In Summer

After a long, cold, wet spring at Design Observer headquarters, it finally looks safe to put away the corduroys and bring out the swimsuits. Likewise, Design Observer will look different for the next few months.

Starting this week we will be featuring highlights from Observer Quarterly, our print magaazine, beginning with excerpts from our first issue, on sound. Our 2015 conference (What Design Sounds Like) gathered established contributors from the website, researchers, practitioners, and performers for a day of music, debate, discussion, and dialogue on the intersection of design and sound. We found it in controversial architectural spaces, places of food production, museum environments, and film. In the magazine, we extended the scope to art (an interview with Robert Whitman), history (a running timeline of small, yet important moments in sound), urbanism (Blake Eskin’s subway photographs), and fashion (Ying Gao’s audio- sensitive garments). Selections of all of these will appear throughout June.

We will also be pulling from Design Observer’s deep archives throughout the summer, first revisiting relevant posts on sound, music, and design all this month.

The Observatory will continue to appear bi-weekly, although Jessica and Michael may take a fortnight off here or there. Look for regular features from John Foster, Steven Heller, Rick Poynor, and Bonnie Siegler when the leaves begin to turn, but before then keep checking in daily for selections from Observer Quarterly‘s Tagging issue in July and Food issue in August.

Enjoy!

—The Editors