History

Alexandra Lange|Books

The Mother of Us All

Reyner Banham on Esther McCoy: "She speaks as she finds, with sympathy and honesty, and relevantly to the matter at hand." Could there be a better definition of the role of the critic?

The Editors|Unusual Suspects

Unusual Suspects: A New Series

Edited by Andrew Blauvelt and William Drenttel, Design Observer is beginning new design history series titled Unusual Suspects.

Alexandra Lange|Essays

Carlo Scarpa, Quilter

Olivetti and Doges: How Carlo Scarpa updated the Venetian treasure chest.

Rick Poynor|Essays

The Enduring Influence of Richard Hollis

An exhibition of Richard Hollis’s work provides the first public opportunity to assess the entire shape of his output.

Alexandra Lange|Essays

Frank Lloyd Wright + Katniss Everdeen

On photographing architecture as sculpture and telling stories via architecture.

Alexandra Lange|Essays

‘Deco Japan’ + Designing Women

The Japan Society's new exhibition displays the surprising globalism of this little-known period in Japanese design.

Rick Poynor|Essays

Motif Magazine: The World Made Visible

Motif magazine, founded in 1958, anticipated a new way of seeing, documenting and appreciating the “visible world.”

Jessica Helfand|Essays

Ezra Winter Project: Chapter Three

In his first post-Academy professional pursuit, Ezra Winter is hired to design camouflage for the United States Shipping Board, using a reductive visual vocabulary of bold stripes and patches of solid color that is far closer to the …

Rick Poynor|Essays

The Unspeakable Pleasure of Ruins

“Ruin porn,” a reductive tag that makes any photograph of ruins seem suspect, ignores the cultural history of the ruin.

Alexandra Lange|Essays

Round Thermostats and Crystal Lanterns, Revisited

Old designs, new tricks: updates on lawsuits filed against the new Nest thermometer, and on behalf of midcentury masterpiece Manufacturers Hanover.

Alexandra Lange|Essays

A Memorial to (Random Access) Memory

What does "RAMAC Park" mean to you?

James Biber|Essays

Vestige(s) of Empire

Comparing the repurposing of two monuments to lost Empire: London's Commonwealth Institute and Berlin's Palast der Republik.