Seen & Noted

Managing Yourself: How to Calibrate Your Own Strengths and Weaknesses
Smart self-assessment plus clearly defined requests for feedback can prevent imposter syndrome—and being caught off-guard by hidden weaknesses.

The Moral Peril of Meritocracy
Our individualistic culture inflames the ego and numbs the spirit. Failure teaches us who we are.

What Does it Mean to be a Holistic Designer?
Snøhetta’s Martin Gran on how graphic design should co-exist with other disciplines

Stop Trying To Do Everything

A Sprawling Birthday Celebration for R.E.M.’s ‘Reckoning’
Thirty-five years ago, R.E.M. released one of the great rock albums of the 1980s, sending the Athens, Georgia, quartet on the road toward global stardom. Here’s a track-by-track breakdown of the album, as well as conversations with Patterson Hood, Mitch Easter, and Scott McCaughey.

An Incomplete Design History

Frame by Frame
The legacy of mid-century masters Charles and Ray Eames is as much about their films as their furniture.

Why Catholics Built Secret Astronomical Features Into Churches to Help Save Souls
After centuries of war, Catholicism and science reconciled over meridian lines.

The Designer’s Growth Model
The growth of a designer, i.e. the maturity of design, goes through several phases. Different phases ask different things of a designer. In each phase the work and goal of a designer changes. In each phase, the maturity grows.

How “Good Design” Failed Us

John Maeda says there are three kinds of design—but one is most important