As generative AI spreads, the risk isn’t just bad images or lazy design, it’s the quiet flattening of human thought. When machines do more of the thinking, what happens to human creativity?

A new kind of power is emerging in culture: the identity industrialist. As synthetic humans become lifelike, identity itself can be manufactured, optimized, and scaled. Dave Snyder explores what this means for media, influence, and trust.

Scott Adams, creator of the ‘Dilbert’ comic, has died of prostate cancer. His satirical look at office life struck a gleeful nerve with cubicle-dwellers worldwide; his unfiltered thoughts on race, medicine, government, and conservative theory, less so. He was 68. #Observed

Despite falling short on its nationwide robotaxi rollout and revenue, Tesla’s shareholders continue to hang on for the ride. “I think in the next six months there’s a reckoning coming for Tesla,” says investor Ross Gerber. #Observed

If you have ever flown into the tiny Aspen Airport, you have a clear point of view on what might make the experience… less, how should we put this? Fraught. A survey asking to choose between two possible designs showed a clear winner. #Observed

In a new Design Observer essay, Stephen Mackintosh examines how generative AI is reshaping livestreaming through moderation tools, synthetic Vtubers, and the growing tension between scale, labor, and human presence.

Generative AI promises limitless creativity, but research shows it may be simplifying images, flattening attention, and even reshaping how people understand their own stories. David Z. Morris explores the hidden costs in his new essay.

Studio Ghibli’s Porco Rosso isn’t just a classic, it’s a fierce anti-fascist, antiwar film. In a new Design Observer essay, Dylan Fugel argues why Miyazaki’s message matters now, amid authoritarian politics and the rise of generative AI. Read more on our site.

Do you ever just stop and think about how great Charles Yu's writing is? Anyway the first chapter of THE EDGE OF SPACE-TIME is called "How to Live Safely in a Science Factual Universe" -- iykyk Preorder here: www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/746817...

When machines can imitate style, what still makes art human? As AI enters creative fields, the real question isn’t automation, it’s value. Story, experience, context, and intention still matter.

New year. New job? Brooklyn Public Library is looking for a Junior Designer to help bring a beloved public institution to life. See this opening and more at DesignObserver.com/jobs

Design Observer reflects on a year of growth, creativity, and design’s expanding relevance. We also share a holiday gift guide of inspiring books.

New on Design Observer: a look at the long, strange history of coloring our food for beauty, even when the dyes were toxic. From arsenic-green desserts to coal-tar butter, it’s a story about appetite, design, and risk.

Designers shaped the modern web. Now they have the chance to shape the foundation of AI. Openness is becoming the new creative advantage. New essay on Design Observer.

What happens when a nation responds to school shootings not with policy, but with products? In an exclusive interview, the filmmakers behind HBO’s Thoughts & Prayers discuss the strange, chilling world of America’s active-shooter preparedness industry.

Hello, Sans Flex, Google’s new open-source font. It was released under the SIL Open Font License, and designed by type designer and Font Bureau co-founder David Berlow. #Observed

A mostly optimistic indie game end-of-year wrap-up: “In the spirit of the season, one thing I’m thankful for is indie studios being able to make the games they want despite external pressures,” says Engadget’s Kris Holt. #Observed

Chatbots reveal AI’s most exciting application to date: “AI helps drive record $11.8 billion in Black Friday online spending.” #Observed

Looking for inspiration? Give the gift of insight. Discover the best books for designing a better life. Explore our bookshop today!

Meet OpenAI’s other CEO. Fidji Simo, the former CEO of Instacart, manages everything else that Sam Altman doesn’t…which turns out to be quite a bit. #Observed

I left my font in San Francisco. A new font inspired by an old San Francisco municipal streetcar was discovered and resurrected by visiting Australian designer Emily Sneddon who saw “poetic beauty” on the recently retired Breda trains. Meet: Frans Sans. #Observed

A wicked good start. Wicked: For Good opened to $150M domestic, and $226M around the world, besting Wicked‘s $112.5M domestic, and $164M global start. #Observed

Aesthetically specific film director Wes Anderson is opening an exhibition at the Design Museum in London spanning his 30-year career. His films require an extraordinary amount of objects, paintings, puppets, and singular artifacts found nowhere else. #Observed

Goodbye “Glass House.” Ford has opened its new global HQ in Dearborn, designed by Snøhetta. The 2.1M sq ft building brings engineering, design, and fabrication together under one roof, built for collaboration. Come for the natural light, stay for the rotisserie chickens. #Observed

Adobe is expanding its design-tool ecosystem with agentic AI, positioning itself as more than a tool maker. Its new AI systems help brands and design teams, from Kate Spade to Coca-Cola and Barbie, manage creative supply chains more efficiently. #Observed

In her first essay for Design Observer, Kim Devall argues that as the industry leans into automation, our real advantage is the human touch, craft, struggle, and the years it takes to build true taste.

