Error: SQLSTATE[HY000]: General error: 1030 Got error 28 from storage engineError: SQLSTATE[HY000]: General error: 1030 Got error 28 from storage engineError: SQLSTATE[HY000]: General error: 1030 Got error 28 from storage engineError: SQLSTATE[HY000]: General error: 1030 Got error 28 from storage engine The Observatory Episode 104: Fade to White: Design Observer

Advertise | Masthead

05.17.19

Michael Bierut + Jessica Helfand | Audio

Episode 104: Fade to White

This week, Jessica and Michael discuss Facebook’s redesign, which moves away from their signature shade of blue. Michael says,

Going to white is really quite a dramatic and even somewhat shocking step for them to take...I think it also has a little bit to do with sort of neutralizing the corporate voice into which anyone on Facebook has to dwell.

Also mentioned this week:

Facebook’s site redesign

Chris Hughes, New York Times, It’s Time to Break Up Facebook
Boing Boing, Facebook Sends Nick Clegg to Rebut Chris Hughes
Fast Company, The Call to Rein in Mark Zuckerberg Have Never Been Louder
NPR, New Morning Edition Theme Music
Cris Shapan, Fuxley Deluxe Edition Examples
Cris Shapan on Facebook
Stanley Kubrick the Exhibition at the London Design Museum

Subscribe to The Observatory on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app, or follow Design Observer on Spotify or Soundcloud.

More from Michael Bierut + Jessica Helfand

Episode 127: Fear and Longing
Fiona Apple’s Fetch the Bolt Cutters; Hrishi Hirway and Mike Errico; The Quiz Broadcast; Shakespeare and Co. Project

Episode 126: Screens and Dreams
Take Me to the World: A Sondheim 90th Birthday Celebration; Unorthodox; My Brilliant Friend; The Affair; Anil Dash on the dangers of social media; Anna Wiener on Silicon Valley; quarantine dreams

Episode 125: Zoom Aesthetics
Zoom aesthetics and COVID-19; Kyle Chayka on minimalism; Deborah Berke on shared spaces; Jessica Salfia’s poem “The First Lines of Emails I’ve Received While Quarantining”; Megan O’Grady on artistic recluses

Episode 124: That Thing You Do
Making art and design during the COVID-19 pandemic; Christoph Niemann and Daniella Zalcman; Adam Schlesinger; spec scripts for Larry David

Episode 123: Closing Doors, Opening Doors
Looking at COVID=19: Flattening the curve, Washington Post designers Harry Stevens on visualizing social distancing, Alissa Walker on how dots are people, Stephen Sondheim at 90

Jobs | November 25