During the flat design boom of the 2010s, blocky sans-serif fonts were everywhere. Crisp, clean text adorned websites and shopfronts, with more decorative serif fonts seen as fussy and passe. But the tide appears to have turned on the serif vs sans serif debate. From protein bars to sneaker ads to AI brands, it seems everybody is embracing retro typographical aesthetics.
Today's English alphabet is unchanged since the 16th century-with one exception: the long‑s fell from use circa 1800. Previously, there had been two forms of the letter /s: a long (tall) version at the beginning and in the middle of words, and another, our present‑day /s, at the end of words. The reform used the terminal version throughout. There are two theories as to why this occurred, neither satisfactory.
There's a lot going on here. Through this weekend, there is a Behind-the-Screams Tour, where guests will face skeletons, parasites, bloodsuckers, and more from the collection. The newly renovated Wilson Family Nature Lab is opened in mid-October with lots of hands-on learning. Coming up on Nov. 22, there is a one-night only Welcome Winter Night, with two baby reindeer (and a naming contest), magic shows, and lots of other activities.
Hey everyone, I have been working on a new website and would love some honest feedback from the community. I have focused on usability, visual balance, and performance, but I'm sure there's room for improvement. You can check it out here:Instagram Story Viewer I would really appreciate your thoughts on the layout, typography, and overall experience anything that stands out as good or bad. Thanks in advance for taking the time!
Editorially, the magazine has a modern visual style that is as elegant as the chairs it features. Each issue promotes simplicity and ease in its reading style, opting for uncluttered information - a type of ergonomic reading experience that matches well to the serenity of sitting in a comfortable chair or the act of appreciating the artistic value of furniture. It's academic content with an accessible, contemporary visual voice.
Let's be real. You could have the most revolutionary product in the world, but if it looks like a clown car of random fonts, nobody will take you seriously. They'll feel it in their gut. "This looks cheap. This feels untrustworthy." Good design is about building trust. And the foundation of clean, trustworthy design is typography. The good news? You don't need a design degree to get this right. You just need to stop making one critical mistake: using too many damn fonts.
"It's an amazing idea, and it's surprising that it hasn't knowingly been done before. "Tape felt like the perfect tool to disrupt typographic tradition. It's fast, tactile, and unruly," says Varanda. "What fascinated me most was how tape could act as both a restriction and a liberation. It forces letterforms into sharp edges, but in the hands of 27 participants, it created shapes that I could never have imagined alone."
No matter what you're designing for - maybe it's a website? A brand? A magazine, perhaps? - typographic hierarchy is your foundation, your building blocks. It's what guides your reader through your website, brand or book. It tells them what to look at first, what to skim, and what to remember. Done right, it's seamless. Done wrong, it can be extremely confusing.In short, hierarchy is how you visually structure information. Here's how to do it well.
It seems a day does not go by without seeing someone confidently assert on social media that an em dash is not an indicator of AI-written text. Those social media posts are in response to an ongoing debate about whether or not the em dash is a dead giveaway of writing produced by generative AI. Some writers and academics resent that their cherished em dash is getting a bad rap. As one writes, "You can take my em dash from my cold, dead hands."
At the recent AVEDA Congress show, designer and creative director Dany Vo introduced a stage environment shaped by motion graphics, typography, and visual storytelling. Acting as creative lead, Vo developed a motion-driven backdrop that interacted directly with the choreography, transforming the runway into a spatial narrative rather than a static presentation. The visuals, composed of shifting typography and organic graphic forms, were synchronized with the movement of models and garments.
While I'm not typically a fan of minimalist design, some brands call for stripped-back branding, and one company that's nailing the aesthetic is Blank Street. A Gen Z favourite, the laidback highstreet coffee store knows its customers to a tee, championing chic, lowkey vibes with a deliciously Instagrammable aesthetic. Recently unveiling its slick new rebrand, Blank Street reestablishes itself as a global lifestyle brand, owning its identity as a cult favourite.
This week it's the 70th birthday of the Guinness Book of Records, that gloriously bonkers compendium of human achievement that celebrates the people who can stuff the most marshmallows in their mouth, balance the most spoons on their body, and hula hoop underwater for the longest time. It features everything from standard athletic victories to "most high fives in 30 seconds" and "fastest time to make a pasta necklace."
Douglas Hofstadter is possibly best known for coining the term ambigram in 1983. An ambigram can be read in more than one way, commonly exhibiting left-right mirror symmetry or 180-degree rotational symmetry.