The Met Gala gets a party room. The Costume Institute’s annual show gets a permanent home off the Met’s Grand Hall, thanks to Anna Wintour’s efforts to get “out of the basement.” #Observed

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at Solæ, the latest typeface from Paris-based graphic designer and art director Gwennina Moigne. #Observed

A former Japanese toy designer has created a transformer-inspired scooter. The all-electric Icoma Tatamel Bike folds down to the size of a rolling carry-on, and based on the photos, also works as a fashion accessory. #Observed www.core77.com/posts/139327...

Behind the $90 billion souvenir industry are artisans whose work carries lineage, labor, and economic survival. Design Observer examines how so-called kitsch objects function as cultural endurance across shifting markets.

In his latest essay for Design Observer, Lee Moreau draws a parallel between The Wizard of Oz and today’s AI era, exploring how power, isolation, and illusion shape our creative and moral choices as designers.

Netflix House Philadelphia opens this week, making its fandom physical with a first-of-its-kind venue. Inside, you’ll find a full-service restaurant (Netflix Bites), themed photo-ops, plus VR adventures tied to shows like Squid Game and Stranger Things. #Observed

Costume designer Kate Hawley unpacks the visual clues that bring Guillermo del Toro’s adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to life. “I’ve done three films now with Guillermo, but every time we are exploring the same language in a very different way,” she says. #Observed

Design is a practice of reckoning with the past as much as it is of designing for the future.” In the season finale of DBBD, Lee Moreau joins @emcg.bsky.social to talk about rebuilding hope in uncertain times.

Production designer Grace Yun on building fear, memory, and longing: from the unsettling domestic spaces of Hereditary to the quiet hauntings of Past Lives. Read the full conversation w @ahaut.bsky.social on Design Observer.

The dapper “fedora man” snapped by photogs at the scene of the Louvre heist turned out to be a 15-year-old who is not affiliated with law enforcement, and has been dressing like that for a while. 🕵️‍♂️ #Observed

The Studio Museum in Harlem is back after an eight-year renovation. The new seven-story institution reopens to the public on November 15. “This building says to the world, Harlem matters. Black art matters. Black institutions matter…" #Observed

The moka pot has been redesigned, this time for energy efficiency. Thoughts? #Observed

From 90s horrorcore to Lil Nas X’s hellish visuals, rap has long used horror and occult imagery to explore trauma, challenge norms, and shock audiences. John Morrison traces the genre’s dark visual history in his new Design Observer essay.

How to rebuild Jamaica? The destruction is mind-boggling, and the assessment work has barely begun. #Observed

Looking for your next role? See who's hiring and apply via our job board designobserver.com/jobs

While we work to expand access to design for the next generation, we’re also helping today’s designers find their next role. Explore the Design Observer Job Board designobserver.com/jobs

When despair silenced his creativity, designer @satorunihei.bsky.social turned to daily acts of making, transforming failure into a path back to himself.

The NYC mayoral primary “hot take” you didn’t know you needed: the bodega-inspired aesthetic of the Zohran Mamdani campaign’s visual identity. Meet Forge, a tiny design co-op, co-led by designer Aneesh Bhoopathy, with locations in Queens and Philly. #Observed

Happy Halloween! The scary-good reads curated by the contributors to Design Observer’s horror month. 📖

In Design Harder, Erik Carter dismantles modern graphic design with sharp wit, righteous fury, and a 10-point plan for creating work that actually matters.

On the heels of this month’s Louvre heist, a poet reflects on his own hellish, and oddly heartening, encounter at a famed museum.

Pepsi’s Mauro Porcini has signed on as Samsung’s first-ever design chief. “He’s got a hell of a job ahead of him,” says Wired’s Verity Burns. #Observed

Fortune Brainstorm Design Conference, December 2, 2025, in Macau. Fortune’s premiere event exploring the intersection of business, technology, and design. This year’s theme is Future Tense: Prototyping Tomorrow. #Observed

“Increasingly, designers don’t just want to choose typefaces. They want to make their own. Big type, weird type, emotional type – they want it all." #Observed