Topic

design

A collection of 631 issues

On the Seattle Box and building a visceral house.

People who build their own home tend to be very courageous. These people are curious about life. They’re thinking about what it means to live in a house, rather than just buying a commodity and making it work. –Tom Kundig When I first moved to Seattle, I lived in

Tuesday, December 23. The shoes I wore to meet the architect....

weren’t worn to meet the architect at all. They were worn to meet the builder. The designs aren’t final yet, but they’re close enough to show schematic drawings to builders. So we’re interviewing builders now, meeting skilled craftsmen and professional construction managers to hear about design

On what designers can learn from icebergs and Ernest Hemingway.

My favorite passages In Ernest Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast are the direct, austere descriptions of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Painting vivid pictures with minimal words is the hallmark of Hemingway’s writing, which he developed into The Iceberg Theory. Write like Hemingway! The Hemingway App. The Iceberg Theory (also known

You're not a designer, either. On the Mantle of Bullshit and the Dunning-Kruger Effect.

The Dunning-Kruger Effect is a phenomenon in cognitive science asserting that incompetence prevents the incompetent from realizing their incompetence while simultaneously causing them to rate their own competence as greater than that of the truly competent. It is clearly indicated in many work environments, case in point at large technology

An open letter to NPR about the pay gap, inspired by Jill Abramson.

I have been holding this post inside my head (and heart) for years, and in my WordPress queue for months. But with today’s news about Jill Abramson and the role her legal inquiry about pay inequality at the New York Times may have factored into her sudden dismissal, I

On loving shoes.

After TWELVE years of lusting, I finally bought a pair of Cydwoq shoes. I don’t know the specific count of my shoe collection, but this pair could put me over the 150 mark. For me, shoes are design objects. Form and function, via the hands of a true craftsman,

On tools as epic creations.

I am a toolmaker. But I am also an epic creator. I use tools to cook. To photograph. To write. To design. All in the act of “epic creation”. Scott Berkun writes about this in a recent blog post: “When I meet people who are passionate about technology, software or

On the design of everyday culinary things.

The kitchen is and always has been a place of tools. As such, there’s a lot software designers can learn via noting the history of culinary tool building. Namely that sometimes, innovation isn’t necessary, and when it isn’t, a designer’s best efforts are fruitless. There are

Letters from Paris: Why don't we build like this anymore?

The Notre Dame. Sacre Coeur. L’Hotel de Ville. Places des Vosges. The Saint Michel Fountain and the Louvre. The rows upon rows of perfectly-proportioned French dwellings that constitute Paris. Beautiful, classic architecture, built of enduring masonry and aesthetics. The great Pyramids of Giza, the Roman Colosseum, the Pantheon and

On Whisky-Centered Design: Designing the Glencairn Whisky Glass

TASTING whiskies can be a clinical, prosaic task, nosing and assessing, jotting notes, reconsidering, lips compressed in concentration, brow furrowed. Yet, as the spirits panel tasted 20 single malts from Islay, we reminded ourselves to step back a moment, to contemplate with no small amount of awe the magic of