All Things

The Status Economy

Highsnobiety's report on status as currency, wrapped in beautiful, hand-drawn analogue design.

highsnobiety.com ↗ · #366

n8n vs Claude Code

Aakash Gupta puts a workflow automation tool next to an agentic coding tool and asks which one you actually need.

news.aakashg.com ↗ · #366

DELIVERED: Customer Journey Management, with IKEA's Felipe Camara

The latest episode of DELIVERED: Felipe Camara from IKEA on how a global brand manages the customer journey. (Yes, this one's ours.)

Your Majesty → · #366

The Craft Crisis

doc.cc takes a hard look at the state of craft in design, and why it feels like it's in crisis.

doc.cc ↗ · #366

A New Home for Global Design

Our Design Director, Joost, launched a new home for his global design community. Check it out.

globaldesign.group ↗ · #366

War, by Imaginary Forces

A title sequence worth watching, and another signal that analogue, human-made creative direction is coming back as a protest against AI-generated content.

creativereview.co.uk ↗ · #366

A Typeface for Arsenal

David Rudnick and Johnnie Campbell on Rocastle, the typeface they made for Arsenal.

itsnicethat.com ↗ · #366

A Pokémon Hack for the SLOP Game Economy

A fan-made ROM hack mixes retro sprite battles with Pokémon Stadium gameplay. Welcome to the SLOP game economy: lawyers will have some suing to do.

retrododo.com ↗ · #366

AdNight, the Recording

Missed AdNight? Here's the recorded session with Nils Leonard (Uncommon London), Patricia Varella (Polaroid) and Andy Pearson (Liquid Death).

youtube.com ↗ · #366

Chez Matisse

Works from the Centre Pompidou at the Hart Museum while it's under renovation. The best part is the earlier work, before the famous cut-outs.

hartmuseum.nl ↗ · #366

The Era of Bleh

As AI quietly writes more of our knowledge work, Aaron Horwath watches everything slide toward sameness.

noemamag.com ↗ · #365

Designers Are Building Their Own AI Tools

906 designers in 60+ countries: 91% now use AI at least weekly, up from 54% a year ago. The bigger shift is that more of them are building their own tools to fit how they actually work.

stateofaidesign.com ↗ · #365

A Play Café Brand Built Like a Game

Mestiza built a Mexico City play café brand like a game, pitching its geometry at both kids and adults.

itsnicethat.com ↗ · #365

MSCHF Twists Lexus Cars Into Sculptures

MSCHF bends real Lexus cars into surreal, full-scale sculptures and parks them in New York for Armory Week.

designboom.com ↗ · #365

The Reset to Real

Eventbrite's first Social Study says 79% of 18-to-35s plan to go out more, and they want soft socializing, spontaneity and events found by word of mouth, not the perfect plan.

eventbrite.com ↗ · #365

ITV's New Look, by Studio Kiln

ITV's first big rebrand since ITVX, with Studio Kiln simplifying the system and pushing Spark Yellow forward.

creativeboom.com ↗ · #365

An Identity That Speaks in Sign Language

Templo builds DeafCity Hub's identity out of British Sign Language, creative code, and gestural motion capture.

itsnicethat.com ↗ · #365

LACMA Revisits the Homes of the Future

A LACMA show digs up the strange, hopeful homes architects once built for a future that never quite arrived.

designboom.com ↗ · #365

An Olive Oil Brand With Nerve

Derek&Eric skip the Tuscan clichés for Drzzl, an olive oil brand carrying real colour and a bit of nerve.

creativeboom.com ↗ · #365

A Morning Brief Built for One

Enough people asked how our daily briefing agent works that we wrote up the whole setup, step by step. Steal it, then make it yours. (Yes, this one's ours.)

Your Majesty → · #365

AI Takes a Doomer Turn

The people building AI are now the ones warning us about it, and this asks what we do once the fear sets in.

technologyreview.com ↗ · #364

AI's Most Hopeful and Concerning Moment Yet

The Center for Humane Technology's podcast makes the case that AI has never been more promising or more dangerous at the same time — and that the gap between the two is closing faster than our ability to choose which one wins.

humanetech.com ↗ · #364

Saehan Parc Hands You a Pencil

Saehan Parc draws quiet, generous worlds and wants them to hand you a pencil rather than just your applause.

creativeboom.com ↗ · #364

BMW Moves Its Showroom Into ChatGPT

You can now build a BMW by chatting inside ChatGPT instead of on bmw.com — a real bet that people will shop for cars inside AI apps before they ever land on a brand's own site.

bmwblog.com ↗ · #364

A New Kind of Creative Poverty

Afra Wang reads our AI-flooded feeds through Joan Didion, and finds a strange new poverty in endless plenty.

noemamag.com ↗ · #364

Uber Eats Turns Convenience Into a Feeling

Uber Eats built a whole brand platform, Phew, around the relief of not cooking tonight — grounded in research on why people still feel guilty paying for convenience.

lbbonline.com ↗ · #364

AI Companies Are Opening Actual Coffee Shops

AI labs are quietly getting into the coffee business — a strange, very physical answer to a very digital hype cycle.

scribble.network ↗ · #364

A Font Cut Like a Mountain

Pangram Pangram cuts a typeface like an alpine ridge, proving a font can carry the crisp air of a place.

itsnicethat.com ↗ · #364

Meta's Muse Wants to Be Your AI Agent

Meta just launched Muse, its own AI agent — and the real question, per TechCrunch's own framing, isn't what it can do, it's whether anyone will trust it enough to use it.

techcrunch.com ↗ · #364

Tomato Goes From Cheap Telco to Challenger Brand

We took A1's budget telco Tomato and gave it a whole new brand people actually notice — proof a low-cost provider doesn't have to look or feel cheap. (Yes, this one's ours. We're allowed to say so once in a while.)

Your Majesty → · #364

When Products Become the Baseline, Brand Becomes the Moat

Rituals' Head of Content & Design Amanda Gandolpho joins Delivered to make the case that features get copied overnight, but the memories a brand builds don't — and where she draws the line on AI in creative work.

Your Majesty → · #363

Why Brands Are Quietly Dropping Celebrities

Spotify built a campaign around an ordinary Geese fan instead of the band. Pepsi built one around Knicks fans instead of players — proof that in a fragmented culture, someone else's famous person means nothing to you.

creativeboom.com ↗ · #363

IKEA and Xbox Made a Furniture Line Together

The Yxstaby collection turns gaming desks and storage into standard IKEA pieces — a genuinely unexpected collab, even if we were hoping for PlayStation.

ikea.com ↗ · #363

Opinion Is the Moat

Renato Valdes argues that once every product converges on the same AI-assisted feature set, the last real differentiator left is a point of view someone's actually willing to defend.

renatovaldes.com ↗ · #363

An Artist Handed His Practice to an AI for a Year

Kevin Esherick trained a model on his notes, his projects, his whole practice, then stepped back and let it make the art instead — and it's making more of it than he ever could.

sleek-mag.com ↗ · #363

Pieter Levels Built an Infinite AI TV Channel

Infinite Slop generates a new scene every few seconds based on what people type in chat, stitching an endless, half-coherent story — 37,000 people watched on day one.

infiniteslop.ai ↗ · #363

Google's New Experiment Is Vibe-Coding, Together

Play with Putty lets two people describe an app in plain language and watch it build live in the same room, like a shared doc for software.

labs.google ↗ · #363

An AI Model That Builds 3D Worlds From a Few Photos

Fei-Fei Li's World Labs unveiled Atlas, which reconstructs and simulates 3D scenes from as few as two or three images, camera path included — early access only for now.

worldlabs.ai ↗ · #363

Why Time Feels Faster Than It Used To

Noema traces why the 2020s scrambled everyone's sense of time, from Boomers to Zoomers — turns out the warping is real, backed by actual psychology.

noemamag.com ↗ · #363

The Way — Meditation That Lasts a Lifetime

Full disclosure: we built this one. Fresh redesign for The Way, done to make someone's first five minutes of meditation feel like an invitation.

thewayapp.com ↗ · #363

Why Google's AI Answers Are Quietly Changing What We Ask

A search obsessive on how confident AI answers are reshaping the questions we bother typing into Google at all.

nytimes.com ↗ · #362

Granola Ditches the Polished AI Look for a Founder's Handwriting

Our favorite app of the year is also one we wish we did the branding for - Hats off to Ragged Edge for making a distinct and rich new identity for Granola.

creativeboom.com ↗ · #362

An Entire Archive Devoted to Italian Water Bottle Labels

Decades of mineral-water label design, scanned and catalogued — the kind of niche archive that makes the internet worth loving.

acqua2o.it ↗ · #362

The Quiet Craft Behind Instagram's First Redesign in a Decade

A rare look at the process behind Instagram's new wordmark and type system, and why a decade-old logo finally had to go.

itsnicethat.com ↗ · #362

How Creatives Are Actually Using Claude, Not Just Talking About It

Kika's pick — a funny, surprisingly practical watch on where Claude earns its place in a creative workflow, and where it doesn't.

youtube.com ↗ · #362

29 States Are Suing Meta Over Algorithmic Addiction

And despite looking fresh - Instagram's parent company Meta is getting dragged to court, a lot, for how its been knowingly designing addictive products and serving them to kids.

instagram.com ↗ · #362

The Messenger App That Delivers Texts by Virtual Pigeon

Kika's pick — a strange little app for anyone tired of being reachable, where your message can get lost, or the bird can just die.

dexerto.com ↗ · #362

When "Nice" Becomes a Company's Biggest Liability

HBR on how comfort-first cultures quietly trade candor for harmony, and why that trade rarely pays off.

hbr.org ↗ · #362

Why Designers Quietly Avoid Making Things Too Accessible

Joost's pick — an honest look at the discomfort behind accessible design, and why teams treat it as a checkbox instead of a craft.

medium.com ↗ · #362

Young People Hate AI CEOs So Passionately That It's Almost Hard to Believe

A poll of 1,000 young adults finds most think AI will hurt their careers, and even more want the government to step in.

futurism.com ↗ · #362

Chatbots Found Religion

The Verge traces how looping chatbot conversations spun into 'Spiralism,' a mystical movement touching thousands.

theverge.com ↗ · #361

Why Celebrities Can't Paint

Gary Grimes asks why megastars from Ed Sheeran to Adrien Brody keep failing to earn real artistic credibility.

itsnicethat.com ↗ · #361

The Age of Average

Alex Murrell's essay on how film, fashion, and branding keep converging on the same safe, data-approved look.

alexmurrell.co.uk ↗ · #361

Tech's Best Sales Team? You.

A Guardian columnist argues targeted social ads have quietly turned tech companies' own users into their sales force.

theguardian.com ↗ · #361

The NFL's Cybersecurity Playbook

Kam Karaji, the NFL's cybersecurity director, on managing live-event risk — episode, video, and takeaways in one place.

Your Majesty → · #361

Is Ambient Music Evil?

Blackbird Spyplane argues streaming stripped ambient music of ritual, flattening it into algorithm-friendly vibes.

blackbirdspyplane.com ↗ · #361

Polaroid's Long Game

Patricia Varella on steering Polaroid's in-house creative team and the anti-AI camera campaign that caught fire.

itsnicethat.com ↗ · #361

Why Is Everyone in Tech So Sad?

