Category: Essays

Steven Heller|Essays

User-Friendly Paul Rand

Paul Rand did not coin the term “user-friendly.” He would have hated its trendy sound.

Kathleen Meaney|Essays

Greening the Grocery Store

It turns out that the recycling symbol at the bottom of my yogurt container had nothing to do with its recyclability. So why was it there? My curiosity led to findings around which I built a design class.

Adrian Shaughnessy|Essays

Credit Check

In the age of collaboration how do we cater to the fundamental desire for recognition?

Steven Heller|Essays

I Still Wish I Were a Beatle

The Beatles have, over the course of my lifetime, become attached to my nerve endings. It’s a curious sensation, but one I’m glad I still have.

Jessica Helfand|Essays

A Good Pan Is Hard To Find

On baking a cheesecake and becoming a better designer: it’s one big balancing act of artistry and skill.

Adam Harrison Levy|Essays

Coney Island of The Mind

It’s late August and your shirt sticks to your back. The only escape is….the beach.

Jessica Helfand|Essays

Cock-a-Doodle-Don't

Where food is concerned, the relationship between what things look like and how we respond exists at its most primal level: what is a gut reaction, after all, if not something that attacks your gut?

Mark Lamster|Essays

How to Design an Iconic NY Fast Food Joint

Design secrets of New York fast food icons.

Jessica Helfand|Essays

Audrey Real Helfand: Designer Manquée

Fifty years ago, my mother Audrey was a prolific visual maker: today, she’d be running her own studio.

Michael Bierut|Essays

In Praise of Slow Design

Is there a such a thing as slow graphic design? A look at 80 years of barely perceptible design changes at The New Yorker.

Victoria Solan|Essays

Shopping on the Periphery

Photographer Brian Ulrich’s suburbia

Victoria Solan|Essays

Your Inner Suburbia: A Conversation with Robert Bruegmann

Forecasting the Emergent Suburb