News from Elsewhere

As we wrapped up design on our inaugural issue of Observer Quarterly and got ready to announce a new book project next week, Design Observer talked type (and its overabundance?) and the $10 bill (on the latest episode of The Observatory). Rick Poynor meditated on Gordon Parks' photo series "A Man Becomes Invisible" and Ava Kofman dons the headgear in a visit to virtual worlds.

We were also:

Intrigued by what Harvard's Jeffrey Shcnapp and architect Greg Lynn are up to here.

Thinking about Dune, Frank Herbert's genre-changing sci-fi novel, which is fifty years old this year. Novelist Hari Kunzru writes about its significance for the Guardian.

Reading Design Observer alum Mark Lamster on demolition and preservation (and art) in Marfa, Texas.

Thirsty.

Thrifting for art's sake in Brooklyn.

Road tripping in California (in 1915)—along the aqueducts that made water in Southern California a reality.

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Next week on the site: an Observers column from Sara Jamshidi, a new episode of (in)Fringe, and a new Three Reasons from Bonnie Siegler.

Homepage image from the Los Angeles Aqueduct Road Trip, Huntington Library Archives.

Design Observer was founded by Michael Bierut, and Jessica Helfand.

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Over the course of the last twenty years, we’ve looked at the truncated narrative rhythms of Twitter, unpacked nineteenth century satire in France, climbed Ramparts, skewered Malcolm Gladwell, heralded critical writing, interviewed journalists (and investigative journalists), interviewed editors (and designers-turned-editors), analyzed subversive comics, critiqued newspaper redesigns, shared reflections on Gonzo Journalism and wondered if seeing really was believing.

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Humanism
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Science
Like designers in their attention to sentient observation, scientists are trained to ask penetrating questions.

Jobs | November 05