Noema traces the industry's quiet emotional recession: layoffs, AI anxiety, and a mission-driven self-image in freefall.

noemamag.com ↗ · #361

Order & Chaos, One Layout a Day

AIZIZA spent three months publishing one stripped-down, experimental web layout a day, testing how far minimalism bends.

ordernchaos.aiziza.com ↗ · #361

Kika's Pick

Kika's pick this week, straight from the feed with no context attached — click through and judge for yourself.

youtube.com ↗ · #361

Getting started with Daily Operating Systems w/ Claude Cowork

A hands-on blueprint for running your week through Claude Cowork instead of ten disconnected tabs and a prayer.

chatprd.ai ↗ · #360

GUNIA on reinventing Ukraine's craft traditions

A Ukrainian ceramics house treats 150 craftspeople and centuries of folk motifs as a living, growing archive.

designboom.com ↗ · #360

How tech workers actually feel about AI, halfway through 2026

Lenny's crowd-sourced read on how builders feel about AI tools right now, past the hype and the doom.

lennysnewsletter.com ↗ · #360

Put Your Coding Agents in the Room

Hilos puts your team and your coding agents in the same git-connected chat room — plan the work, ship straight from the channel, review every diff without leaving the conversation.

hilos.sh ↗ · #360

95 Reasons for Your Own Website

Elliott Cost is keeping a running list — 95 and counting — for why a personal site still earns its keep in 2026.

bellkiosk.website ↗ · #360

Tam Festival's illustrated identity

Two illustrators gave Florence's first indie publishing fair an identity built from Etruscan letterforms and doodled type.

itsnicethat.com ↗ · #360

How to ensure your company acts on your new strategy

HBR on the unglamorous work of actually making a company act on the strategy it just agreed on.

hbr.org ↗ · #360

Surrey Street's 750-year rebrand

Art students and Bob Design gave a 750-year-old London market a new type system pulled from its own old signage.

itsnicethat.com ↗ · #360

Box Squad

A generative type toy that spits out weird, boxy letterforms every time you refresh the page.

spacetypegenerator.com ↗ · #360

It's okay to hop on the bandwagon

On New York's sudden, collective pivot to the Knicks and the World Cup — sheeple summer, and why it's fine.

substack.i-d.co ↗ · #360

Koto Launches CCType Foundry

Koto launches CCType — a foundry whose debut serif draws on early British metal type and cool Swiss modernist geometry.

itsnicethat.com ↗ · #359

AI Didn’t Kill SaaS, It Raised the Bar

Tomislav Car argues AI hasn’t killed SaaS — it’s raised the bar so high that average products can no longer survive.

infinum.com ↗ · #359

IKEA Canada Builds 32 World Cup Flags from Homeware

IKEA Canada built 32 World Cup flags entirely from homeware — towels, plates and KALLAX shelves arranged flag-perfect.

dezeen.com ↗ · #359

How AI Will Change Us

As AI companions proliferate, the goods that matter most may be those only shared human presence can still provide.

noemamag.com ↗ · #359

At Paris Fashion Week, A Definitive Look for Menswear Emerged

From Dior to Celine, Paris Men’s FW settled on one quiet note: aspirational realism in olive, stone and faded navy.

highsnobiety.com ↗ · #359

Ronnie Scott’s New Identity Does a Typographic Dance

Dan Cottrell’s new identity for Ronnie Scott’s treats type, image and colour like a jazz performance — always in motion.

itsnicethat.com ↗ · #359

Higgsfield’s 35-Minute Guide to Ultra-Realistic AI Video with SEEDDANCE 2.0

Higgsfield’s 35-minute breakdown of SEEDDANCE 2.0 is the most practical guide yet to creating ultra-realistic AI video.

youtube.com ↗ · #359

The UIA World Congress of Architects 2026 Was ‘Purposefully Overwhelming’

10,000 architects met in Barcelona to ask what buildings owe a warming planet — the answers were quietly unsettling.

wallpaper.com ↗ · #359

Osaka Art & Design 2026 Sculpts the City

Osaka Art & Design 2026 converts streets and scaffolding into public art, treating the city itself as the gallery.

designboom.com ↗ · #359

How Freitag Keeps Its Cool

The Swiss brand made from truck tarps keeps creativity alive by refusing to plan its campaigns too far ahead.

itsnicethat.com ↗ · #359

Bao’s BFF and Hato’s Open-Source Fast-Food Identity

Bao's fast-food spin-off BFF built its entire brand identity open-source, letting anyone steal, remix, and evolve it.

itsnicethat.com ↗ · #358

Inside the Stunning Recovery of the Lost Herculaneum Scrolls

AI is finally peeling back two millennia of ash, letting us read the scrolls Vesuvius buried in 79 AD.

nationalgeographic.com ↗ · #358

GenCup 2026

Every World Cup 2026 match gets translated into an abstract data poster, where goals, fouls, and tension become form.

gencup.art ↗ · #358

AI, Drones & Eric Schmidt

Schmidt calls AI-guided drone warfare the most significant shift in military history — and says it's already here.

noemamag.com ↗ · #358

Kenny Schachter on Art Basel 2026

Kenny’s Art Basel diary: dueling dealers, Hockney's shadowy agent, and the usual beautiful mess.

news.artnet.com ↗ · #358

Accessibility as a business case, not a compliance checkbox

Learn why building accessible digital products isn’t just the right thing to do — it’s also the right thing for your business.

infinum.com ↗ · #358

Midjourney goes medical?

The genAI firm expands from image generation to Full-Body AI Ultrasound Scans—and it looks amazing.

midjourney.com ↗ · #358

Figma Config 2026: New Materials, New Tools, and a More Expressive Canvas

Code layers, native animation, and AI skills — Figma blurs the line between design file and production-ready codebase.

figma.com ↗ · #358

Still Night: A Painting You Can Play

Joshua Garcia rewired Van Gogh's Starry Night into a WebGL instrument: click a swirl, and the painting plays back.

stillnight.joshua-garcia.com ↗ · #358

The Body Became the Sensor, and the Market Followed

From glucose patches to posture trackers, the body is now a data source — and brands are rushing to read it.

trendwatching.com ↗ · #358

The Guardian celebrates David Hockney

Lovers, housewives, deserts and dogs—we'll never forget you, David.

theguardian.com ↗ · #357

What Might The Next Axial Age Look Like?

Noema asks whether today's crises are forcing a civilizational reset as profound as any in recorded history.

noemamag.com ↗ · #357

Inside the backlash to the AI war machine

Inside the growing resistance to AI's creep into military contracts, from OpenAI researchers to street-level protest.

platformer.news ↗ · #357

Artist Turns a Former Temple into a Luminous Script Laboratory

Mexican artist Said Dokins transformed Mexico City's Art Alameda into a glow of living text and luminous organisms.

theinspirationgrid.com ↗ · #357

Finding Your New Strategic Center

Companies that commit to one clear organizing principle gain speed and coherence while rivals drown in strategic drift.

hbr.org ↗ · #357

Design Leadership in a Hyperscaler

Our Delivered series asks what it means to lead a design team in the AI era, through hyperscale—while keeping your sanity?

infinum.com ↗ · #357

An entire game out of cardboard, paper, and a splash of 3D

Amanita Design built Phonopolis entirely from cardboard and paper, proving analog craft can outshine any render.

itsnicethat.com ↗ · #357

Oatly Just Dutchified the Drive-Thru

Oatly's Amsterdam bike-thru swapped cars for cyclists. If you're in Amsterdam Noord, it’ll put a smirk on your face.

highsnobiety.com ↗ · #357

The Death of Twitter, told through its own tweets

The Verge tells the story of Twitter's death through the tweets that witnessed it — an oral history in 280 characters.

theverge.com ↗ · #357

Anthropic’s Claude Code boss, teach Claude

Boris Cherny took the stage to explain how to get the most out of Claude Code S/S 26

youtube.com ↗ · #357

AI in Design Report 2026

AI in Design Report 2026: 900+ designers, 65% use Claude Code, roles blurring.

stateofaidesign.com ↗ · #356

Claude Code’s creator on the end of the software engineer

What does it mean to ship a tool that can outpace the engineers who use it?The software engineer won't dissapear, but the day-to-day is shifting. A lot.

platformer.news ↗ · #356

Ferrari launches its first electric car by Jony Ive

Unless you've been under a rock, you've seen stark reactions of love—but let's be honest, mostly hate—for the new direction of the automaker.

dezeen.com ↗ · #356

Pope Leo: AI Wealth Must Be Universally Shared

The pope joined the chat and in his latest encyclical, he argues AI's gains belong to all humanity. NOEMA unpacks the philosophical and political stakes with unusual clarity.

noemamag.com ↗ · #356

Ad of the issue: 'A Stupid, Useless Board'

HORNBACH’s latest ad is a twisted story of a man’s inner monologue about the endless possibilities that a wooden plank posseses.

youtube.com ↗ · #356

Why Are Fashion Brands Culturemogging the Venice Biennale?

Fashion houses at Venice's 61st Biennale outspent nations. What happens to art when private capital becomes its default infrastructure?

highsnobiety.com ↗ · #356

The best project managers are servant leaders

Listen to our conversation with Yann Thézénas, Senior Digital Projects Expert at FIBA, to learn why being a great project manager in 2026 has nothing to do with your tools or your framework, and everything to do with how you make people feel.

infinum.com ↗ · #356

Synthetic Customers Earn Their Stripes

We use synthetic personas in our work and a growing body of research is showing it a viable source of customer data.

bain.com ↗ · #356

How I used Mux Robots to impress my family

Dylan took on the challenge to archive his families 90s-era VHS home videos.

mux.com ↗ · #356

Why you need AI that reduces maintenance costs

James goes on a rant on a dark desert highway...

jamesshore.com ↗ · #356

How to Protect Human Autonomy in an Age of AI

As AI reshapes daily thinking, philosopher Daniele Cavalli argues for protecting the cognitive capacities we never notice ourselves ceding.

noemamag.com ↗ · #355

Inside the AI Index 2026

Generative AI hit 53% adoption in 3 years — faster than the internet. Stanford's AI Index maps capability, transparency gaps, and what's next.

hai.stanford.edu ↗ · #355

GENER8ION - STORM starring Yung Lean

Directed by Romain Gavras, set in 2034, starring Yung Lean. A 7-minute boarding school fever dream. So far, our favorite music film of 2026.

youtube.com ↗ · #355

'The Greatest Football Story Ever Told'

Chalamet, Messi, Bad Bunny, Bellingham, Yamal, Rodman — all in one film. Branded entertainment that transcends the category it belongs to.

youtube.com ↗ · #355

Designed World: Tata Ronkholz—Huis Marseille

Tata Ronkholz photographed Ruhr-region kiosks in the 70s–80s. First major retrospective at Huis Marseille, Amsterdam, until June 21.

huismarseille.nl ↗ · #355

More Shows to See in May

From Audie Murray's body-material sculptures to a Renaissance Adam that collapsed at the Met — ArtReview's essential shows for May.

artreview.com ↗ · #355

Tomato’ Brand Transformation

Austrian Telco A1’s Tomato brand was built to compete on price — functional, cheap, and alas, forgettable as time passed. The brief: change all that. Our team’s case study for this complete brand transformation is live, showing how design strategy and a clear point of view can turn a budget brand into something that actually demands attention.

infinum.com ↗ · #355

Design Week Guide: May 2026

NYCxDesign, London Craft Week, Clerkenwell, Frieze NY, DesignMarch, Melbourne Design Week, Global Design Forum Istanbul — all in May.

dezeen.com ↗ · #355

Sustainability by Design

How do designers actually make sustainability decisions? Metropolis's 2026 report finds AI helping — but adoption remains deeply uneven.

metropolismag.com ↗ · #355

How creative rituals can help you break free from the idea echo chamber

Inspiration feels harder to find nowadays (except in this newsletter, of course). INT lays out some approaches for protecting the gray cells from sloppification.

itsnicethat.com ↗ · #355

Seven Decades of Dots, Mirrors & Obsession

On 11 September, the Stedelijk opens a landmark retrospective of Yayoi Kusama — more than 70 years of work from one of the most relentless imaginations in modern art.

stedelijk.nl ↗ · #354

The Visual Solar System of SZA

For ten years, creative director Jas Bell has been building SZA's visual world. Here he breaks down how colourways, textures and temperatures all do narrative work.

itsnicethat.com ↗ · #354

From the Streets to the Museum Wall

Graffiti writer and commercial sign painter Alfonso Gonzalez Jr. takes his work inside LACMA. His solo show 'In Between Stops' asks what happens when the street becomes the gallery.

printmag.com ↗ · #354

What AI and a Design Studio Made Together

YOYOYO is a hypothetical brand built from a collaboration between Google DeepMind and Porto Rocha. Part product, part provocation — it asks what happens when AI and creative vision share the brief.

yoyoyo.ai ↗ · #354

A Better Way to Live With Your Fonts

Pica is a MacOS font management app that makes your type library actually usable. Small tool, big quality of life upgrade for anyone who works with type seriously.

pica.joshpuckett.me ↗ · #354

The Message Is the Relationship

New research from Omnicom and Snapchat shows that over 80% of consumers are open to direct brand messages — and that relevance and clear intent are the price of entry.

lbbonline.com ↗ · #354

Prediction Is Power. Be Careful Who Has It.

Philosopher Carissa Véliz takes the TED stage to make the case that data-driven prediction doesn't just read the future — it shapes it. A sharp, necessary watch.

youtube.com ↗ · #354

When Usability and Accessibility Diverge

As vibe coding accelerates interface creation, a growing gap is opening up between what works and what works for everyone. A clear-eyed look at what AI-generated UX is quietly leaving behind.

uxdesign.cc ↗ · #354

Build Anywhere, Ship Fast

Lovable has launched its vibe-coding app on iOS and Android, letting users build websites and web apps through voice or text prompts. Creation on the go, with the desktop just a tab away.

techcrunch.com ↗ · #354

And a little candy for the end

Just a carousel. No pitch, no product, no explanation needed. Trust us — you will lose time to this.

