The Observatory Newsletter

Michael Bierut|Audio

Episode 45: I’m With(out) Her

Election night, Brand Trump and the presidency, Design That Matters, Facebook’s flawed news feed

Michael Bierut|Audio

Episode 44: In Dreams

Marcin Wichary visits the Technology Museum of Emporda, Vine, Grand Central Station vistas, deluxe composition notebooks, Errol Morris on Elsa Dorfman, bad ballot design, Grilli Type’s GT America, Transparent, Elaine Lustig Cohen.

Michael Bierut|Audio

Episode 43: The End Is Near

Campaign fatigue, advertising and viral video, voting technology, intellectualism in the design community, the art of David Pease, the 1986 Mets

Michael Bierut|Audio

Doors and Perception

Bathroom signs, MBA students, Mozilla and open logo design, The Commissar Vanishes, Masters of Sex

Michael Bierut|Audio

Memory Loss

The Napalm Girl photo on Facebook, 9/11 out of context, Apple stores and the iPhone 7 launch, the Doctor Strangelove trailer, Wiener-Dog, Pantsuit

Michael Bierut|Audio

Food for Thought

Samsung v. Apple, the International Style v. capitalism, Sausage Party, mozzarella sticks

Michael Bierut|Audio

Passing the Torch

Olympics, cursive handwriting, NASA’s secret art studio, gun sales on Facebook, #firstsevenjobs

Michael Bierut|Audio

Rough Sketches

Trump-Pence, Clinton-Kaine, Black Lives Matter, The Four Seasons, mapping the brain, the video essay

Michael Bierut|Audio

Border Control

Brexit, borders, naming, Fiorello La Guardia and his airport, robot dogs, though leadership, Snapfax

Michael Bierut|Audio

Mind-Body Problems

Nutrition Facts, Mark Bittman’s food rating system, colon cancer screening, Time Well Spent, Peter Arno, Flat File

Michael Bierut|Audio

The Good, the Flat, and the Ugly

Instagram, rainbows, digital brutalism, Design: The Invention of Desire, the Freewrite.

Michael Bierut|Audio

Prisons and Paradise

Solitary confinement, virtual reality, design thinking for prisoners, Drew Hodges’s Broadway, The Paradise, Prince’s unpronounceable glyph