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

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Michael Bierut studied graphic design at the University of Cincinnati, and has been a partner in the New York office of Pentagram since 1990. Michael is a Senior Critic in Graphic Design at the Yale School of Art.

Jessica Helfand, a founding editor of Design Observer, is an award-winning graphic designer and writer. A former contributing editor and columnist for Print, Eye and Communications Arts magazine, she is a member of Alliance Graphique Internationale and a recent laureate of the Art Director’s Hall of Fame. Jessica received both her BA and MFA from Yale University where she has taught since 1994. In 2013, she won the AIGA medal.

More from Michael Bierut + Jessica Helfand

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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
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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 05