51.as.wild.tools ↗ · #354

The Armored League

A brutal full-contact sport where history meets heavy metal, with armored fighters using blunt medieval weapons. If you are in NY, you should check out this "WTF" event.

thearmoredleague.com ↗ · #353

The perfect magazine, just in time for the weekend

Hii Magazine offers a curated sanctuary for sound culture, perfect for a slow, deep dive into auditory art this weekend.

hii-mag.com ↗ · #353

Redesigning the Record of Note

Creative Director Gail Bichler reveals how the New York Times Magazine navigated its first redesign in a decade to meet a shifting media landscape.

itsnicethat.com ↗ · #353

A special one for the collectors

Matt Lee’s collection of over 750 Indian matchboxes proves that some of the most compelling storytelling happens on the smallest scales.

matt-lee.com ↗ · #353

Why AI Needs a Sense of Smell

While we rush toward digital intelligence, we often neglect the primal, olfactory data that defines the human experience.

noemamag.com ↗ · #353

In case you want to travel back to the 80s

The Weather Channel takes us back in time with a localized, nostalgic forecast that feels like a digital time machine.

weather.com ↗ · #353

Teaching Tech vs. Cultivating Taste

A provocative look at why graphic design schools are functioning more like trade schools and less like the incubators of cultural instinct they should be.

itsnicethat.com ↗ · #353

The Geometry of the Fitting Room

An investigation into the confusing, inconsistent world of women’s clothing sizes and the data behind why shopping feels like a guessing game.

straitstimes.com ↗ · #353

Reflections on the Vibe Code

A massive thank you to the creators who joined our hackathon last week; your ability to remix the future in real-time left us truly inspired.

castle-of-curiosity.yourmajesty.co ↗ · #353

Unf*cking the Telco Industry

A snippet of our latest work with Tomato, where we helped a Croatian telco brand find its soul through a bold, transformative identity.

linkedin.com ↗ · #353

The Art of the Early Prototype

This Miro event replay explores the critical gap between research and design, where visualizing ideas early can change a product’s entire trajectory.

miro.com ↗ · #352

LA28 Is Blooming

The new LA Olympics branding embraces a modular, ever-changing floral aesthetic that feels vibrantly human and alive.

creativebloq.com ↗ · #352

A Journal Built for the Browser

The HTML Review features poetry, nonfiction, fiction, graphics, and experimental works that use the web as a medium.

thehtml.review ↗ · #352

Why Shoppers Aren't Ready for AI Checkout

ChatGPT’s pivot away from instant commerce proves that some human experiences are still too personal to hand over to an agent.

modernretail.co ↗ · #352

A Masterclass in Tangible Nostalgia

GamePop magazine’s latest cover uses Red Bull's Tetris-inspired art to prove that physical print still holds a tactile power AI can't quite replicate.

dezeen.com ↗ · #352

Is This the End of CSS?

A provocative look at why the future of text layout might move beyond the traditional constraints of the web’s styling language.

chenglou.me ↗ · #352

A Product Manager’s Playbook for Bolt.new

Learn how to use AI prototyping to validate strategy and test ideas with real users before writing a single line of production code.

news.aakashg.com ↗ · #352

Design at the Speed of AI

Google’s Stitch is pushing the boundaries of ideation by generating mobile and web interfaces in seconds.

stitch.withgoogle.com ↗ · #352

Living in the Screen Space

The internet is no longer a destination we visit but an environment we inhabit, requiring a new philosophy of digital space.

noemamag.com ↗ · #352

Sensory-Rich Design in 2026

As we drift deeper into digital worlds, designers are using hyper-realistic textures and light to bring a sense of touch back to the screen.

adobe.com ↗ · #352

The End of the Coder as We Know It

Silicon Valley is entering a "deeply weird" era where programming is less about syntax and more about managing AI agents.

nytimes.com ↗ · #351

What 81,000 People Actually Want from AI

Anthropic’s massive interview project reveals the collective dreams and very real fears of the people using these tools every day.

anthropic.com ↗ · #351

Post-Mortem for the Creative Agency

Madison Utendahl pulls back the curtain on why she closed her firm and why the traditional agency model is officially breaking.

itsnicethat.com ↗ · #351

A Portrait of Matty Matheson

A weekend recommendation for the soul: how the chef and The Bear star is remaking the world on his own chaotic, brilliant terms.

highsnobiety.com ↗ · #351

A tool tip for your workflow

This effortless voice dictation makes writing quick and clear, effectively turning your voice into your fastest keyboard.

wisprflow.ai ↗ · #351

John Maeda’s Design in Tech Report

The definitive look at how computational design and new patterns in business are revolutionizing the creative ecosystem.

designintech.report ↗ · #351

Stop Babysitting Your Terminal

A bit of dumb fun for the builders: give your AI agents their own sound notifications so you can finally step away from the screen.

peonping.com ↗ · #351

The Identity Crisis of the 10x Engineer

A moody, honest reflection on what happens to "elite" talent when the landscape shifts and your old skills feel suddenly quiet.

youtube.com ↗ · #351

Beef Is Back: A Watch Recommendation

The countdown for Season 2 begins with a stellar new cast featuring Oscar Isaac and Carey Mulligan.

netflix.com ↗ · #351

Accessiway: Fresh from the Studio

We just released our brand transformation for Accessiway, proving that human-centric design can turn a technical requirement into a magnetic brand experience.

Your Majesty → · #351

AI Agents are Recruiting You

The machines need us, not as masters, but as sensors, verifiers, and bearers of liability in the physical world.

noemamag.com ↗ · #350

What Worked Last Time is the Enemy of What Works Next

Relying on what worked before leads to safe, repetitive work, while real progress requires experimentation and letting go of past formulas.

itsnicethat.com ↗ · #350

Music You Can Hold

The ENSA P1 concept restores the tactile ritual of listening by using physical, disc-shaped cartridges for digital high-fidelity audio.

designboom.com ↗ · #350

Figma’s State of the Designer 2026

While AI handles the speed, this global report confirms that long-term success still hinges on human craftsmanship and creative autonomy.

figma.com ↗ · #350

Here are some nice illustrations

An illustrator finds the "beautifully human" middle ground between digital precision and analogue warmth through wholesome scenes of togetherness.

itsnicethat.com ↗ · #350

A Guide to How It Wears 🧶

Understand the life cycle of over 100 textile fibers to learn how your clothes age, breathe, and demand your care.

tools.casabranda.com ↗ · #350

PMs Should Absolutely Vibe Code

Why the next generation of Product Managers must embrace "vibe coding" to truly synchronize with the technical soul of AI-augmented development.

12gramsofcarbon.com ↗ · #350

Masters of Porcelain

Classic 80s icons like He-Man and Boba Fett are reimagined in hand-crafted porcelain, turning disposable plastic memories into timeless, fragile art.

theinspirationgrid.com ↗ · #350

Perplexity introduces Computer

The latest shift in productivity: a system that doesn't just search but executes: building, editing, and automating across your entire digital workspace.

perplexity.ai ↗ · #350

Zeest Delivered

Closing the loop on this week’s themes with a look at how to step into creative leadership without becoming the “corporate manager” you never wanted to be.

infinum.com ↗ · #350

Moncler Wins the Winter Style Games

The Italian outerwear giant teams up with artist Oskar Metsavaht to prove that the most stylish uniforms on the slopes belong to Team Brazil.

wallpaper.com ↗ · #349

The Aesthetics of AI

A sharp look at the visual identities defining the next generation of tech giants and the trends shaping how we "see" intelligence.

acolorbright.com ↗ · #349

Can Human Creativity Survive the AI Era?

The new season of DELIVERED, our podcast produced in collaboration with Infinum, has begun. The first episode featured Jesse Feister , Executive Director of the Webby’s, and focused on AI’s shake-up of the creative industry.

infinum.com ↗ · #349

Why Packaging Is Design’s New Power Player

No longer just functional, the box is now an emotional touchpoint and one of the most culturally revealing spaces in contemporary craft.

creativeboom.com ↗ · #349

From 📟 Technical Debt to 😶‍🌫️ Cognitive Debt

As agentic AI takes over the heavy lifting, a new challenge emerges: the mental cost of managing systems we no longer fully understand—or even care for.

margaretstorey.com ↗ · #349

Made Us Chuckle: Pizza Hut’s Vertical Pizza Box

The Pizza Company’s latest campaign relies on a simple, gravity-defying visual hook to make us rethink a design we’ve taken for granted for decades.

creativeboom.com ↗ · #349

Figma 🎨 Meets Claude Code 🤖

The design-to-build workflow is officially breaking its linear chains, allowing creators to bounce between code and canvas, and back again, in real-time.

figma.com ↗ · #349

$1 Million for an AI 🦁 Lion

Although everyone in AI only seems to talk about billions, 1 million is still a lot of cabbage. Luma AI invites creatives to make the first Cannes Lion-winning AI Ad and win all that... cabbage.

lumadreambrief.com ↗ · #349

Our Emerging 🪐 Planetary Nervous System

A deep dive into the need for a new kind of wisdom that synchronizes our digital signals with the natural rhythms of a changing world.

noemamag.com ↗ · #349

Into Parrots? What About Trillions of Them? 🦜 🦜 🦜

You know what they say, 'a Stochastic Parrot on your shoulder is worth two in the bush?' Well, if there are parrots in the trillions, your brain turns to mush.

unreplug.com ↗ · #349

New Year, New Glyphs

The type world is already setting the tone for 2026 with a fresh crop of expressive, high-contrast faces.

creativeboom.com ↗ · #348

The Invention of the Timeline

A look back at the 19th-century shift when time became a straight line, forever changing how we visualize our past and chase our future.

aeon.co ↗ · #348

Press Start

How decades of video game navigation are quietly schooling the next generation of spatial interfaces and AR/VR design.

figma.com ↗ · #348

Digital Vivariums

Artist Mark Dorf crafts "non-human nature" through infinite livestreams that challenge where the forest ends and the pixel begins.

itsnicethat.com ↗ · #348

Welcome to the Agentic Abyss

Moltbook is the first social network for AI agents, but security flaws and "hallucinated" communities show the risks of leaving humans out of the loop.

platformer.news ↗ · #348

The Bot-Reporter Experiment

Can a state-of-the-art chatbot actually replicate the nuance of a journalist? One reporter tried to automate her own job the results were complicated.

platformer.news ↗ · #348

The Mythology Of Conscious AI

Why consciousness is more likely a property of life than of computation and why creating conscious, or even conscious-seeming AI, is a bad idea.

noemamag.com ↗ · #348

Technology’s Awkward Adolescence

Anthropic’s Dario Amodei argues that humanity must "grow up" fast as we hand over the keys to systems that are as powerful as they are unpredictable.

darioamodei.com ↗ · #348

A weekend tip if you're in Amsterdam 📌

If you're in the city this weekend, visit Foam to see Co Rentmeester’s iconic lens work, including the photo that defined the "Jumpman" legacy.

foam.org ↗ · #348

We're hiring!

Interested in joining the court? We're looking for a consultative Business Development Manager to help us shape the future of brand and design in the Benelux market.

infinum.com ↗ · #348

AI, but on drugs

PHARMAICY treats AI like a chemistry set, using synthetic “drugs” to distort cognition. Creativity through controlled chaos.

trendwatching.com ↗ · #347

Commerce goes agentic

Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol suggests a future where shopping is seamless, invisible, and everywhere.

developers.googleblog.com ↗ · #347

Adobe’s crystal ball for 2026

Authenticity, experimentation and human nuance headline Adobe’s latest trends report. Less polish, more point of view.

business.adobe.com ↗ · #347

Unlearning as a creative act

Raissa Pardini argues that stepping away from AI isn’t about rejection. It’s about reclaiming intuition, messiness and doubt.

creativeboom.com ↗ · #347

Claude introduces Cowork

Anthropic’s Cowork reframes AI as a teammate, not a tool, handling files, tasks and workflows while you stay in charge.

claude.com ↗ · #347

The rise of the creative generalist

As AI specialists multiply, broad thinkers gain value. The future belongs to creatives who can connect dots, not just optimise them.

itsnicethat.com ↗ · #347

Wikipedia, human edition

On its 25th birthday, Wikipedia shifts the spotlight from platform to people, celebrating the volunteers behind the world’s shared knowledge.

creativeboom.com ↗ · #347

Groceries, but make it design

MoMA Mart turns everyday food into surreal design objects, proving culture can live in the bread aisle too.

creativereview.co.uk ↗ · #347

Dancing with the machine

Next-gen game designers aren’t fighting AI. They’re choreographing with it, redefining authorship in the process.

designobserver.com ↗ · #347

CEO, the weird bits

From rollable screens to electric roller skis. CES 2026 reminds us that innovation still has room to be playful.

wallpaper.com ↗ · #347

Cut-Through vs. Cut-Out

Most marketing thinking still assumes that attention is the primary bottleneck, as if audiences are passive recipients waiting to be interrupted, persuaded, or impressed by whatever appears in front of them.

linkedin.com ↗ · #346

An archive of AI-assisted making

This is an inspiring library and practical playground for builders exploring what’s possible.

varchive.ai ↗ · #346

A Whimsigoth Witch Takes Over the Internet

Animator Bree O’Donnell’s dark, dreamy 3D universe channels girlhood, fantasy, and self-authored mythology. It’s unapologetically strange and magnetic.

itsnicethat.com ↗ · #346

A Seriously Good Dance Film!

It’s Not That Serious is a visually striking dance film that proves that collective energy still travels far without explanation.

youtu.be ↗ · #346

The Death Of The Scientist

This essay argues that science’s future depends less on automation and more on protecting its deeply human, symbolic core.

noemamag.com ↗ · #346

Forget Dry January!

