Category: art direction

  • This Years Model

    This Years Model

    There’s a new AI model that can render photorealistic people and products, including text and logos. Geisha With Walkman is something I tried to draw 40 years ago, but my rendering skills were simply too…

  • Web Design Inspiration

    Web Design Inspiration

    If you’re finding today a bit stressful for some reason, grab a respite by sinking into any of these web design inspiration websites.

  • This Web of Ours, Revisited

    This Web of Ours, Revisited

    Why did leading designers in 2000 look down their nose at the web? And are things any better today?

  • Just add water.

    Just add water.

    Quick, before everyone else thinks of it. Set the word “SUCCESSION” in Engravers Gothic and export it to a transparent PNG. Download photos of confederate general Mitch McConnell and Republican Johns Thune (R-S.D.), Cornyn (R-Texas),…

  • The Next Generation of Web Layouts

    The Next Generation of Web Layouts

    Who will design the next generation of readable, writerly web layouts? Layouts for sites that are mostly writing. Designed by people who love writing. Where text can be engaging even if it isn’t offset by…

  • Looking Back, Looking Ahead: artist Dan Licht

    Looking Back, Looking Ahead: artist Dan Licht

    In 1999, I had the good fortune to work alongside Dan Licht at an NYC digital startup called SenseNet, RIP. Back then, although still in his early 20s, Dan was already an accomplished art director and digital…

  • My Night With Essl

    My Night With Essl

    Herewith, a scene from last night’s interview with legendary web & book designer (and Dean of The Cooper Union School of Art) Mike Essl, who shared his portfolio, career highlights, early web design history, and…

  • Rediscovering music

    Rediscovering music

    If Spotify exposes you to new music, Last.fm helps remind you of great music in your existing collection that may have slipped your mind.

  • The Web We Lost: Luke Dorny Redesign

    The Web We Lost: Luke Dorny Redesign

    Like 90s hip-hop, The Web We Lost™ retains a near-mystical hold on the hearts and minds of those who were lucky enough to be part of it. Luke Dorny’s recent, lovingly hand-carved redesign of his…

  • Expressive Design Systems

    Expressive Design Systems

    Yesenia Perez-Cruz started her career as a designer at Happy Cog Philadelphia. From the first day, her design gifts were unmistakable. As her career progressed, she moved from one challenging role to another. At companies…

  • Digital newspaper design challenge: a report from Poynter, part 1

    Digital newspaper design challenge: a report from Poynter, part 1

    CAN design create a better user experience that engages readers and drives revenue? Can it fight fake news and help save real journalism at a time when news organizations large and small are underfinanced and…

  • To Save Real News

    To Save Real News

    IN a world where newspapers are dying and half the public believes fake news, what online news experiences need is design that is branded, authoritative, and above all, readable: Branded, because we need to convert…

  • Solve the Right Problem: Derek Featherstone on designing for extremes

    Solve the Right Problem: Derek Featherstone on designing for extremes

    12 LESSONS from An Event Apart San Francisco – ? 3: Derek Featherstone was the 10th speaker at An Event Apart San Francisco, which ended Wednesday. His session, Extreme Design, showed how creating great experiences…

  • CSS & Design: Blending Modes Demystified

    CSS & Design: Blending Modes Demystified

    With a few lines of CSS, we can now flexibly add Photoshop-level blending effects to our designs. Justin McDowell (@revoltpuppy) leads the way in today’s A List Apart, for people who make websites.

  • A Helvetica For Readers

    A Helvetica For Readers

    A Helvetica For Readers: behind the site design for Robert Slimbach’s new Acumin type family—fresh at zeldman.com.