is that one Tom Ridge-like bit of inspiration that would lend clarity to these confusing times. We took our cue from a certain John James Audubon. Herewith, one option for Homeland Security. Yes, we know: it's for the birds.
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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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07.31.06: William Drenttel
Dangerous Beauty: The Art of the ShivA shiv is a weapon crafted from the limited resources of a prisoner's closed world. Crudely constructed from such things as spoons, shoelaces and upholstery tacks, shivs are about masked utility: it's an innocuous object with improbably toxic intent (whether used to attack others or to protect oneself...).
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07.07.06: Jessica Helfand
The Right StuffPrada is yet another in a long line of stories in which posessions loom large, at once shining beacons of material success and wagging fingers of moral turpitude. When will we have enough stuff?
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06.01.06: Jessica Helfand
"Oui, Oui, Oui" All The Way HomeOn a sweltering day last August, my daughter and I embarked with a friend on a 6-day tour of Paris: Kid Paris, the Paris of candy stores and carousels and more than a few weird new ice cream flavors.
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04.18.06: William Drenttel
Weather Report: 53 Degrees F. Heavy Snowfall PredictedThe weather is fucked up. "Science is a way of making sense of the world. Design is a way of making the world make sense."
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08.12.05: Jessica Helfand
A Mosaic of Vision and MemoryLanguage, in the service of the visual, is a conceptual catalyst: and in Umberto Eco's latest book, The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana, words meet pictures in a captivating and indeed, an astonishing way.
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