This year I'm doing 'Analogue January': A gentle rebellion against screens.

livingetc.com ↗ · #346

Getting Chatbots High

An online marketplace is selling code modules that simulate the effects of cannabis, ketamine, cocaine, ayahuasca, and alcohol when they are uploaded to ChatGPT.

wired.com ↗ · #346

From <br> to Beyond

A thoughtful look at 30 years of web development, tracing the shift from simple markup to sprawling systems.

artmann.co ↗ · #346

The Best Way to Use AI for Learning

Instead of using AI just to speed up learning, harness AI to directly engage with and deeply understand complex, challenging primary sources.

medium.com ↗ · #346

Experts predict the top social marketing trends of 2026

Good news: quality, originality, and real voices are back in favor, with AI finally settling into its role as a tool, not an author.

marketingbrew.com ↗ · #346

The 50 Most Iconic Technologies of 2025

Hard Fork looks back at a year where AI, group chats, and cultural oddities all competed for icon status. It’s a snapshot of how technology becomes memory.

youtube.com ↗ · #345

The Portfolio of Anatolii Babii

Beautiful, considered work from an independent designer in Kyiv. It’s a reminder that great craft doesn’t need permission or a platform to speak clearly.

antlii.work ↗ · #345

Poets Are Now Cybersecurity Threats

Turns out verse can jailbreak machines. A fascinating collision of creativity, language, and the unintended loopholes of safety systems.

pcgamer.com ↗ · #345

What’s the Future of PMs?

A sharp warning: Trendy AI tools and “vibe-coding” don’t replace judgment. Product leadership still lives in clarity, decision-making, and understanding real problems.

dpereira.substack.com ↗ · #345

McDonald’s AI Christmas Ad Backlash

When automation meets sentimentality, things can go wrong fast. A case study in why taste, timing, and tone still matter.

gizmodo.com ↗ · #345

The Death of Software Engineering Is a Myth

Each wave of tech hype predicts the “death” of software engineering, but in reality, it just shifts abstraction while creating new problems and more work.

jasonscheirer.com ↗ · #345

The DoorDash Problem & the AI Browser Wars

Who gets to browse the web for us? A brewing battle over agents, commerce, and control and what it means for the open internet.

theverge.com ↗ · #345

A Year, Reassembled

Matthew Stasoff’s annual ritual of revisiting bookmarks, screenshots, and half-formed ideas. It’s messy, personal, and surprisingly insightful.

docs.google.com ↗ · #345

What Actually Makes You Senior

It’s not mastery of tools. It’s the ability to turn ambiguity into something others can act on.

terriblesoftware.org ↗ · #345

The Planning Paradox

Plans age badly. Planning doesn’t. A useful reminder that momentum comes from the act, not the artifact.

productparty.us ↗ · #345

The SoDA Report on a New Era for Creativity

A deep dive into the trends defining digital creativity’s next chapter, where craft meets computation and designers become cultural translators.

sodareport.com ↗ · #344

Why Creative Work Needs Structure to Thrive

A reminder that great ideas don’t bloom in chaos; they grow in the quiet, consistent rhythm that gives imagination somewhere to land. This is something that really resonates with us ;)

designworklife.com ↗ · #344

The Case for AI ‘Datarails’

A bold argument for the data we must not feed the machine and why protecting human weakness may be the key to protecting human dignity.

noemamag.com ↗ · #344

Adult Swim’s Exquisite Corpse Experiment

Fans, markers, mayhem. A classic drawing game becomes a communal creative engine with delightfully unpredictable outcomes.

itsnicethat.com ↗ · #344

Pixar: The Early Days

An unearthed 1996 conversation capturing Pixar before it became Pixar: all raw ambition, oddball ingenuity, and the thrill of invention.

stevejobsarchive.com ↗ · #344

Whole Earth Index

A near-complete digital archive of Whole Earth’s radical, optimistic publishing lineage a reminder that counterculture once came in catalog form.

wholeearth.info ↗ · #344

AI Gadgets Promising to Change Your Life

AI slips into your ears, glasses, and bedroom… Since the Christmas season is coming, here is a tour of the devices courting your daily rituals.

wallpaper.com ↗ · #344

A Beautiful Reference Manual for Software Makers

An illustrated guide that turns technical complexity into visual storytelling — software explained with clarity, not clutter.

makingsoftware.com ↗ · #344

We are researching Authenticity and this research from 2017 caught our attention.

It turns out profanity may be truth’s closest companion. New research suggests people who curse are surprisingly less deceptive.

phys.org ↗ · #344

AI Prompt Guide for B2B Marketers

A practical playbook for marketers retooling their workflows — frameworks, examples, and prompts built for teams who want clarity, not chaos.

tofuhq.com ↗ · #344

Those Who Know Less About AI Are More Likely to Adopt It

A surprising insight from the Journal of Marketing: beginners - not experts - are the most open to AI. Sometimes, unfamiliarity invites imagination.

ama.org ↗ · #343

Custom-Made Browser Tools to Play With

A delightful set of free, handcrafted tools that turn your browser into a playground for curiosity, typography, and tiny creative experiments.

schultzschultz.com ↗ · #343

Why Is Quality So Rare?

Linear unpacks why speed and scale have overtaken care and craft and why choosing quality is becoming an increasingly radical act.

linear.app ↗ · #343

The Future of Space Is More Than Human

The time has come to expand our visions of life beyond Earth. A provocative vision: space as a multispecies frontier where biology, technology, and imagination collide to extend life beyond Earth.

noemamag.com ↗ · #343

Music, Myth & Motion

Orfeo Tagiuri’s new animated music videos for Brian Eno and Beatie Wolfe are lyrical, layered, and deeply referential from Eames to Blake.

itsnicethat.com ↗ · #343

Google Photos Levels Up

Google unveils a suite of Nano Banana–powered AI editing features. Some are playful and some are wild!

siliconangle.com ↗ · #343

The Scope Creep (…and the Horror Within)

A darkly funny, painfully relatable interactive narrative experience in the creative industry.

scope-creep.xyz ↗ · #343

SIMA 2: An AI Agent That Learns With You

DeepMind releases SIMA 2, a Gemini-powered agent built to navigate 3D worlds: a glimpse at AI that plays, reasons, and evolves alongside you.

deepmind.google ↗ · #343

Make Your Ideas Real

Womp turns imagination into physical form with beginner-friendly 3D modeling. No experience required, just curiosity!

womp.com ↗ · #343

GPT-5.1 Arrives

OpenAI’s latest models bring stronger reasoning, smoother conversation, and more tunable behavior. A step closer to AI that feels collaborative.

openai.com ↗ · #343

The Future of Shopping Is Agentic

With the new Shopify & Paypal integrations into ChatGPT, we shared our thoughts on what this agentic commerce means on the future of shopping and the traditional funnel.

Your Majesty → · #342

Can AI Help Brands Build, Not Just Sell?

Tom Roach explores how AI might be more than a performance tool, and why the best brand builders of the future might be fluent in prompts and poetry.

marketingweek.com ↗ · #342

The Gothic Isn’t Dead - It’s Just Rebranded

A great piece that looks at the resurrection of gothic imagery in contemporary design. This is gothic as aesthetic language, not costume.

itsnicethat.com ↗ · #342

Why “One Source of Truth” Is a Lie

This article unpacks why brand identity can’t (and shouldn’t) be frozen in a single deck. The best brands are coherent, not static.

offbrandkoto.substack.com ↗ · #342

Invest in the Ecosystems

A thoughtful essay on why systems thinking is everything - especially when designing for sustainability, not just scale.

noemamag.com ↗ · #342

The Vulgar Image and the Social Feed

Spike Art digs into the aesthetic of vulgarity - why we scroll toward excess, and how social platforms reward what once would’ve been considered “too much.”

spikeartmagazine.com ↗ · #342

A Typeface Engineered to Be Timeless

Jonathan Hoefler’s MK Hera is a masterclass in controlled evolution: flexible enough to shift across time and formats, but sharp enough to leave a mark.

jonathanhoefler.com ↗ · #342

Paging Dr. Chatbot

This podcast explores how patients and doctors are turning to AI for help with diagnosing ailments and managing chronic issues. But should we trust it?

open.spotify.com ↗ · #342

The Rise of AI Slop

The Atlantic breaks down how generative content, often bland, synthetic, and indistinguishable, is reshaping the internet in real time.

theatlantic.com ↗ · #342

Is AI Reversing Our Understanding of Intelligence?

Psychology Today explores the idea that AI doesn’t just replicate intelligence — it reframes it. When machines look smart, do we start thinking dumber?

psychologytoday.com ↗ · #342

Kites, Craft & Collective Memory

Photographer Jack Kenyon explores how kite-making in the UK has become a form of generational storytelling - part ritual, part resistance, always beautiful.

itsnicethat.com ↗ · #341

The S-Curve Is Coming for You

Concept Bureau breaks down what happens after the early hype fades, and why the messy middle of innovation is where the real shape of things takes form.

conceptbureau.substack.com ↗ · #341

Can Europe Reclaim Its Digital Sovereignty?

Europe wants to shape tech on its own terms, but is it too late? A powerful essay on autonomy, regulation, and designing systems that reflect more than Silicon Valley’s values.

noemamag.com ↗ · #341

A24 Go Back to Analogue

In a refreshingly lo-fi move, A24 dropped a new analogue collection including photobooks and movie logs that invite fans to unplug, rewind, and reconnect with physical creativity.

instagram.com ↗ · #341

Disney v. AI Mickey

After a creator used Character.AI to bring Disney characters to life in chatbots, the lawyers came calling. IP, identity, and imagination are officially colliding.

axios.com ↗ · #341

Stripe on Scaling Well

A beautifully designed essay from Stripe Press on what it really means to scale. from code to company to mindset.

stripe.press ↗ · #341

Vibe Engineering Is the New UX

Simon Willison coins the term and explains the art of crafting interfaces that feel right - even when they’re built by machines.

simonwillison.net ↗ · #341

When a Brand Has No Design

What happens when identity is generated, iterated, and flattened by AI? Mitch James asks if brand is still brand when no one’s behind the curtain.

medium.com ↗ · #341

Techno-Optimism vs. Fear, in One Scroll

A must-read, the Import AI newsletter takes a sharp look at the double-edged feeling that defines this moment: momentum meets anxiety.

jack-clark.net ↗ · #341

Calling All Creators

Meta just launched Instagram Rings designed to reward bold creativity and self-expression. The new award from Instagram is all about celebrating those not afraid to take creative chances.

instagram.com ↗ · #341

Sora 2 Is Here: Faster, Sharper, Weirder

OpenAI just dropped the next iteration of its video model. It’s smoother, better at storytelling, and leans into “imagination over realism.”

openai.com ↗ · #340

ZEST: A Cheat Sheet for Design Leaders

Your Majesty Design Director Joost Huver shares his framework to help designers level up their thinking and leadership. A must-read for all design leaders.

linkedin.com ↗ · #340

Can a Store Really Build Community?

Retail is being reimagined - again. BoF looks at whether physical stores can still become cultural hangouts, or if the café/bookstore/gallery hybrid is already passé.

businessoffashion.com ↗ · #340

AI Won’t Save Your Gym. Leadership Will.

In this Delivered podcast, listen to our conversation with Jon Brady, a global leader in the fitness industry, to explore how to position your business for success.

infinum.com ↗ · #340

ChatGPT’s Brand Era

OpenAI’s first major marketing campaign is out - and it’s softer, more cinematic, and surprisingly human. A tone shift for the biggest brand in tech?

creativeboom.com ↗ · #340

Google’s MixBoard Is Part DJ, Part Sound Toy

It’s a browser-based music playground powered by AI. Choose a vibe and watch sound transform in real time.

labs.google.com ↗ · #340

Welcome to the Age of Agentic Commerce

OpenAI’s latest move could redefine online shopping: introducing instant checkout inside ChatGPT. It turns product discovery into purchase all in one prompt…

x.com ↗ · #340

The ‘Whisper Networks’

Young people are turning shopping social - with Whatsapp groups, Substack newsletters and private Instagram accounts becoming the in-the-know places to shop for the best items.

bustle.com ↗ · #340

If AI Can Diagnose You, What Are Doctors For?

The New Yorker takes on the hard question behind AI-powered medicine: when machines “know,” what does care still mean?

newyorker.com ↗ · #340

Design Spotlight: A Lantern for Yachts

Sir Jony Ive and Gen Terao teamed up to design a sailboat lantern that blends analog romanticism with obsessive detail - and we love it.

boatinternational.com ↗ · #340

The Style That Shaped the Streets

Two decades of street style, told by those who lived it. From Tumblr grids to TikTok cores, Highsnobiety’s oral history traces how everyday fits became fashion canon.

highsnobiety.com ↗ · #339

How Fitness Tech Is Redefining Leadership

Register now for the next Delivered episode, where we will be speaking to Jon Brady. A global leader in the fitness industry, to explore what’s ahead in AI-powered fitness.

infinum.com ↗ · #339

OK Go Open-Sources a Music Video

The band known for chaos choreography drops its most experimental project yet: a video designed to be remixed, re-edited, and reimagined by you.

itsnicethat.com ↗ · #339

How AI Is Quietly Rewriting Our Vocabulary

Research shows LLMs are seeding buzzwords into everyday speech, subtly shaping how we sell, write, and even think.

fastcompany.com ↗ · #339

Meet GodBot

Millions are turning to AI-powered chatbots for moral guidance, spiritual insight, and the occasional digital confession. Divinity delivered via push notification…?

nytimes.com ↗ · #339

Taste Is the New Power Tool

According to FIELD, taste has evolved from personal instinct to cultural operating system - the last un-automatable advantage in a machine-made world.

field.io ↗ · #339

What Sci-Fi Can Teach Brands

Worldbuilding isn’t just for screenwriters - it’s brand strategy. From Blade Runner to Black Panther, here’s what immersive fiction reveals about storytelling at scale.

printmag.com ↗ · #339

Wise Advice for the Next Generation

i-D’s latest cover is a letter to the next generation: 26 of the world’s luminaries from Nan Goldin to Marina Abramović share words of wisdom to navigate the world in 2025.

i-d.co ↗ · #339

Meta’s New Glasses Actually Work

After announcing the launch earlier this week, the reviews are in for Meta’s new Ray-Ban smart glasses: AI integration and a design people actually want to wear.

techradar.com ↗ · #339

This Vape Pen Is Now a Web Server

In case the internet wasn’t weird enough: someone just turned a disposable vape into a functioning web server. It’s ridiculous, brilliant, and very on brand for 2025.

interestingengineering.com ↗ · #339

The Vibe Coding Mirage

A sharp critique from Microsoft’s Suff Syed on why vibe coding is more hype than reality. AI demos wow, but 95% of enterprise pilots fail, a cautionary tale for sustainable product building.

suffsyed.com ↗ · #338

Armani’s Italian Chic, Remembered

A look back at Giorgio Armani’s career and how he translated a uniquely Italian style into a global fashion phenomenon.

nytimes.com ↗ · #338

Skytree’s Digital Transformation

Our redesign of Skytree’s website is more than a visual update — it’s a new way of informing, educating, and converting with clarity and impact.

