@goodspeed.bsky.social on what happens when design becomes prefab. ow.ly/qB1f50X29HY

I spoke alongside Pablo Rochat at Air's inaugural creative summit "Age of Aquarius"—we talked about about craft vs. creativity, the early AI ~*fever dream*~ aesthetic, and why actually making stuff still matters! Recorded here → youtu.be/F0QWo8R_jA0

My newest column for @its-nice-that.bsky.social is about the rise of pre-fab brand kits, "move fast and break things," and how identity is often starting to matter more than product! ⏱️ www.itsnicethat.com/articles/eli...

New Casual Archivist issue about one of my favorite niche collectives, The Kindred of the Kibbo Kift—a 1920s radical Utopian scouting group dedicated to handicraft 🦊 casualarchivist.substack.com/p/kindred-sp...

A fantastic collection of vintage diner table mats, in today’s Casual Archvist newsletter. More open.substack.com/pub/casualar... And thanks @goodspeed.bsky.social

Some new (old) work for At Heart Panadería in Atlanta—a riso-printed cookbook zine <3

Thank you to Chloe Gordon Cordover at The Dieline for chatting with me about moodboarding and design multiverses! thedieline.com/how-efficien...

A spread from “Sinclair Programs”, a magazine that shared BASIC software for readers to copy. Some of these go pretty hard. via @goodspeed.bsky.social casualarchivist.substack.com/p/full-spect...

Avant les IAg, avant Stackoverflow et Reddit, avant les forums BBS et les blogs, avant les mailings lists, les magazines de code : comme le très stylé Sinclair Programs dégotté par @goodspeed.bsky.social casualarchivist.substack.com/p/full-spect...

Happy to have been able to contribute some thoughts to @goodspeed.bsky.social’s latest piece for @its-nice-that.bsky.social. It’s great to see an article on design ethics consider type and UX, which generally don’t follow the typical client–agency model. www.itsnicethat.com/features/is-...

Thank you so much to Breed London for having me as a guest on season 3 of their wonderful podcast! We talked about how I got into writing, the line between inspiration and appropriation, and why the phrase "vintage-inspired" keeps me up at night. breedlondon.com/breed-presen...

For my It’s Nice That column this month, I wrote about the rise of the exhibitionist designer–influencer, and what happens when sharing the work starts to be more important than the work itself 🤳 www.itsnicethat.com/articles/eli...

I published a new issue of my Casual Archivist newsletter today about Christian propaganda posters and the challenges of cross-cultural communication ⛪ casualarchivist.substack.com/p/and-also-w...

I had so much fun speaking about design history at the Typographics Festival yesterday (even though people did NOT laugh at my Pagliacci joke). The livestream of the talks will be up for another day or two if you'd like to watch the recording of mine! www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDNX...

I designed the vinyl soundtrack for A24’s Materialists💍

Scans du jour

As a long-time hoarder of cowboy ephemera, I had a blast doing the identity + illos (coming soon) for Drugstore Cowboy, a new newsletter about the pharmaceutical industry from Alec Ginsberg, COO at C.O. Bigelow Apothecaries drugstorecowboy.com

I love this cover (one of two by @goodspeed.bsky.social) for the May/June issue of The Magazine Antiques, brilliantly edited by Michael Diaz-Griffith. I was chuffed as heck to be asked to write about period rooms, whose stories they tell, and who we are (multiple choice question) when we visit one.

If you are a designer who gets to choose your own projects, are there any industries you won't work within for ethical reasons? Cigarettes, AI, gambling, seed oils, political campaigns, etc.? I'd love to hear what + talk to you for a piece!

More ice cream posters for Big Feeling!

I designed a special edition cover for the May/June Collector’s Edition of The Magazine ANTIQUES! Big thanks to guest editor + pal Michael Diaz-Griffith for the commission—and for his generous description of the collage as "channeling wide-ranging curiosity and time-traveling ingenuity" 🥲

I Spy with my little eye... Bobby Doherty for Homme Girls, Casey Zhang for Spinelli Kilcollin, Crown Affair x éliou, and Ginoe for Vogue Phillipines 🕵️‍♀️

I need an investigation into why so many of my students are using Proxima Nova right now

Ongoing keyboard replacement entries of all the fucked up ways I typo my own name

I chatted with Leah Asmelash at CNN about food as a status symbol and the increasing prevalence of groceries in advertising and luxury designs 🥬 www.cnn.com/2025/04/13/s...

