During the week, I skim newspapers as an palate cleanser between tasks. As I do so, I bookmark interesting links, and come back to them over lunch to see if they coalesce into a theme. Today they coalesced into a theme relating to design, particularly historical design:
- Recreated Design. Let’s start with perhaps the most meaningless design of all: the floorplans of major sitcom and TV show houses. Yes, this person did have too much time on their hands.
- Underground Design. Subways and transit systems have their own unique designs. There is conscious thought put into the font selection, typography, layout, and such. Here’s a glimpse into the first style manual for the unified New York City subway.
- Hidden Design. Sometimes, designs are hidden, but those hidden design aspects can impact you. Take Echo Park Lake in Los Angeles. Turns out that there is a hidden dam there, and this led to having to redesign the lake to make it not subject to dam rules.
- Moving Design. Sometimes the design moves. There is a museum in Los Angeles called the Peterson Auto Musuem. Most of its collection is hidden. Here’s a peek into the hidden automotive designs in that collection.
- Informative Design. Sometimes the right design can inform. Here’s a wonderfully designed graphic that explains the social engineering threat.
Music: The Smile Sessions (The Beach Boys): “The Elements: Fire Session”