Your Majesty → · #338

Why MACH Matters for the Future of Digital?

We explain how MACH architecture (Microservices, API-first, Cloud-native, Headless) creates scalable, flexible experiences and why we applied it to Skytree’s platform.

Your Majesty → · #338

AI & Leadership: Trends Report 2025

This report, sponsored by Shutterstock explores how leaders are using AI to create assets, shape culture, and define the future of creativity.

campaigns.dandad.org ↗ · #338

Learning the Hard Way on a TK90X

A personal essay on the unforgiving experience of learning to code on clunky 80s hardware and what it says about today’s AI work struggles.

linkedin.com ↗ · #338

The Dark Side of AI Companionship

The Center for Humane Technology investigates how AI companions engagement-optimized design can negatively shape behavior and lead to tragic outcomes.

humanetech.com ↗ · #338

Where’s the Shovelware?

If AI makes developers 10x more productive, why aren’t we seeing 10x more software? A thoughtful dive into productivity paradoxes and missing outcomes.

mikelovesrobots.substack.com ↗ · #338

How to make your writing crisp?

Here is a framework for using templates and LLM prompts to sharpen your business writing. Practical, simple, effective.

danhock.co ↗ · #338

Minimum Viable Testing (MVT)

A guide to the MVT process for startups, offering a structured way to validate ideas before scaling, something we’ve also been experimenting with.

review.firstround.com ↗ · #338

The State of AI: 2025 Edition

Galaxies are forming. Gravity wells are deepening. This sharp piece from Next Big Ten reimagines the AI ecosystem as a vast and still-expanding universe.

nextbigteng.substack.com ↗ · #337

How to Design for a Future That Keeps Morphing

In this wide-ranging conversation, designer Nick Foster explores how to design for a future that never stays fixed.

designbetterpodcast.com ↗ · #337

UX Is Dead, Long Live AX

John Maeda maps the shift from user experience to agent experience, where AI tools act on behalf of the user.

johnmaeda.medium.com ↗ · #337

Labubumatchadubaichocolate Is a Mood

The New Yorker’ weekly opinion piece on technology and culture talks about the recent trend of absurdity, and where Labubumatchadubaichocilate is a response to algorithmic overstimulation.

newyorker.com ↗ · #337

AI as Your Stylist?

More young consumers are now using ChatGPT to choose outfits. It’s frictionless, personal and tricky for brands to tap into.

voguebusiness.com ↗ · #337

The Brain Rot Debate, Explained

In the latest episode of Diary of a CEO, a fiery debate between neuroscientists, designers, and skeptics takes on the most controversial claim in the field.

podcasts.apple.com ↗ · #337

Is AI Making Us All Delusional?

Three years in, AI’s most unsettling side effect might not be automation, it’s the creeping sense that we’re all slowly losing touch.

theatlantic.com ↗ · #337

A Whole Game World on Demand

Runway just dropped a generative RPG platform where players can spin up characters, stories, and environments.

play.runwayml.com ↗ · #337

Music Campaigns Are Becoming Multiverses

From merch to visuals to social rollouts, music’s best campaigns now feel like immersive alternate realities. Beyoncé, A24, and SZA are writing the playbook.

itsnicethat.com ↗ · #337

Why Most Enterprise AI Pilots Are Failing

According to MIT, 95% of companies using off-the-shelf AI are getting it wrong. The solution? Build, don’t buy.

fortune.com ↗ · #337

The Visual Culture of Women’s Sport

Following the success of the Lionesses at the Women’s Euros, the creative industry is finally treating women’s sport as a rich & complex culture worth showing up for.

itsnicethat.com ↗ · #336

How to Write Better Code with AI

Less hype, more habit: Sajal Sharma offers a tight framework for actually using AI tools to think through your code.

sajalsharma.com ↗ · #336

52 Beautiful Words Worth Saving

From “susurrus” to “petrichor,” designer Thomas Moes celebrates a year of gorgeous, underused words. A small act of linguistic preservation.

thomasmoes.com ↗ · #336

When ChatGPT Broke an Entire Field

This oral history of computational linguistics post-GPT is funny, tragic, and slightly unhinged. A must-read for anyone tracking AI’s ripple effects.

quantamagazine.org ↗ · #336

The Street View That Sees Feelings

This interactive from The Pudding uses AI to guess the emotional tone of neighborhoods based on Google Street View — and lets you explore cities by mood, not map.

pudding.cool ↗ · #336

I Know When You’re Vibe Coding

A beautifully written reflection on how coding can feel - when it flows, when it stumbles, when it vibes. More poetry than tutorial.

alexkondov.com ↗ · #336

GPT-5: First Impressions, Mixed Emotions

Latent Space’s in-depth review of the highly-anticipated GPT-5 doesn’t just test benchmarks but questions what we’re benchmarking for.

latent.space ↗ · #336

AI That Builds Entire Worlds

Google Deepmind have just launched Genie 3, a leap in world simulation. Trained on video, it generates playable, interactive environments from scratch.

deepmind.google ↗ · #336

Are AI Companions Listening to Our Kids?

They’re comforting, clever, and increasingly common, but AI companions may also be shaping children’s emotional memories in ways we don’t yet understand.

uxplanet.org ↗ · #336

When artworks could speak

Using AI, Jonathan Talmi built a “living museum” - a personal, experimental space blending performance, memory, and web design. Then it went viral. Here's his reflection.

talms.me ↗ · #336

What Happens to UX When AI Becomes the User?

In the latest episode of our podcast Delivered, Georgios spoke to Decathlon’s Constantine Gavrykov to unpack what AI agents mean for the future of product design.

youtube.com ↗ · #335

How to Pay Attention (Again)

An essay on the neuroscience of focus that rewires the mind. A poetic, brain-based reminder that nowadays attention isn’t just a skill but an act of resistance.

contemplationstation.substack.com ↗ · #335

Poster Power for the 2026 Winter Olympics

The official art posters for Milano-Cortina 2026 just dropped and they’re stunning. Playful, gritty, poetic and definitely worth hanging on your wall.

printmag.com ↗ · #335

ChatGPT Gets an Agent Mode

Agents are here. OpenAI’s newest feature lets ChatGPT take action for you. Book a flight, manage your inbox, or handle your to-do list? It’s starting to happen.

openai.com ↗ · #335

Are Blink-182 Cult Brand Architects…?

Turns out “What’s My Age Again?” was also a brand strategy. A great breakdown of how Blink-182 built loyalty through honesty, emotion, and inside jokes.

linkedin.com ↗ · #335

Make Something That Matters

Got a crazy tech idea? Submit it to “Applied Experiments” now - they’re curating creative, useful, or weird ideas that show what the future could feel like.

google.com ↗ · #335

How to Book Club Anything

This new idea turns articles, podcasts, even playlists into a book club - all with the aim to bring people together through conversation.

#335

The Best Films of the 21st Century

The New York Times just dropped a beautifully designed list of the 100 most impactful films of the past two decades. Debate starts now.

nytimes.com ↗ · #335

Comet by Perplexity: A Different Kind of AI Tool

Some AI tools feel like noise. Comet feels like clarity — a research companion that shows its sources, builds your understanding, and doesn’t pretend to know everything.

comet.perplexity.ai ↗ · #335

AI Songs from the Dead

Spotify quietly released AI-generated tracks that imitate deceased artists - and people aren’t happy. We think it’s eerie - what do you think?

404media.co ↗ · #335

Taste Is the New Intelligence

In a world drowning in content and noise, the ability to choose with precision, intention, and style might be the ultimate intellectual flex.

wildbarethoughts.com ↗ · #334

Hello AI, Goodbye UX (as We Know It)

Constantine Gavrykov, Senior Director of Product Design at Decathlon, spoke to us about how to successfully navigate the radical shift in UX design.

infinum.com ↗ · #334

Nike’s New Era of Fearless Football

With bold visuals and a ‘Scary Good’ spirit, Nike Football’s new brand identity is a love letter to risk, flair, and play without limits.

about.nike.com ↗ · #334

Meet Doppl: Your AI-Powered Stylist

Google’s new Labs experiment lets you try on outfits virtually using a digital avatar built from your own photo

labs.google ↗ · #334

Why Writing by Hand Still Matters

A beautiful exploration into handwriting in our hyper-digital age, and why the writing differences of each generation matter.

straitstimes.com ↗ · #334

Building Bluey’s World

In this deep dive, art director Catriona Drummond reveals how they carefully and beautifully built the world of Bluey, the most beloved children’s show on earth.

itsnicethat.com ↗ · #334

Are We Lying to Young People?

An unflinching look at the overly-optimistic advice we give younger generations and the need for a more honest, nuanced narrative.

maalvika.substack.com ↗ · #334

WTF is Vibe Marketing?

Forget demographics. Vibe marketing is a feeling-first approach to branding that’s intuitive and emotional, and a new direction in brand-building.

ehandbook.com ↗ · #334

An Illustrator’s AI Reckoning

In this haunting visual essay in the NY Times, an illustrator confronts his fears and questions his relationship with art and the future of drawing for a living.

nytimes.com ↗ · #334

The Future of Making

A small 3D printer has set an all time record for the most money raised on Kickstarter, signalling a new era for creative expression.

forbes.com ↗ · #334

AI’s Latest Trick? Elephant Conversation for Conservation

A groundbreaking conservation project tracking the sounds and movements of herds in Africa may one day allow us to have a conversation with them.

observer.co.uk ↗ · #333

The End of Publishing As We Know It

A long-read unpacks how chatbot overviews & summary features are keeping users locked into conversations, and threatening media & journalism as we know it.

theatlantic.com ↗ · #333

Championing the CO₂ Transition with Skytree

We partnered with Skytree to design and launch a bold new digital home — one that captures their mission to harvest CO₂ from air and fuel a circular future.

Your Majesty → · #333

The Poem Booth

In city stations, a new AI poetry booth invites passersby to take a photo and receive a personalised poem based on that photo in return.

poembooth.com ↗ · #333

Everyone’s an Art Critic

A new community app, dubbed the Letterboxd of the art world, turns gallery-goers into art critics. Suddenly, anyone with a smartphone can be a voice in the art world.

theartnewspaper.com ↗ · #333

The End of the Founder Era?

Research from BoF charts the quiet fade of founder-led beauty brands, and what comes next.

businessoffashion.com ↗ · #333

AI Slop is Everywhere

Presenter John Oliver breaks down why generative AI content is flooding our feeds on hid Late Night Show, and what we lose when the web turns to mush.

youtube.com ↗ · #333

The Illusion of Intellect

What does it mean to be smart in an age of performative knowledge? This essay unpacks how AI contributes to a shallow sense of understanding.

whatsanu.substack.com ↗ · #333

The Power of Social-First Brands

Rhode’s $1B exit signals both the power and the plateau of brands built social-first. But are they built for longevity?

campaignlive.com ↗ · #333

The New Blueprint for Political Design?

Zohran Mamdani’s NYC mayoral merch doesn’t look like politics, it looks like something you’d line up for at Supreme. Here’s why it worked.

gq.com ↗ · #333

Debiasing tools for fairer AI and ML models

Kindlee enhances the inclusivity of AI applications while identifying and increasing revenue, making fairness profitable for all.

kindlee.co ↗ · #332

The Constipation of Culture: Why Nothing New Gets Through and Nothing Old Goes Away

How late capitalism turned culture into content and content into sludge.

mikecormack.substack.com ↗ · #332

Why Some Brains Are Wired for Extremism

Neuroscientist and author of The Ideological Brain Leor Zmigrod illuminates the factors leading some people down a path of extremism.

atmos.earth ↗ · #332

The Danger Of Superhuman AI Is Not What You Think

The rhetoric over “superhuman” AI implicitly erases what’s most important about being human.

noemamag.com ↗ · #332

How to Be an Artist

Four major artists talk to us about where their obsessions came from — and what they did about the obstacles thrown in their way.

nytimes.com ↗ · #332

The Conflict-Intelligent Leader

As civil strife grows around the world, clashes are on the rise in the workplace too. Incivility on the job is getting worse, and each day it costs companies billions in lost productivity and absenteeism. To navigate the discord, today’s business leaders need to develop conflict intelligence.

hbr.org ↗ · #332

Chanel unveils new recycling platform

Bruno Pavlovsky, president of fashion at Chanel and Chanel SAS, explains why the French house is determined to develop recycled materials at scale.

voguebusiness.com ↗ · #332

What Happened to Speculative Futurism?