Also! I was in Rachel Karten's Link in Bio newsletter talking about "showing the edges of the negative" and how AI will affect social media content—a concept inspired by my It's Nice That interview with PLAYLAB, INC. last month! You can read here: www.milkkarten.net/p/why-ai-wil...

Chag sameach! For Passover, I wrote in @its-nice-that.bsky.social about how contemporary Haggadot are upending tradition, rethinking form, and asking what freedom—and Jewishness—look like now. www.itsnicethat.com/features/how...

Something mentioned here that I've been thinking about: toeing the line between self-deprecating humor and being seen as someone incapable of doing their job

For my latest @its-nice-that.bsky.social column, I wrote about the death of idealism, why everyone says design ruined their life, and what might happen if we start taking ourselves seriously again 👼 www.itsnicethat.com/articles/eli...

Graphics Union is a community of graphic designers from film & television. www.instagram.com/graphicsunion Their Insta is a great place for ephemera designed for both new & old productions - as well as from other archives.

Pittsburgh edition

New trend du jour? (updated Williamstown Theatre Festival brand/site by Pentagram/XXIX, New Rules trend report by It's Nice That, and a rebrand of Baldor by Alright Studio)

I really enjoyed getting to interview Playlab for their 20 year anniversary! We talked about the joys of generalism, the limits of AI, and why it's important to push back on clients sometimes. A big thank you Archie + Jeff for their time! www.itsnicethat.com/features/pla...

"The same system that lets companies profit off the public domain and decades of creative theft is the same one that enables AI firms to scrape public domain material without credit, compensation, or regard for its original context." - @goodspeed.bsky.social

@goodspeed.bsky.social on what happens when we treat the past like a stock library. ow.ly/1NKI50UYAJK

Who preserves culture—and who cashes in on it? My first @its-nice-that.bsky.social column of the year is on the ethics of the public domain, using the past as a stock library, and who profits when history is up for grabs 📚 www.itsnicethat.com/articles/eli...

Anyways, huge amount of archival / historic footage being used in Super Bowl ads this year, much to consider 👀

Wait—Samuel L Jackson’s Uncle Sam costume was BODE???

I wrote a guest newsletter for Cherry on Top this week on why I’m over complaints about millennial branding, and how ugly design only works if it was made before the 80s! thecherryontop.substack.com/p/hot-take-b...

I really enjoyed @oversettext.bsky.social's video about 2025 design trends... but I enjoyed this quote graphic they made from my article on Future Medieval most of all ⚔️ www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnso...

some amazing stuff from Blaise Hayward's collection of old ticket stubs via this morning's edition of @goodspeed.bsky.social's Casual Archivist newsletter casualarchivist.substack.com/p/ticketsple...

casualarchivist.substack.com/p/ticketsple... wowser! thanks @goodspeed.bsky.social another beautiful and inspiring collection; Tickets Please, by Blaise Hayward www.blaisehayward.com/tickets-plea...

These ticket stubs 😭 #designsky How far we've fallen, scanning blah barcodes. via @goodspeed.bsky.social / Casual Archivist casualarchivist.substack.com/p/ticketsple...

The things I would do for this Mr. Men wallpaper

I made some posters for our favorite local ice cream joint (yes I get paid in ice cream)

Rainbow flags that pre-date the 1978 pride flag 1) International Cooperative Alliance flag (1925) 2) proposal by Martiros Saryan for the Armenian flag (1919) 3) World Peace Flag (1913) 4) Brotherhood Flag (1930s)

Magnifique collection de fourreaux pour baguettes patiemment collectées et conservées par Susumu Kitagawa, conducteur de trains au Japon letterformarchive.org/news/this-ju... via @goodspeed.bsky.social (Aka Casual archivist -> casualarchivist.substack.com)

why did I start getting constant ads for manufacturing stickers that say “lithium batteries” and “do not forklift” and why did the company respond by trying to flirt with me

Read this morning: "When we reinterpret history with fluidity and creativity, it becomes a tool to explore both our shared humanity and the unique challenges of our time." from @goodspeed.bsky.social www.itsnicethat.com/articles/eli...

👗 Casual Archivist Issue 39: A Stitch in Time by @goodspeed.bsky.social Today’s collection is series of Works Progress Administration (WPA) posters showing global historic dress. + featured archive: From Old Books + Year Recap #WPA #Historic #dress casualarchivist.substack.com/p/wpaposters