Category Archives: Design

Portable cathedrals.

Posted on 17 January 2012 by Matthew Marco

Perhaps the only mobile phone review I’d consider essential reading includes “Roland Barthes” among its tags and this choice paragraph: Each mobile phone handset is not a mere product, perhaps like the other products that have traditionally adorned the pages … Continue reading →

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Every letter counts.

Posted on 11 June 2011 by Matthew Marco

2011 June 2, 8:46 pm As my live-tweeting of last week’s National Spelling Bee finals attests, my misspellings outnumbered my correct guesses by a factor of five, which led me to the realization that I am not a good speller. … Continue reading →

Posted in Academics, Design, Food, Nostalgia, Typography | Leave a comment

A continuation of habitable space.

Posted on 5 May 2011 by Matthew Marco

Bridging the line between clothing and architecture, the spacesuit is a portable environment: a continuation of habitable space, safe for human beings, capable of radical detachment from the Earth. Geoff Manaugh Based on an interview with the author, I added … Continue reading →

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Not much else.

Posted on 21 February 2011 by Matthew Marco

…certain brands, and bands, can so glammer the market that a mere 10 percent share is nothing short of ubiquitous. Apple is that good, Radiohead is, and not much else. The Apple Of Rock While I don’t buy the build-up … Continue reading →

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In the kitchen.

Posted on 8 February 2011 by Matthew Marco

Back from Houston, with a foundational chunk of literature review written and a substantial amount remaining this evening. In the meantime, I’d like to believe that on the other side of this kitchen is a refrigerator that would give Christina … Continue reading →

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Traces of interfaces.

Posted on 1 February 2011 by Matthew Marco

It’s hard to appreciate the variety of UIs though, since turning the screen off removes virtually all evidence of them. To spotlight these differences, I looked at the only fragments that remain from using an app: fingerprints. Remnants of a … Continue reading →

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By their covers.

Posted on 31 January 2011 by Matthew Marco

First class each semester I hand the students a questionnaire. One of the questions asks the students to draw, from memory, the cover of their favorite book of all time. I superimpose the drawings over a photo of a blank … Continue reading →

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And then we could fuck it up a little.

Posted on 31 January 2011 by Matthew Marco

The Tiger Mother roaring perilously close to meme-dom has finally encroached on Design Observer. The payoff is a bit of remembered wisdom dispensed by Tibor Kalman to Michael Bierut on the rules: Tibor listened patiently to my ideas — there … Continue reading →

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