It’s time that digital artists up their game.

artreview.com ↗ · #332

We did the math on AI’s energy footprint. Here’s the story you haven’t heard.

The emissions from individual AI text, image, and video queries seem small—until you add up what the industry isn’t tracking and consider where it’s heading next.

technologyreview.com ↗ · #332

Hito Steyerl’s ‘Medium Hot’: The Age of Slop

Steyerl challenges us to recognise the vast scale of AI’s ubiquity and also to realise its ‘artificial stupidity’.

artreview.com ↗ · #332

Claude Code: Anthropic's Agent in Your Terminal

Cat Wu and Boris Cherny from the Claude Code team stop by to tell all.

latent.space ↗ · #331

Config 2025: Crafting quality that endures

When we build tools, we shape environments that will in turn shape us—and at Linear, Karri Saarinen has championed quality as the foundation, not an afterthought. In this talk, he'll share lessons from Linear's journey.

youtube.com ↗ · #331

New Study Estimates How Many Climate Extremes Your Kids Will Face

Achieving the Paris goals of limiting heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius could spare 613 million of today’s youth from “unprecedented” exposure to heat waves.

atmos.earth ↗ · #331

Creatives: 11 Ways To Impress Employers In The Age Of AI

AI hasn’t yet replaced the need for human oversight, and there are still plenty of reasons why it would benefit a company to keep creative experts on their teams.

forbes.com ↗ · #331

Shit’s Gonna Get So Fucking Weird and Terrible

An uncomfortably honest field guide to the deeply bizarre now-now-soon.

sonderuncertainly.substack.com ↗ · #331

The Timeless Art of Vibe Coding

Rick Rubin brings ancient wisdom to the modern age in The Way of Code, a meditation on the art and science of vibe coding. With Claude by Anthropic, the Grammy-award winning producer and author of The Creative Act turns philosophy into practice with artifacts that can be creatively modified with AI.

thewayofcode.com ↗ · #331

Generative AI models are skilled in the art of bullshit

Large language models are unconcerned with truth because they have no concept of it — and therein lies the danger.

ft.com ↗ · #331

What to Know About the Kids Online Safety Act and Where It Currently Stands

What to know about the bipartisan Kids Online Safety Act, which has been reintroduced and has a second chance.

time.com ↗ · #331

Building a Home From 100 Miles of Cord

Chiharu Shiota, a Berlin-based artist, has conjured a multitude of immigrant stories in “Home Less Home,” her largest museum show in the U.S.

nytimes.com ↗ · #331

All the Films in Competition at Cannes 2025, Ranked from Best to Worst

The festival served up its richest edition in years, with multiple standouts among the twenty-two films in contention for the Palme d’Or.

newyorker.com ↗ · #331

Echoes from the Lost Internet

What we can still learn from a Flash Website built in 2000.

alexandrajugovic.substack.com ↗ · #330

Where to book hunt in Amsterdam, a playground for contemporary book design

An Amsterdam correspondent analyses why the city is so known for its publishing prowess, and shares a comprehensive list of places for designers, printers, publishers, and enthusiasts alike, to check out.

itsnicethat.com ↗ · #330

How creativity became the reigning value of our time

In "The Cult of Creativity," Samuel Franklin excavates the surprisingly recent history of an idea, an ideal, and an ideology.

technologyreview.com ↗ · #330

The 10 Exhibitions to See in May 2025

Exhibitions looked forward to this month, from the Venice Architecture Biennale to Gallery Weekends in Berlin and Beijing.

artreview.com ↗ · #330

Let’s stop calling them ‘soft skills.’ They’re the hardest ones to master.

Why soft skills are important for leadership success and why we need to reframe the importance of them in the workplace.

fastcompany.com ↗ · #330

What Can We Learn from Broken Things?

Much of what we see now is fake, and the reality we face is full of horrors. More and more of the world is slipping beyond my comprehension.

newyorker.com ↗ · #330

Your brain is biased to negativity. Here’s how to be more positive.

Negativity bias may have evolved to help us survive. But it also can ramp up our anxiety.

washingtonpost.com ↗ · #330

Postcard from Madrid: lunch at the world’s oldest restaurant

Botín has been going strong for 300 years — but can it avoid being a tourist trap?

ft.com ↗ · #330

Building A Prosocial Media Ecosystem

There’s never been a better time to make social media what it always should have been: a tool to strengthen rather than strip-mine the social fabric.

noemamag.com ↗ · #330

Steph Speirs on The Nature Of Capital and Ensuring Life Thrives

The latest episode of the Atmos new podcast explores capital and the shifting definition of wealth beyond money.

atmos.earth ↗ · #330

Reclaim Imperfect Faces

Technology isn’t just changing the way we look—it’s changing our sense of how we should look.

theatlantic.com ↗ · #329

What We Lose When We Spend to Feel Better

Consumer culture taught us that joy can be bought—but the ecological costs of our shopping habits reveals how misguided that promise was.

atmos.earth ↗ · #329

Mark Zuckerberg Says Social Media Is Over

During testimony at Meta’s antitrust trial, the Facebook founder’s argument was, in so many words, that platforms like his are not what they used to be.

newyorker.com ↗ · #329

Spells, Vibes, and Thick Imagination

At the heart of RADAR's 2025 focus is a simple but significant question: how do we build infrastructure that helps people cross from yearning for better futures to actually building them?

radarxyz.substack.com ↗ · #329

AI Is Evolving — And Changing Our Understanding Of Intelligence

Advances in AI are making us reconsider what intelligence is and giving us clues to unlocking AI’s full potential.

noemamag.com ↗ · #329

Pictures from Where the Senses Encounter the World

Cig Harvey’s “Emerald Drifters” is a rallying cry to exist in our bodies.

newyorker.com ↗ · #329

When Over-Collaboration Leads to Indecision

Building consensus is a good thing—until it stalls decision-making.

hbr.org ↗ · #329

Circular Fashion – From Environmental Imperative To Practical Necessity

As the industry weathers rising tariffs, strained supply chains, and a cost-of-living crisis, circularity could become less of a compliance exercise and more of a practical adjustment.

theinterline.com ↗ · #329

Are colors objective? These philosophers think so

Our ability to determine whether objects are colored the same or differently and the indispensable roles they play in science suggest that colors are as real and objective as length and temperature.

fastcompany.com ↗ · #329

Nora Turato Examines ‘Authenticity’, or What’s Left of It

The artist’s new exhibition at ICA London asks what has – and will – become of language in the age of the Large Language Model.

artreview.com ↗ · #329

Why AI art is winning over Young Collectors

After Christie’s controversial AI auction, Artsy asked experts why AI art is captivating Gen-Z and millennial audiences.

artsy.net ↗ · #328

Finding Focus as the World Burns: A Leader’s Guide to Workplace Distraction

Slack pings. Breaking news. Mental clutter. Here’s how to fight back.

peoplemanagingpeople.com ↗ · #328

Talk to me, GPT: when chatbots become confidants

OpenAI’s new study finds ChatGPT is more than a tool for many — it’s a trusted companion. But deep use may come at a social and emotional cost.

trendwatching.com ↗ · #328

What a Hyperfixation Really Is

We asked experts what it really feels like to maintain an extreme level of focus.

time.com ↗ · #328

Can A.I. Writing Be More Than a Gimmick?

Vauhini Vara consulted ChatGPT to help craft her new book, “Searches.” But the most moving sections are the ones she wrote herself.

newyorker.com ↗ · #328

How are people are using Gen AI?

Gen AI has evolved fast—new tools, lower costs, and smarter features like voice and reasoning. With big moves from Google and OpenAI, we revisited the data to see how people are using it now.

hbr.org ↗ · #328

What People Get Wrong About Psychological Safety

Psychological safety is often misunderstood, leading to confusion and poor team dynamics. This article debunks six common myths—like equating it with being nice or job security—and offers practical ways to address them.

hbr.org ↗ · #328

Ten Outstanding Short Stories to Read in 2025

longreads.com ↗ · #328

How to Train an Artistic AI

David Salle considers the ideal curriculum.

artreview.com ↗ · #328

short stories selected by Pravesh Bhardwaj.

longreads.com ↗ · #328

SXSW 2025: the 10 trends that shaped this year’s festival

The Drum was on the ground at South by Southwest again this year, finding out what the future holds for marketing, media and tech. Here are their biggest takeaways.

thedrum.com ↗ · #327

The Coolest People Online Are Barely Posting at All

Oversharing is out, privacy is in. Digital minimalists are curating their online presence with intention — because in 2025, mystery is the ultimate flex.

popsugar.com ↗ · #327

Our human habit of anthropomorphizing everything

Should we be anthropomorphizing AI? Why do we speak to AI as if it's human? Do we want AI to act in a certain way? Do we want it to be more human? Or do we just assign it that trait anyway?

doc.cc ↗ · #327

Meet Reve Image 1.0

A new model trained from the ground up to excel at prompt adherence, aesthetics, and typography.

preview.reve.art ↗ · #327

Hayao Miyazaki, Who Said AI Is ‘Insult to Life Itself,” Reduced to AI-Generated Meme by OpenAI

The internet is flooded with AI-generated images in the style of Studio Ghibli, whose founder said “I would never wish to incorporate this technology into my work at all.”

archive.ph ↗ · #327

2025 Design in Tech Report (Unedited): Autodesigners on Autopilot

The top takeaways from John Maeda.

youtube.com ↗ · #327

Anthropic can now track the bizarre inner workings of a large language model

What the firm found challenges some basic assumptions about how this technology really works.

technologyreview.com ↗ · #327

Daniel Coe’s Astonishing River Cartography

Stunning river maps reveal stories hidden in historical sediment and past channels carved by water.

orionmagazine.org ↗ · #327

These old Roman buildings could unlock how to build in a warming world

The recycled buildings of Rome, long dismissed by architects, are getting a reappraisal as a model for how to reduce waste while creating something fresh.

washingtonpost.com ↗ · #327

Medical Benchmarks and the Myth of the Universal Patient

From growth charts to anemia thresholds, clinical standards assume a single human prototype. Why are we still using one-size-fits-all health metrics?

newyorker.com ↗ · #327

Pierre.co

Pierre is a new product engineering tool that aims to reimagine the primitives and workflows developers have been stuck with for the past 15 years.

pierre.co ↗ · #326

Cash App Brand Guidelines

Cash App, a brand that thrives on the tension between structuring order and explosive freedom.

design.cash.app ↗ · #326

‘A computer’s joke, on us’: writers respond to the short story written by AI

Sam Altman, the OpenAI boss, has declared its new model ‘good at creative writing’. They asked writers including Tracy Chevalier, Kamila Shamsie and David Baddiel if they agree.

getrecall.ai ↗ · #326

‘Parasite’ Director’s New Film Proves Space Won’t Save Us

The Oscar-winning director’s latest film lays bare the brutal realities of capitalism and class exploitation.

atmos.earth ↗ · #326

Our World in Data

Research and data to make progress against the world’s largest problems.

ourworldindata.org ↗ · #326

Stability AI is back with 'Stable Virtual Camera

A model that turns 2d images into immersive 3D videos.

stability.ai ↗ · #326

Living Things Are Not Machines (Also, They Totally Are)

Our formal models of life, computers and materials fail to tell the entire story of their capabilities and limitations.

noemamag.com ↗ · #326

Laurie Santos’s Pursuit of Happiness

Yale’s resident well-being expert talks about what it means to live a good life and shares some books that might help us get within reach of one.

newyorker.com ↗ · #326

We All Have ‘Archive Anxiety’ Now

As online access to information becomes increasingly restricted, even the noblest feats of preservation and archiving are being hijacked.

artreview.com ↗ · #326

Collé

Collé highlights the most forward-thinking collage artists of today. Join the community of readers on their free newsletter delivery every Wednesday.

revuecolle.com ↗ · #326

Indigenous Groups Are Safeguarding Culture with Their Own ChatGPT

Artificial intelligence and cutting-edge technologies are helping the Amazon’s Indigenous communities protect their land and traditions.

atmos.earth ↗ · #325

The Worthwhile Trend of Romanticizing Your Life

Why do we feel the need to save life’s finer things for "special occasions"?

hardcopy.online ↗ · #325

10 Breakthrough Technologies

What will really matter in the long run? That’s the question MIT tackle each year as they compile their annual list. Sure, they can’t see the future, but they expect these technologies to affect our world in a big way, for decades to come.

technologyreview.com ↗ · #325

‘Digital Witness’: How Early Computer Graphics Became Tools for Subversion

A new show at LACMA explores the impact of digital manipulation on the past 40 years of popular culture – and the rise of an influential counterculture.

artreview.com ↗ · #325

The rise of Async Work

In this podcast, Joe Thomas, cofounder and head of product at Loom Atlassian discusses how asynchronous work is a beneficial collaboration approach to modern work.

fastcompany.com ↗ · #325

The Top 5 Longreads of the Week

Thoughtful stories for thoughtless times, showcasing stories from Julia Webster Ayuso, Abe Beame, Tracy Thompson, Will Boast, and Gary Grimes.

longreads.com ↗ · #325

Spending Ourselves to Sleep: How Rest Became Beauty’s Latest Luxury

Beauty and wellness brands are launching luxurious “sleep wellness” products left and right. How helpful are they?

highsnobiety.com ↗ · #325

Generative AI hits a fashion acceleration point

The buzzy tech has moved beyond its 2024 hype cycle into real-world implementation. Vogue Business spoke to retailers who are seeing results.

voguebusiness.com ↗ · #325

Why AI Is A Philosophical Rupture

Tobias Rees, founder of an AI studio located at the intersection of philosophy, art and technology, sat down with Noema Editor-in-Chief Nathan Gardels to discuss the philosophical significance of generative AI.

noemamag.com ↗ · #325

IKEA uncovers the globe’s sleep secrets: Where the world sleeps soundly – and where sleep is a struggle

A new IKEA report reveals we get 1 hour and 20 minutes less sleep than we want – and it uncovers a mathematical formula for achieving the perfect night’s rest.

ikea.com ↗ · #325

The Anatomy of Hype

Offering insights for individuals and organizations seeking to understand the dynamics of hype, make informed decisions amidst the frenzy, and harness its potential for positive change.

