Design
Andrew Blauvelt is the best example of designer as author
On writing the biography for this year's AIGA Medalist.
Design Journalism is the First Draft of Design History
Reading Herbert Muschamp's essays in 2022 is like reading history being written.
2021 Year in Review
Reflecting on the year and looking ahead.
Websites as time capsules
On realizing my website is my longest-running design project.
A few unordered thoughts on design school critique
How does critique evolve in a constantly changing design field?
Five Years and 200 Episodes of Scratching the Surface
Thinking about how my podcast evolved over the last half-decade.
Expansive Bodies: Design, Expanded Practice, and Administration at Het Nieuwe Instituut
Two recent episodes of Scratching the Surface look inside this polymorphic cultural center.
Reconsidering Cranbrook's legacy and writing opening paragraphs
My latest story for Eye on Design is about the influence of Cranbrook's graphic design program.
New Essay: Dot Dot Dot Is The Most Influential Design Magazine You’ve Never Heard Of
My latest story for Eye on Design is about the influence of one of my favorite design publications.
A proposal for a new type of design education
A few thoughts on rethinking the relationship between design education and industry.
Kurt Andersen looks at how America was designed
Fantasyland and Evil Geniuses are books about American history but they are also books about design.
New Essay: On design criticism and the expanding nature of design
For Eye on Design, I wrote about the state of design criticism and how the field has gotten grown and gotten more complex.
The End of the Designer-Genius
The myth of the sole creative genius has allowed bad behavior to persist for too long.
Creating new design histories
Where history is often used to define and defend, let’s use design history to open up, to blur, to democratize.
Netflix keeps design ‘Abstract’
The design docuseries wants to show you cool images but doesn't have much to say.
A *New* Program for Graphic Design
David Reinfurt's A *New* Program for Graphic Design both simplifies and expands what graphic design can be.
Tourist/Purist
The mid-career retrospective on the multi-disciplinary creative director reveals the portrait of a new type of designer
A Design Writing Reading List
A selection of readings from the design writing class I recently taught at Pratt.
Re-examining the Bauhaus
The famous German school's centennial lets us re-examine the history we thought we knew.
Culture Is Not Always Popular: 15 years of (reading) Design Observer
On reading Design Observer for fifteen years and working on a new book
Celebrity designers, context collapse, and rethinking how we teach design history
Design as an Attitude
The design critic Alice Rawthorne's new book attempts to create a roadmap for the future of design.
Introducing twenty-six design!
I'm launching a design studio!
Long Live the Web!
Why I still just love HTML and CSS
