designbriefs
Longest first

All briefs

479 briefs · 3191 min · 289–384 on page 4 of 5
Refine26
Disciplines
Graphic design 45Typography 58Branding 41Illustration 3Photography 3Editorial 13Industrial 84Furniture 57Architecture 131Interiors 22Urbanism 39Automotive 2Interface 10Interaction 10Motion 53D 3
Verdict
Worth your time 321Worth it in part 158
Topics
Architecture 118Industrial design 68Typography 51Urban planning 39Modernism 38Abstraction 34Furniture 32Materials 28All 157 topics →
6:38

Inter (typeface)

Inter isn’t prettier than Roboto—it’s legible where Roboto fails, and that’s why it replaced it.
6:14

Gotham (typeface)

Tobias Frere-Jones · 2000

Gotham is a geometric sans-serif typeface family designed in 2000 by Tobias Frere-Jones with Jesse Ragan and released in 2002. It was commissioned by GQ magazine to display a sans-serif with a 'geometric structure' that would look 'masculine, new, and fresh'. Its letterforms were inspired by examples of architectural signs of the mid-twentieth century, especially the sign on the Eighth Avenue façade of the Port Authority Bus Terminal. Frere-Jones based the font on lettering seen in older Manhattan buildings, and characterised the simplification as 'not the kind of letter a type designer would make. It's the kind of letter an engineer would make.' The letterforms Gotham was based on were geometric yet did not look like Futura; their widths were more uniform and less classical, bowls were larger. Reviews of Gotham focus on its identity as something both American and specific to New York City.

5:55

Pallet

The pallet isn’t a design — it’s the silent contract between forklifts, containers, and capitalism.
5:50

Zippo

George G. Blaisdell · 1932

The Zippo lighter is a tightly constrained industrial object defined by wind resistance, guaranteed longevity, and procedural repeatability — not novelty, aesthetics, or scale.

5:45

Arne Norell

Norell’s furniture isn’t Swedish modernism — it’s Danish influence made local, then licensed for longevity.
5:38

King Power Mahanakhon

A helix-shaped void that made a building famous—not for what it housed, but for how tall it stood, and how briefly.
5:27

Egg (chair)

Arne Jacobsen · 1958

The Egg chair is a tightly constrained response to the SAS Royal Hotel commission: a sculptural, isolating seat made possible by new materials. Its couch variant reveals the cost of scaling that logic — a visible seam, limited production, and unresolved tension between form and upholstery. It belongs to design/furniture and design/interiors. Topics include furniture, industrial-design, and interiors.

5:16

DIN 1451

German Institute for Standardization · 1931

DIN 1451 is a foundational typographic standard—not a font family, but a reproducible system. Its value lies in its constraint-driven clarity, not its aesthetic novelty.

5:06

Paola Navone

Navone’s real work is not what she made — it’s how she refused to choose, and later refused to keep.
4:33

Kenji Ekuan

One designer, eight verified works, zero commentary: Ekuan’s legacy is a list of dates and clients—not a theory of form.
4:32

James Victore

Hand-lettered posters are not nostalgic — they are a refusal of mediation.
4:32

Maglite

A flashlight that became a weapon because its materials refused to compromise.
4:31

Jen Simmons

She didn’t just build CSS Grid — she named it, shipped its debugger, and taught the web how to think in two dimensions.
4:29

Tord Boontje

Boontje proved ornament could scale — not as decoration, but as a design strategy for retail and research.
4:28

Kartell

Kartell is an Italian company, headquartered in the Metropolitan City of Milan, that makes and sells contemporary plastic furniture.
4:24

Bret Victor

Bret Victor didn’t build the iPad—he built the argument against it.
4:18

Ross Lovegrove

Lovegrove’s career is a sequence of verified commissions—not a manifesto.
4:18

Vittorio Gregotti

Gregotti didn’t design buildings—he designed the conditions under which architecture could be both ideological and buildable.
4:16

Lato (typeface)

Łukasz Dziedzic

Lato is a humanist sans-serif typeface designed by Łukasz Dziedzic and released in 2010. It was commissioned by a Polish bank, then cancelled and published under the Open Font License. As of August 2018, it appeared on over 9.6 million websites and ranked third on Google Fonts by usage. It has been applied in physical media including election billboards and information signs, and adopted by Save the Children for its logotype since 2022.

4:11

Kasper Salto

Salto’s career is a case study in how Danish furniture design professionalised — not through rupture, but through steady studio expansion.
1:49

Barcelona chair

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe · 1929

Associated with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich's work for the German Pavilion in Barcelona in 1929, the Barcelona chair combines a metal frame with leather upholstery. Its construction changed after the original design.

1:46

Tolomeo desk lamp

Michele De Lucchi & Giancarlo Fassina · 1986

Michele De Lucchi and Giancarlo Fassina designed the Tolomeo desk lamp for Artemide in 1986. Its articulated aluminium arms, tension cables and swivelling reflector make it a useful study in adjustable task lighting.

1:44

Arco (lamp)

Achille & Pier Giacomo Castiglioni · 1962

Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni designed the Arco floor lamp for Flos in 1962. It connects a suspended spun-aluminium pendant to a Carrara marble base through an arching stainless-steel arm.

1:44

Wishbone chair

The Wishbone chair brings a shaped wooden back and a woven seat into one recognizable arrangement.
1:35

Swan (chair)

Arne Jacobsen

Arne Jacobsen designed the Swan lounge chair and sofa for Copenhagen's SAS Royal Hotel in 1958. The chair combines an upholstered body with a star-shaped satin-polished aluminium base.

1:22

Vespa Scooter

An enclosed drivetrain and a step-through body reorganised the relationship between rider and machine.
1:21

Neri & Hu

A Shanghai practice connects architecture with interiors, objects and graphic design.
1:19

Mercedes-Benz Logo

A three-pointed star carries an engineering ambition through badges and a corporate merger.
1:18

Athos Bulcão

Athos Bulcão's career connects painting and sculpture with the construction of Brasília.
1:18

Frank Chimero

Chimero connects interfaces, illustration and writing within a broad design practice.
1:18

LC4 Chaise Longue

An adjustable reclining chair whose authorship deserves as much attention as its silhouette.
1:18

Luke Wroblewski

Wroblewski connects interface design, product leadership and practical writing about the web.
1:18

Tetra Pak Carton

The original tetrahedral carton was inseparable from the machine that formed and filled it.