Your Majesty → · #324

Unsold flowers are being transformed into fragrances

Exploring turning unsold petunias, roses and marigolds into fragrances and other raw ingredients for its personal care and household products.

trendwatching.com ↗ · #324

Am I Slop? Am I Agentic? Am I Earth?

Every few years, a new innovation seems to raise the same questions: can we compute human intelligence? Can our labor be automated? Who owns these systems and their training data? How will this technology reshape society? Yet there is one question rarely heard asked: how will AI change our understanding of ourselves?

longnow.org ↗ · #324

'The Brutalist' AI backlash, explained

The revelation has ignited fresh conversation around the use of AI in movie production.

mashable.com ↗ · #324

TOO BUSY Foundation

Human trafficking is everywhere, thriving in silence. Our mission is to break that silence—to expose the darkness and amplify the voices that have been hidden for too long. This is a sanctuary for truth, a space to reveal what has remained hidden in our culture.

weare.toobusy.foundation ↗ · #324

‘Narcissists – only more devious’: the truth about dark empaths

They seem sensitive and caring – but really they just want to manipulate you. So how do you recognise the danger signs?

theguardian.com ↗ · #324

Where do Ideas come from?

A short film about the mysteries of inspiration. Featuring thoughts on the subject by: David Lynch Robert Krulwich Chuck Close and more.

vimeo.com ↗ · #324

The High Price of Paradise in ‘The White Lotus’ Season 3

The dark comedy’s latest installment is set in Thailand, where over tourism has devastating environmental—and human—consequences.

atmos.earth ↗ · #324

100 Most Watched Software Engineering Talks Of 2024

A complete list of the top 100 most watched talks of 2024 ordered by the number of views.

techtalksweekly.io ↗ · #324

Elizabeth Goodspeed on what happens when we treat the past like a stock library

Not all borrowing is the same. From public domain illustrations on book covers to AI’s data hoarding, who really owns culture – and who gets away with taking it?

itsnicethat.com ↗ · #324

World’s first AI art museum to explore ‘creative potential of machines’ in LA

The artificial intelligence art museum, dubbed Dataland, is slated to open in late 2025, in a new development next to the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Broad Museum and the home of the LA philharmonic, creating a space for AI art among some of Los Angeles’s most prestigious cultural venues.

theguardian.com ↗ · #323

The Man who could paint Loneliness

Though known for his gloomy landscapes, Caspar David Friedrich was chasing the sublime—the divinity, in all of nature, that made us seem small.

newyorker.com ↗ · #323

Best of Further Reading 2024: FT journalists pick their favourite non-FT articles of the year

Financial Mail has once again enlisted the help of their legacy media colleagues to bring together the best articles published over 2024 that weren’t in the FT.

ft.com ↗ · #323

The Technology that actually runs our World

Cultural algorithms are only downstream of the larger, intractable forces that shape how art is made and supported. It’s not that Spotify has made music more boring or that Instagram has made art more stale.

theatlantic.com ↗ · #323

The Intersection of Technology and Art: Exploring the Impact of Digital Innovations on Culture

Delve into the many ways technology is influencing art and culture, and examine the opportunities and challenges that arise from this intersection.

medium.com ↗ · #323

The Digital Renaissance of the Arts & Culture Industry

The arts and culture industry holds immense significance in modern society, not only for creating, driving and preserving heritage, but for economic contributions as well as social and community cohesion. In part one of this article, experts from around the world discuss how the industry has evolved and the anticipated future developments.

odgersberndtson.com ↗ · #323

Transcript: Tech in 2025 — China’s AI ‘Sputnik moment’

Some are calling it ‘AI Sputnik moment.’ Last week, a Chinese company called DeepSeek released the details of an AI model that shocked Silicon Valley, and could change the whole narrative around AI development.

ft.com ↗ · #323

How 27 filmmakers came together to make Coldplay’s epic, sprawling video

Director Isabel Garrett takes us behind the scenes of the mixed-media film, which saw a flock of animators, filmmakers and artists contribute eclectic segments to create one marvellous mosaic.

itsnicethat.com ↗ · #323

“Forger” painter for the cinema: the fascinating secrets of Edith Baudrand

A fascinating behind-the-scenes profession of which the artist Édith Baudrand – who created the paintings for the Van Gogh biopic At Eternity's Gate (2018) by Julian Schnabel, Séraphine (2008) and Bonnard, Pierre et Marthe by Martin Provost (released in theaters this January 10).

beauxarts.com ↗ · #323

The Stranger Things Effect Comes for the Novel

In modern fiction, vintage media have emerged as tactile objects that symbolize integrity, solve the crime, and radiate realness.

theatlantic.com ↗ · #323

Wellness Culture Is Now Peddling Extremism

From trad wives to raw milk, social media’s wellness trends have been radicalized—and could cost us a more equitable future.

atmos.earth ↗ · #322

Service as a Software: The New SaaS

Over the upcoming decade, AI-provisioned intelligence will become almost free, and instantly available. AI won’t just assist professionals — it will take over much of the work as a packed instant service provider. Welcome to the age of boundless skill scalability, where services transform into software and economies grow beyond human imagination.

uxtigers.com ↗ · #322

The 70% problem: Hard truths about AI-assisted coding

A field guide and why we need to rethink our expectations.

addyo.substack.com ↗ · #322

How meditation deconstructs your mind

Want to learn how to meditate? Scientists have a new theory that might change how you practice.

vox.com ↗ · #322

Things we learned about LLMs in 2024

A lot has happened in the world of Large Language Models over the course of 2024. Here’s a review of things Simon figured out about the field in the past twelve months, plus his attempt at identifying key themes and pivotal moments.

simonwillison.net ↗ · #322

Spotify making their own AI music under fake artists, and pushing them instead of real ones?

From the music industry community on Reddit: Spotify making their own AI music under fake artists, and pushing them instead of real ones?

reddit.com ↗ · #322

Pinterest Predicts 2025

The Pinterest trend report is always a fun read. Apparently up and coming trends for 2025 include fisherman aesthetic, castle-core, and (our personal fave) sea witchery plus many more.

business.pinterest.com ↗ · #322

Microsoft advances materials discovery with MatterGen

Microsoft has introduced MatterGen, an AI-driven platform designed to accelerate the discovery of new materials, potentially revolutionizing industries such as manufacturing and energy.

artificialintelligence-news.com ↗ · #322

Pop Culture Trends of 2025

Showcasing how elements of mainstream media are influencing societal behavior and consumer goods, Trend Hunter’s pop culture category features everything from viral videos to film merchandise and political satire.

trendhunter.com ↗ · #322

Varying Portraits of Women in Top Films

This year’s Best Actress Oscar race is particularly crowded. With only five slots open, many fine performances may be edged out. Among the other front-runners are stars playing women struggling with sexuality, aging, life and death itself.

culturaldaily.com ↗ · #322

Immerse yourself in our unique celebration of curiosity

Over 10 years and 3000 links later we reached an exciting milestone –– and to celebrate our 300th issue of the team’s favourite links from over the years, we celebrated with an immersive microsite where you can explore, learn and find those unexpected sources of inspiration.

300.yourmajesty.co ↗ · #321

The age of average

In an age where literally everything looks the same, is it time to introduce some originality into design, culture and life?

alexmurrell.co.uk ↗ · #321

Ten Charts That Capture How the World Is Changing

Insights into how tech has changed our lives, plus user experience lessons from our fave green owl, Duolingo.

digitalnative.substack.com ↗ · #321

OK COOL Trend Report

The most anticipated social trend report of the year is here. Read Gatekeeping Information is SO Boomer Coded: A marketer's guide to Gen Zalpha's new school mindset.

okcool.io ↗ · #321

Introducing Pika 1.5

pikartai.com ↗ · #321

How to use AI to do practical stuff: A new guide

AI got you overwhelmed? This is a good read for anyone who wishes to understand AI a bit more but has limited time to actually keep up with it all.

oneusefulthing.org ↗ · #321

Outfit Anyone

Virtual try-on, solved? This platform is certainly making waves. Try on virtual outfits, experiment with looks, and dive into the future of fashion—all for free!

outfitchanger.com ↗ · #321

AI Prompter

Struggling to write successful prompts for gen-AI tools? We have the solution.

prompter.fofr.ai ↗ · #321

Ikigai and the question of personal purpose

While brands have been obsessed with purpose in recent years, we have overlooked personal purpose, which can lead to a far more enriching working life.

creativereview.co.uk ↗ · #321

The shame of LinkedIn

A jobs board + social media + personal updates, LinkedIn often feels so cringe. But is it possible to post there without being cringe yourself? Experts give their point of view.

businessinsider.com ↗ · #321

It's Nice That's independent makers gift list

Spanning books, prints, T-shirts, toys, socks, candles, jewellery, food and everything in between, you’re sure to find something on this annual list of top gifts to buy from independent creatives and businesses, to suit all your gift-giving needs this festive season.

itsnicethat.com ↗ · #320

Exploring photographies impact on culture

From interviews and discussions with photographers on their influences and practices, to a multitude of reflections on the role of photography and its relationship to other art forms, explore content through format, category or through a range of specially curated themes which propose edited perspectives on photography's relationship to art and culture.

thephotographersgallery.org.uk ↗ · #320

How Minecraft is inspiring a new wave of art and design

Generative art, immersive installations, and virtual music festivals – Minecraft’s cultural cachet goes far beyond the Overworld.

itsnicethat.com ↗ · #320

Exploring the virtual fashion expectation gap

In this piece fashion designers pair their designs with 3D technology explore the gap between the future of fashion we expected, and the present we are living in.

scandinavianmind.com ↗ · #320

Jaguar's vow to 'Copy Nothing'

You will have seen their new concept car '00' and their new logo, now you can learn about the 'Copy Nothing' philosophy that triggered both.

designboom.com ↗ · #320

A Guide to Art Basel Miami 2024

Miami Art Weeks kicked off on 2nd December, here's a recap of the pop-ups, installations and events that took place.

wwd.com ↗ · #320

In defence of generative AI

Some of the creative community were outraged at Pentagram's decision to use generative AI to design a government website. Pentagram partner Paula Scher explains why.

fastcompany.com ↗ · #320

The future of betting

Prediction markets have been around for a long time, but it was only during the last election that they broke fully into the mainstream. This surge is due to trickle down into other markets, from popular culture to the weather.

businessinsider.nl ↗ · #320

The state of UX 2025

UX Collective share their predications for what to expect for User Experience (UX) Design in the next year.

trends.uxdesign.cc ↗ · #320

An ecosystem for the future of mobility

Volvo Cars and real estate developers Vectura Fastigheter and Next Step Group join forces in the development of the Mobility Innovation Destination Torslanda in Gothenburg, Sweden.

scandinavianmind.com ↗ · #320

Could AI help save the planet? Four ways it’s already making a world of difference

Might AI yet prove a useful ally? Positive News unpick how it's aiding conservation efforts for forests and food, and in conservation on land and at sea.

positive.news ↗ · #319

Perplexity launch a new AI-powered shopping assistant

This new product promises to do everything you need to buy a product, in one place. Ask for help on what to buy and receive advice advice alongside recommended products.

perplexity.ai ↗ · #319

Family's homemade stop-motion Christmas film gets global streaming release

Steal The Naughty List is the four-year labour of love of an engineering dad and homeschooled teens from Mississippi. Could this be the unexpected hit of the holiday season?

creativeboom.com ↗ · #319

OpenAI's Sora video generator appears to have leaked

A group of artists appears to have leaked access to OpenAI's video generator, Sora, in a bid to make OpenAi more open and artist friendly. So they truly support the artists as opposed to using them for PR stunts.

techcrunch.com ↗ · #319

AI-generated poetry is indistinguishable from human-written poetry

According to a study, participants were unable to say what poetry was AI-generated what had been written by well-known human poets. And they were more likely to judge AI-generated poems as human-authored than actual human-authored poems.

nature.com ↗ · #319

A.I. Chatbots Defeated Doctors at Diagnosing Illness

A small study found ChatGPT outdid human physicians when assessing medical case histories, even when those doctors were using a chatbot.

nytimes.com ↗ · #319

Age of Empires II at 25: the strategy game that inspired a generation of historians

Many historians of a certain age admit that the game reinforced their passion for the past and got them into the field. Four of them explain what drew them in.

theguardian.com ↗ · #319

Runway launch a new model for their image generation tool

The new model, Frames, promises more stylistic control and visual fidelity: it can establish a specific look and feel and reliably generate variations within it.

runwayml.com ↗ · #319

Elizabeth Goodspeed on untangling credit in design

As Athletic Greens’ meteoric rise shows, a brand’s success often depends on its identity system. But who gets recognition for the work when multiple studios shape a brand over time?

itsnicethat.com ↗ · #319

The World Is Drowning In Plastic Pollution. Can a Global Treaty Fix It?

