The Observatory

The Observatory episodes:

• 09.24.2020

  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 Symposiumt

  
• 09.03.2020

  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

  
• 08.13.2020

  Episode 132: Back to School?

  With Lee Moreau: How to teach during the pandemic, robust design, jigsaw puzzles, The New York Times Spelling Bee

  
• 07.30.2020

  Episode 131: Word by Word

  With Hrishikesh Hirway: games and puzzles, The West Wing Weekly, soap operas, Home Cooking.

  
• 07.16.2020

  Episode 130: Spatial Justice

  With Bobby C. Martin, Jr.: rebranding Champions Design; football in Washington; demands for change at design schools; cooking during quarantine.

  
• 07.02.2020

  Episode 129: Spatial Justice

  A conversation with De Nichols about cities, monuments, and designing for community.

  
• 06.11.2020

  Episode 128: Decoding Luxury

  Guest host Avery Trufelman talks about Articles of Interest, clothing, luxury; Larry Rosenberg’s Breath by Breath; Little Fires Everywhere on Hulu

  
• 05.21.2020

  Episode 127: Fear and Longing

  Fiona Apple’s Fetch the Bolt Cutters; Hrishi Hirway and Mike Errico; The Quiz Broadcast; Shakespeare and Co. Project

  
• 05.07.2020

  Episode 126: Screens and Dreams

  Take Me to the World: A Sondheim 90th Birthday Celebration; Unorthodox; My Brilliant Friend; The Affair; Anil Dash on the dangers of social media; Anna Wiener on Silicon Valley; quarantine dreams

  
• 04.23.2020

  Episode 125: Zoom Aesthetics

  Zoom aesthetics and COVID-19; Kyle Chayka on minimalism; Deborah Berke on shared spaces; Jessica Salfia’s poem “The First Lines of Emails I’ve Received While Quarantining”; Megan O’Grady on artistic recluses

  
• 04.09.2020

  Episode 124: That Thing You Do

  Making art and design during the COVID-19 pandemic; Christoph Niemann and Daniella Zalcman; Adam Schlesinger; spec scripts for Larry David

  
• 03.26.2020

  Episode 123: Closing Doors, Opening Doors

  Looking at COVID=19: Flattening the curve, Washington Post designers Harry Stevens on visualizing social distancing, Alissa Walker on how dots are people, Stephen Sondheim at 90

  
• 03.12.2020

  Episode 122: At Arm’s Length

  COVID-19, social distancing, Luō Dàwèi’s One Thousand Families project, hiring product designers, Eric Rosenberg’s prop designs for The Plot Against America, Joanne McNeil’s Lurking

  
• 02.27.2020

  Episode 121: Love and Squalor

  With guest host Alissa Walker of L.A. Podcast: Barbara Kruger at Frieze Week; Destination Crenshaw; homelessness; urban design competitions, Rose Lyster on air travel; Molly Young on garbage language

  
• 02.13.2020

  Episode 120: Federal Style

  The Trump Administration’s draft executive order Making Federal Buildings Beautiful Again, the rise of the blur, a CBS brand book at the California Antiquarian Fair, Anna Wiener’s Uncanny Valley

  
• 01.31.2020

  Episode 119: Soldiers and Generals

  Kyle Chayka’s “The Longing for Less”; minimalism; Hugh Weber joins Design Observer; Don Norman on collaboration; Maggie Gram on design thinking; the death of Mr. Peanut; Fanchon & Marco

  
• 01.16.2020

  Episode 118: Excelsior!

  Andrew Cuomo’s old-school political graphics; ridiculous subway ads, real and fake; Vaughan Oliver, John Baldessari, Sonny Mehta

  
• 01.02.2020

  Episode 117: Truth and Yogurt

  Christmas cards, the Charles and Ray Eames collection, Didones, the Chobani effect, Hong Kong protest art, a dog who plays Jenga, Uncut Gems.

  
• 12.12.2019

  Episode 116: A Decade in Politics, A Year in Culture

  101 political images of 2010s; plus Jia Tolentino’s Trick Mirror; Ian McEwan’s Machines Like Me; Beck’s Hyperspace; Underworld’s Oblivion with Bells; The 1619 Project podcast; Esther Perel’s Where Should We Begin?; Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story; Steve Bannon’s American Dharma; Fleabag...

  
• 11.27.2019

  Episode 115: Thick and Blunt

  Donald Trump’s handwriting; Michael Bloomberg, design patron; Jessica Helfand’s Face: A Visual Odyssey; Victor Papanek’s Design for the Real World; Heather Dewey-Halborg’s DNA portraits; Bulgarian socialist graphics

  
• 11.15.2019

  Episode 114: Kids Today

  Painting on photographs, artists v. designers, the Monumental Cemetery of Staglieno, Richard Hollis designs for the Whitechapel.

