Design Observer

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. 

On April 29th, the Supreme Court issued its decision in Louisiana v. Callais, a case which purported to examine whether Louisiana’s latest congressional map was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. Design Observer was already in this story when it landed, and I want to tell you why and what we know.  The 6-3 ruling, written by Justice Samuel Alito, struck down Louisiana’s second majority-Black congressional district and, while doing so, effectively gutted Section 2&nbs

Editor’s note: This is the third installment of a 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 of the series here.  What if design isn’t solely about innovation, but about remembering? I came to the Reclaiming Value: Sacred Valley Design Immersion as part of my con

Read the introduction to this series. Flight Plan24 x 24 inchesOil on canvas2025 Auden calls Icarus a boy falling out of the sky. I think about that sky and, and what else it might offer. Obstacles. Miracles.  Birds. Where are the actual birds, I wonder? Are they distractions (obstacles) or participants (miracles)?  I find myself leaning into the second option.  What if Icarus had … help? I spend an entire day thinking about the idea of being tethered to a

It was sometime back in mid-60s that music, as we knew it, began to die. At least, I’m sure that was how it felt at the time. In 1964, the Moog synthesizer was born.  It was the creation of an engineer named Robert Moog, who no doubt thought that naming it after himself would be a good thing. (It’s also pronounced mogue — like “vogue” — not Moog, like a cow with speech difficulties.) And it was, eventually. The original Moog was a big machine that could replace a wide variety of mus

The AI and digital art market is booming. Last year, an autonomous AI artist, Botto, sold its work “Err Hold” at auction for over $333,000 USD. Generative AI in the art market is projected to grow from $0.88 billion to $3.56 billion in 2030, or 42% each year, according to a report from The Business Research Company.  At Art Basel Hong Kong, artists from 14 exhibitors showcased their work at Zero 10, a new AI and digital art exhibit that was a hit at the Miami fair last year. The Hong Kon

Read the introduction to this series. PuppetMixed media and oil on canvas24 x 24 inches2026 I am picturing Icarus as a choir boy, isolated against a bright background as though pulled from a lineup. Ringlets, voice still high, dressed to fit in with the chorus. The gaze is downward, uncertain, mercurial. The sun casts its shadows. Harbingers of heliotropic doom. A boy in the (long) shadow of his father but the (short) shadow of the moment. Here the light comes from above, glistening

In his first opinion piece for Design Observer, Matt Colangelo, a senior strategy director at Athletics, reminds us that everything old is new again: “The world is too much with us; late and soon, Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;” These lines could have been written about impulse shopping on Instagram. But alas, they were penned by William Wordsworth in 1802, several decades into the Industrial Revolution. They are among his most famous critiques of the mate

My colleagues’ takes are often quite diverse, but this year a chorus has emerged — of strategists proclaiming 2026 to be the year of nostalgia. Wired headphones, workwear (back, so soon), medievalcore, landlines for kids, #90s TikTok. Reading this year’s reports, I find myself agreeing with the observations — nostalgia is big right now, and there’s an opportunity for brands to tap into it.  But I also see nostalgia not just as a passing 2026 trend but a full-scale, post-digital revival —

I first met Ashley Lukasik over Zoom in the spring of 2025, in advance of the Shapeshift Summit hosted by the Institute of Design in Chicago. (Our Design As podcast team captured the event.) I was immediately dazzled. Lukasik was sharing the details of the latest “immersion” she was planning for the conference — it was about how AI is already reshaping Chicago — and she described the way she’d learned to convene diverse practitioners for deep learning and co-creati