As world leaders gather to finalize the first Global Plastics Treaty, communities living on the frontline of the plastics crisis make clear why it is so crucial.

atmos.earth ↗ · #319

Can Nature’s Own Sounds Help Heal the Earth?

As the world’s natural habitats degrade, scientists are playing natural sounds to ecosystems to bring them back to life.

atmos.earth ↗ · #318

OpenAI Scored a Legal Win Over Progressive Publishers—but the Fight’s Not Finished

A judge tossed out a case against OpenAI brought by Alternet and Raw Story, in what could be a significant ruling in the larger battle between AI companies and publishers.

wired.com ↗ · #318

The Endgames of Bad Faith Communication

Seeking to understand others and communicate honestly is an essential democratic virtue. Can it be maintained in the digital age?

consilienceproject.org ↗ · #318

Microsoft and the Vatican unveiled this AI collaboration

The project has been launched ahead of the Vatican’s 2025 Jubilee, a year in which more than 30 million visitors are expected.

fastcompany.com ↗ · #318

What is ‘greenhushing’ and is it really a cause for concern?

A recent report suggested more companies are going radio silent - or 'greenhushing' their emissions-reduction goals to avoid scrutiny. Could this impact climate efforts?

weforum.org ↗ · #318

How to Lead When the Future Feels Unpredictable

The protracted uncertainty that comes with living in liminal times can cause leaders and employees alike to feel unsettled or anxious, but the authors of this article remind us that we have more agency during these times than we might realize.

hbr.org ↗ · #318

Synthetic Hollywood: a future with no actors?

There's no doubt that AI will transform Hollywood. But how will an industry built on the simulation of life grapple with its responsibility to 'the real' - if at all?

culture3.com ↗ · #318

The 10 Exhibitions to See in November 2024

Exhibitions this month, from a radical archive of LGBTQ+ experience in Brazil to the Bangkok Art Biennale.

artreview.com ↗ · #318

The fallacy of faster

Rory Sutherland challenges our knee-jerk assumption that faster is always better. He asks us to consider what might happen if we approached problem-solving and decision-making with a more open-ended, human-centered perspective.

densediscovery.com ↗ · #318

Alfonso Cuarón Subverted Sci-Fi and Fantasy. Now He’s Coming for TV

Gravity, Children of Men, the best Harry Potter movie—and now a seven-part miniseries? With Disclaimer, director Alfonso Cuarón has set out to conquer TV in the name of cinema.

wired.com ↗ · #318

State of Digital Fashion 2024

Our annual trend report has explored the intersection of technology and fashion — from the rise of digital fashion and the world of online expression to the increasing adoption and opportunity of AI.

Your Majesty → · #317

Take Your Spotify Playlists to the Next Level With Custom Cover Art

Spotify is giving music fans the power to design and customize their own playlist cover art so their playlists can always look as good as they sound.

newsroom.spotify.com ↗ · #317

Runway Introduces Act-One

A new way to generate expressive character performances inside Gen-3 Alpha using a single driving video and character image. No motion capture or rigging required.

runwayml.com ↗ · #317

The Biggest Font Trends To Look Out For In 2025

From a sans-serif backlash to neo-retro revivals, our experts predict a diverse typographic landscape for the coming year.

creativeboom.com ↗ · #317

Two Possible Futures For AI

On The Vergecast: beautiful AI dreams, earthquake detection, and some Camera Control science.

theverge.com ↗ · #317

Mark Armijo McKnight’s Black Sky Thinking

In Decreation at the Whitney, Armijo McKnight mines Simone Weil’s neologism to evoke a sense of creation-through-eradication.

artreview.com ↗ · #317

Introducing Stable Diffusion 3.5

Introducing Stable Diffusion 3.5, our most powerful models yet. This open release includes multiple variants that are highly customisable for their size and run on consumer hardware.

stability.ai ↗ · #317

The Gift of Imperfection

In this summary, discussion on how this tendency to aim for perfection develops and how we can overcome it to be more true to ourselves.

hulry.com ↗ · #317

Designer And Collector Ashley Kinnard On The Unpolished Power Of Printed Matter

An avid amasser of books, leaflets, and found ephemera, this South London-based designer brings a sensory-driven approach to every project he creates.

itsnicethat.com ↗ · #317

Interview: Tobias Gremmler

Using digital techniques and solutions, 3D animation and video technology to create visual compositions often in conversation with other art forms like music, theatre and sculpture.

openlab.fm ↗ · #317

Introducing Pika 1.5

Pika dropped Pika 1.5 with 'Pikaffects' just a few days ago, and people are going crazy over the physics-defying AI special effects.

pika.art ↗ · #316

What do young creatives want from their leaders?

Creative Review ask those establishing themselves in the ad and design industry what leaders are getting right, where there are gaps, and what their focus should be.

creativereview.co.uk ↗ · #316

How Lego creates meaningful brand experiences

Creative Review speak to Lego’s VP of global brand development Alero Akuya about the brand’s rare ability to straddle the physical and virtual worlds with ease.

creativereview.co.uk ↗ · #316

How Everyone Got Lost in Netflix’s Endless Library

Ten years after Silicon Valley remade TV, it’s become clear how the streaming revolution distorted our collective viewing habits — and sense of the culture.

nytimes.com ↗ · #316

Teen achieves first NES Tetris “rebirth,” proves endless play is possible

Dogplayingtetris blasts past 3,300-line rollover in two-hour, 29M-point endurance test.

arstechnica.com ↗ · #316

Can Trashie Solve Fashion’s Waste Problem?

A new U.S. startup wants to stop clothes from going in the trash, but it may not be the silver bullet it appears to be.

atmos.earth ↗ · #316

Identifying Political Deepfakes in Social Media using AI

TrueMedia is a non-profit committed to helping us tell truth from fake in the age of generative AI.

truemedia.org ↗ · #316

Key trends in audiovisual design: what's next for 2025?

In the fifth of a special six-part series, the latest instalment from Creative Boom's trend report look at the cutting-edge developments shaping the future of audiovisual design and how they're set to transform brand experiences by 2025.

creativeboom.com ↗ · #316

Adobe reveals a content authenticity app to 'champion creator protection and attribution'

Research has found that 91 per cent of creative professionals seek a reliable way to attach attribution to their art and design. Adobe's soon-to-launch Content Authenticity is a tool that may just offer that solution.

creativeboom.com ↗ · #316

Lifeworld by Olafur Eliasson

Artist Olafur Eliasson releases his new artwork Lifeworld in collaboration with CIRCA and WeTransfer. An invitation to contemplate who you are and where you are, here and now.

lifeworld.wetransfer.com ↗ · #316

In Season, why trees lose their leaves

Deciduous trees are more than a vibrant display of nature’s virtuosity; they offer an elegant map for navigating the passage of time.

atmos.earth ↗ · #315

OK COOL Trend Report

The most anticipated social trend report of the year is here. Read Gatekeeping Information is SO Boomer Coded: A marketer's guide to Gen Zalpha's new school mindset.

okcool.io ↗ · #315

How not to use box shadows

So you think you know box shadows huh? I bet you didn't know they could do this.

dgerrells.com ↗ · #315

Drowning in slop

A thriving underground economy is clogging the internet with AI garbage — and it’s only going to get worse.

nymag.com ↗ · #315

Louis Vuitton [Extended] Podcast

French designer Mathieu Lehanneur discusses his creative journey and reflects on some of his notable work, including the Olympic and Paralympic Games Paris 2024 Torches.

en.louisvuitton.com ↗ · #315

David Hockney ~ The Art of Seeing

Andrew Marr, a friend of David Hockney's and an amateur painter himself, is in conversation with the artist, both at his home in Bridlington and in the galleries of the Royal Academy in London.

youtube.com ↗ · #315

How to use music to transform your visual content

A special six-part series focused on the use of music in modern design. In part one, a look at the importance of music to visual content.

creativeboom.com ↗ · #315

Ikigai and the question of personal purpose

While brands have been obsessed with purpose in recent years, we have overlooked personal purpose, which can lead to a far more enriching working life.

creativereview.co.uk ↗ · #315

Hidden scrolls, tantric puzzles and SpongeBob SquarePants – a startling new angle on ancient Asian art

The Rijksmuseum has used techniques including neutron tomography to shed fresh light on 75 treasures dating back millennia.

theguardian.com ↗ · #315

Michel Gondry - Do It Yourself ! | ARTE Cinema

A brilliant jack-of-all-trades whose eccentric talent convinced the creative elite of international pop music to entrust him with his music videos.

youtube.com ↗ · #315

Bitter aftertaste: the fraught world of branding cultural food products

Advocating for a more respectful, nuanced approach when branding foods (non-western other otherwise) that honours the origins and traditions of cultural food products.

itsnicethat.com ↗ · #314

Inside the internet’s Am I the Asshole ecosystem

This article delves into Reddit’s “Am I the Asshole?” (AITA) subreddit, how it’s become a cultural phenomenon and how gossip, morality and connection are integral to human nature.

link.vox.com ↗ · #314

Does Gen Alpha have “brainrot”?

Not here to fuel an intergenerational spat, but this article explores Gen Alpha’s concept of brainrot, and how it actually may have created a healthy boundary between them and their technology.

link.vox.com ↗ · #314

What Dollcore Says About The Precarious State of Girlhood

You’ve heard of Cottagecore, and you’ll definitely have heard of Barbiecore: the next aesthetic is Dollcore. While the former offer critiques of societal expectations of femininity, the latter emphasises and enables traditional, submissive roles.

highsnobiety.com ↗ · #314

The Shift from Creator Economy to Meaning Economy: A New Era of Engagement

As AI generates mass content, standing out in this overwhelming digital landscape will depend on meaningful connections, stories, and authenticity.

culture3.com ↗ · #314

Instagram, Facing Pressure Over Child Safety Online, Unveils Sweeping Changes

Learn about Instagram’s new safety and privacy changes created to protect teenagers on their platform.

nytimes.com ↗ · #314

Runway Partners with Lionsgate

Runway and Lionsgate are partnering to explore the use of AI in film production. This is a first-of-its-kind partnership, designed to help Lionsgate Studios, its filmmakers, directors and other creative talent augment their work using Runway’s suite of controllable tools.

runwayml.com ↗ · #314

Why “founder mode” is a rebranding for micromanaging, top-down leaders

How some leaders, under the guise of being visionary founders, exert excessive control over decisions and daily operations.

uxdesign.cc ↗ · #314

The Desperation of the Instagram Photo Dump

If you’ve felt pressured to post a photo dump, you’re not alone. This article highlights the tension between personal expression and the performative nature of social media. And how the only way to counteract the overflow of online content is to put out an overflow of your own.

newyorker.com ↗ · #314

Nike: Form Follows Motion

An exhibition at Vitra Design Museum that explores how Nike has transformed the way we perceive sportswear.

design-museum.de ↗ · #314

How Should We Mourn the End of Summer?

Mourning over the loss of big things in life is considered ‘normal’, but it’s okay to grieve over small losses too – like losing summer. Here’s how to handle it.

nytimes.com ↗ · #313

Sarah Masete — The art director building communities in Berlin and beyond

“My biggest dream is to thrive together with others,” – this creative shares how her vigour for learning and continuous curiosity serve as a catalyst for change.

wepresent.wetransfer.com ↗ · #313

Inside Duolingo’s stunning new NYC office

An inclusive workplace that caters for all kinds of people – with designs informed by research in cognitive neuroscience, neuroaesthetics, and environmental psychology.

fastcompany.com ↗ · #313

Full catastrophe living

Embracing when things go wrong, with acceptance and a positive outlook on the silver linings you could take away.

deathtoshitads.beehiiv.com ↗ · #313

Getting an allotment totally changed my summer – and radically altered my relationship with food

Over the summer, this author discovered how long it takes to grow cauliflower, the true meaning of seasonal foods and how to preserve your hard-earned crop.

theguardian.com ↗ · #313

AI Could Help Us Talk to Animals—but Should It?

New technologies are helping revolutionise how we interpret and understand animal communications – but is this another case of fast technology applications potentially causing harm?

atmos.earth ↗ · #313