Instagram story viewer> @designobserver> Posts

Design Observer

@designobserver

11.6K

followers

288

following

📖 Essays | 🎙️ Podcasts | 🎟️ Events on design, leadership & culture. A home for curious minds shaping the world.

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

Download All

Anything we make, we can remake.

That's a design philosophy — and a challenge.

We're revisiting some of the voices that have shaped how we think about what design is actually for. Starting with Dr. Dori Tunstall. Swipe through. Link in bio. by @designobserver

86

0

4 months ago

Brands are designed. So are the values behind them. We’re revisiting some of the voices that have shaped how we think about what design is actually for. Link in bio to check out this episode of The Design of Business | The Business of Design, we think you’ll find it worth your time. by @designobserver

8k

7

4 months ago

A tiled wall. A street corner. A building you've walked past a hundred times. Design is hiding in plain sight everywhere — if you know how to look, it'll lead you into rich history, living culture, and deeper meaning. This week's voice is one of the people who taught us how.

We're revisiting some of the voices that have shaped how we think about what design is actually for. This week, Bert de Muynck. Swipe through. Link in bio for full article. by @designobserver

7

0

3 months ago

This season of DB|BD we are thinking about radical collaboration. For the second year in a row, Design Observer is publishing some exclusive conversations from the Aspen Institute's Business and Society Summit.

In July, DBBD host Ellen McGirt interviewed eight thoughtful, important and provocative leaders who are thinking deeply about AI, sustainability, and the role of business in a chaotic world.

Listen now at designobserver.com or wherever you get your podcasts (link in bio)! by @designobserver

6

0

a day ago

They'll sell you shapewear. They'll also make you furious. Both, it turns out, are by design. (Yup, we're talking Kardashians.)

Writer and media theorist MJ Corey, aka Kardashian Kolloquium, has built a whole career analyzing the family's media machine. Her new book, Dekonstructing the Kardashians, is out now, and Design Observer's Alexis Haut sat down with her to talk about it - link in bio for full interview. by @designobserver

163

5

2 days ago

Micro-nerdery: n. the obsessive, invisible, deeply human work of drawing letters.

Sara Soskolne, Executive Creative Director at @bymonotype , has spent much of the last two decades inside Gotham. We asked what she wishes people understood about typeface design. Her answer: we're all surrounded by it, and someone made every choice.

Read the full conversation - link in bio. by @designobserver

26

1

7 days ago

"Remembering is hard work, and democracy doesn’t work without it." This week's newsletter features an in-depth essay by Ellen McGirt on a new exhibition at the @mocpchi

Subscribe to The Observatory to get these in your inbox, or find them on our Substack - link in bio.

Photo Creds:
1. Stephen Marc, Untitled, from Changing Chicago, 1988. Gift of Jack A. Jaffe, Focus/Infinity Fund.
2. If Emmett Till Lived, Exhibition Opening, September 10th, 2026. by @designobserver

9

0

9 days ago

99

5

13 days ago

Listeners, it has been a while, but DB|BD is back! And this season we are thinking about radical collaboration. For the second year in a row, Design Observer is publishing some exclusive conversations from the Aspen Institute's Business and Society Summit.

In July, DBBD host Ellen McGirt interviewed eight thoughtful, important and provocative leaders who are thinking deeply about AI, sustainability, and the role of business in a chaotic world.

(We will be publishing two of these interviews every Tuesday for the next month, starting this week).

Listen now at designobserver.com (link in bio) or wherever you get your podcasts! by @designobserver

11

0

14 days ago

The best ideas start with observing what people are actually asking for.

Ira Blossom, senior UX research manager at Google and founder of @playsundayclub, spent years listening to people talk about their relationship with technology — and heard the same thing over and over. So he built a games-only, print-only newspaper.

Even cooler? When other analog newsstands started popping up around Union Square, he didn't see competition. He saw community.

Read more about Ira and the birth of Sunday Club in the latest Design Juice article - link in bio. by @designobserver

44

3

16 days ago

"Nothing for us without us."

That's the phrase that guides Katie Conry's work at the Tenderloin Museum — where public programming means residents tell their own stories, walking tours end at queer bars, and an immersive play about the first known act of queer resistance in U.S. history has been running for over a year.

Conry on what it looks like to design programming for one of San Francisco's most historically rich — and most misunderstood — neighborhoods. Link in bio.

Design Juice is an as-told-to conversation series that captures how designers think, work, and envision the future. by @designobserver

26

0

20 days ago

80

1

22 days ago