Arts & Culture / Design

How Steve Jobs’ Love of Simplicity Fueled A Design Revolution

Passionate to the point of obsessive about design, Steve Jobs insisted that his computers look perfect inside and out

September 2012

How Chattanooga Created Its Own Font to Spur Urban Growth

Like products, cities need a brand identity. In this Tennessee city, a team of designers have created an official font

August 29, 2012

The Unbuilt High-rise Designs of Rem Koolhaas and OMA

The radical, unbuilt high-rises designed by Rem Koolhaas are witty, subversive, and surprisingly simple

August 23, 2012

How Alphonse Mucha Designed the Nation State of Czechoslovakia

When the country gained its independence after World War I, Alphonse Mucha was called upon to design an important part of any country’s identity - money

August 21, 2012

Aircraft Design Inspired by Nature and Enabled by Tech

In 2050, Airbus hopes to fly you around in a see-through jet shaped like a bird skeleton, with morphing seats, spa treatments, and virtual entertainment

August 16, 2012

The Scene of Deduction: Drawing 221B Baker Street

From pen-and-ink sketches to digital renderings, generations of Sherlock Holmes fans have undertaken drafting the detective’s famous London flat

August 14, 2012

The LEGO-like Building Blocks of the Olympic Slalom Canoe

How a three-time Olympic competitor designed an innovative new whitewater system using underwater bricks

August 9, 2012

The Architecture of Memory

Memorization may seem like a brain-based skill, but it has as much to do with our bodies and our buildings

August 6, 2012

The Deerstalker: Where Sherlock Holmes’ Popular Image Came From

The literary detective’s hunting cap and cape came not so much from the books’ author as from their illustrators

July 26, 2012

The History of the Olympic Pictograms: How Designers Hurdled the Language Barrier

Infographic design first appeared at the Olympics in 1948, when the games were last in London

July 20, 2012

The End of Swimsuit Design Innovation

July 16, 2012

An Architect-Turned-Barista Draws a Fine Line Between Brewing and Design

As the finale to our coffee series, we talk with Yeekai Lim, an entrepreneur from Los Angeles, about coffee, design, and the common ground(s) they share

July 13, 2012

How Maker Culture is Reshaping Retail Design

A San Francisco coffee shop pulls back the curtain to expose the process behind each cup served in their expansive warehouse space

July 5, 2012

Coffee Pods, An Instant Classic

Single-serving coffee pods are the most recent form of instant coffee. Its history is much shorter than the espresso shot, though just as inventive

June 27, 2012

Coffee Retailers Reinterpret the Container Store

June 15, 2012

The Airport Design Utopian

What ever happened to the Starport, the brainchild of Jim Starry that re-imagined the airport?

June 12, 2012

Music for Airports Soothes the Savage Passenger

Brian Eno’s Music for Airports is a sound environment created specifically to complement the experience of waiting in an airport terminal

June 7, 2012

Saab Reinvents Air Traffic Control With a Digital Panorama

With Saab’s new digital panorama, the local air traffic controller may soon go the way of the technical support specialist

June 4, 2012

How a Federally-Regulated Safety Message Distinguished a Brand

If you’ve flown Virgin America, you’ve seen its distinctive safety video. But what’s the story behind it?

May 31, 2012

Judging an Airline by its Uniform

What flight attendant uniforms say about airline brand identity, cultural attitudes, and passenger psychology

May 29, 2012