The Observatory Newsletter

Ellen McGirt

Design is at a turning point

At MoMA’s Pirouette event, Ellen McGirt explores design’s messy brilliance, urgent challenges, and the power of turning—and dancing—through it all.

Alexis Haut|Cinema

About face: ‘A Different Man’ makeup artist Mike Marino on transforming pretty boys and surfacing dualities

On the cusp of Oscar Sunday, we’re talking award-winning makeup that gets under the skin.

Alexis Haut|Analysis

Innies see red, Innies wear blue: Severance’s use of color to seed self-discovery

With Apple’s most beloved show back on the airwaves after three long years, DO’s film columnist pens a valentine to all the ways season one used red to spell Innie liberation.

Ellen McGirt|Books

Parable of the Redesigner

Soft rains come in spite of us.

Ellen McGirt

Parable of the Redesigner

Reflecting on Ray Bradbury, Sara Teasdale, and Octavia Butler, Ellen McGirt explores redesign, resilience, and the quiet power of change.

Ellen McGirt|Essays

The Design Observer annual gift guide!

The winter holidays are already a tricky time for so many people, though this year feels uniquely fraught.

Alexis Haut|Cinema

‘The creativity just blooms’: “Sing Sing” production designer Ruta Kiskyte on making art with formerly incarcerated cast in a decommissioned prison

Sing Sing is a movie that takes place in a prison, but it’s not a prison movie.

Alexis Haut|Analysis

Black balled and white walled: Interiority in Coralie Fargeat's “The Substance”

You know what they say: Women take forever in the bathroom.

Brian Collins|Opinions

Design sinking

Add to the mix a blinkered “human-centered” focus, and brace for a reductionist disaster.

Michael Bierut|Audio

Episode 135: Home for the Holidays

2020:dinner at home, Zoom fatigue, new rules of design, watching television

Jessica Helfand|Audio

Episode 134: Fast and Furious

With Gail Bichler: Remote creative direction for the New York Times Magazine, editorial design fine art, and motherhood; Ruth Bader Ginsburg, The Fast and the Furious, Yale Mental Health Symposium

Allison Arieff|Audio

Episode 133: Urban Reckoning

With Allison Arieff: The Magic of Empty Spaces, cities during COVID-19, Solving All The Wrong Problems, harvesting honey, The Good Fight