  
• 10.25.2019

  Episode 113: Facing the Future

  Kate Crawford | Trevor Paglen: Training Humans, Derren Brown, MoMA expands again, slime mold, Gordon Salchow

  
• 10.10.2019

  Episode 112: The Sweet Smell of Succession

  Television: HBO’s Succession, The Deuce, The Politician, Face Values at Cooper Hewitt, Jessica Wynne photographs mathematician blackboards

  
• 09.27.2019

  Episode 111: The Great British Crit

  The Great British Bake Off, how to crit, Wim Crouwel, Cokie Roberts

  
• 09.06.2019

  Episode 110: The Style of Elements

  The Periodic Table of the Elements, The Death of Design Portfolios, the 1619 Project, CityLab Maps Matter

  
• 08.13.2019

  Episode 109: Public Legacy, Private Equity

  Monotype acquired by private equity firm; Ebony archives and Johnson Publishing headquarters; Hal Prince; Ugly Gerry; Breezewood, PA

  
• 07.19.2019

  Episode 108: Covers

  #bookcover2019 challenge, J.D. Salinger, The demise of MAD Magazine, Oskar Schlemmer’s The Triadic Ballet, Don Wall Visionary Cities

  
• 07.05.2019

  Episode 107: Scientific Advances

  Science poster redesign, Eli Baden-Lasar’s portraits of his sperm-donor siblings, Jony Ive parodies, a ridiculous commercial

  
• 06.21.2019

  Episode 106: The Twenty

  The large Democratic field and the first 2020 debate, Harriet Tubman on the $20, Peter Saville’s cover for Joy Division’s “Unknown Pleasures,“ Edie McClurg.

  
• 06.06.2019

  Episode 105: Malta, Marketing, Make-Believe

  Stanley Kubrick: The Exhibition, Malta, The West Wing Weekly podcast, branded empathy, Chernobyl, Caravaggio’s Beheading of St. John the Baptist

  
• 05.17.2019

  Episode 104: Fade to White

  Facebook’s redesign, Morning Edition’s new theme, Cris Shapan, Stanley Kubrick at the London Design Museum.

  
• 05.03.2019

  Episode 103: Cathedrals and Candidates

  Notre Dame cathedral fire, Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg design systems, Mina Markham and Pantsuit, unidentifiable objects, Wesley Morris on romantic comedies.

  
• 04.19.2019

  Episode 102: The Long View

  Black hole image, Dyson Airblade, Titus Kaphar, Liz Jackson, Comic Sans takeover

  
• 04.04.2019

  Episode 101: Going West

  2019 AIGA design conference, creative partnerships, Full Frontal’s Brexit video, film noir YouTube comment thread

  
• 03.22.2019

  Episode 100: Loving Librarians

  Ralph Nader v. graphic design, libraries and serendipity, Sally Potter’s The Party, the shape of silence

  
• 03.08.2019

  Episode 99: The Space Between

  Hilma af Klint at the Guggenheim, Kevin Roche and the Miller House, Josh Lipnik’s modern midwest tours, Ben Stiller plays Michael Cohen

  
• 02.22.2019

  Episode 98: Traffic

  Adam Grant, email response times, Slack, John Ruskin, Steven Soderbergh’s 2001 Oscars speech, Diana Vreeland Memo Generator

  
• 02.08.2019

  Episode 97: Candidates and “Creatives”

  2020 presidential campaign logos, 50 Books | 50 Covers, the “creative” hustle, Ellsworth Kelly stamps, Olivia Colman in Flowers

  
• 01.25.2019

  Episode 96: Wither the Magazine

  Adam Moss, Tina Brown, and the future of print magazines; Rookie, Design Sponge, and the future of online magazines; Karen Green’s Frail Sister; Anni Albers at the Tate

  
• 12.28.2018

  Episode 95: Back to Basics

  Distinctive brands choose minimalist logos, remembering David Pease, Nicholas Rougeux revives Byrne’s Euclid, The Favourite

  
• 12.14.2018

  Episode 94: Women of the Year

  Elena Ferrante’s My Beautiful Friend on HBO, Olivia Jaimes’ Nancy, Esperanza Spalding, Tierra Whack, Aretha Franklin’s Amazing Grace, Max Richter, Henry Cobb: Words and Works, Oddityviz, The True Size, Dunkin’, Stack, Pamela’s gluten-free graham crackers, Clausthaler Dry-Hopped Non Alcoholic Beer

  
• 11.30.2018

  Episode 93: I Spy, You Spy

  Sergei Skripal, Jamal Khashoggi, Bellingcat, Malachy Brown, visual investigations, Pablo Ferro, Ricky Jay, William Goldman, Boy Erased, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Glenn Gould’s manuscript for the Goldberg variations

  
• 11.16.2018

  Episode 92: Polite Sociopaths

  The Design of Business | The Business of Design conference, Apple CarPlay and talking cars, HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey, Justin Timberlake, dogs watching TV, Visual Capitalist

  
• 11.02.2018

  Episode 91: Voter Experience

  Voter suppression by Republicans, The McKinsey Design Index, Lovevery, Photogrammar

  
• 10.19.2018

  Episode 90: The Container for the Story

  The Cleveland Justice Center and Season 3 of Serial, adaptive reuse, the Secret History of the Future, Articles of Interest, The Romanoffs

  
• 09.27.2018

  Episode 89: Headsets and Holograms

  VR typography, Glenn Gould hologram tour, Paul Rand ephemera auction, Robert Venturi, Mark Lamster’s Philip Johnson biography, Werner’s Nomenclature of Colors

  
• 09.13.2018

  Episode 88: Anonymous™

  Bob Woodward’s Fear, the Quiet Resistance, representing anonymity, Face Values at the London Design Biennale, QAnon infographics, Todd Alcott’s faux vintage book covers

  
• 08.23.2018

  Episode 87: Mortadella and Mortality

  Eataly World, HBO’s Succession, Betsy DeVos in McMansion Hell, Little Fires Everywhere, the Coltrane Circle

  
• 08.10.2018

  Episode 86: Home and Away

  Wes Anderson in Italy; 3D printed Mars habitat competition; from Hilton to boutique hotels to Airbnb; designer baby names; the Vignelli townhouse

  
• 07.26.2018

  Episode 85: Midsummer Music

  Musical theater, soundtracks, Bach’s Goldberg Variations, Rachmaninoff’s Cello Sonata in D Minor, and more.