One last batch before the year ends. Since I took last week off, this one is chock full. Hopefully, you are doing something fun on New Year’s Eve, and you find these links later in the week. If you are looking for even more, I quietly dropped another Phase post last week. See you all in 2025.
Art/Photography
Spectacular Award-Winning Photos From The 2024 AAP Magazine Street Photography Awards
The 2024 AAP Magazine Street Photography Awards celebrated the art of capturing everyday life with extraordinary vision, featuring award-winning photos from talented photographers across 11 countries and five continents.
Beams of Light Lance Monumental Architecture in Jun Ong’s Astral Installations
In artist Jun Ong’s luminous installations, rays of light pierce through concrete, stone, and steel. In his ongoing Stars series features LED strips that intersect with the human-built environment in monumental, illuminated geometries.
Graphic Design/Branding
Little critters on a big mission. The planet-positive snackers making giant leaps
Small Giants are smashing taboos with gourmet cracker ranges baked with cricket flour. Why? Crickets are super sustainable, truly wholesome and outrageously delicious.
Web Design/UX/UI
How to start building community around your design system
Design systems live or die by the community you build around them. …design system teams that have great adoption and buy-in from their organizations are the ones who have put real effort into the community around the design system.
14 UI Patterns for generative AI
New types of UI that generative AI has necessitated
Testing Visual Design: A Comprehensive Guide
Use methods like 5-second testing, first-click testing, and preference testing to gain insights into how users perceive your visual design.
Industrial Design
The Hello Kitty Rubik’s Cube design has no business being this cute
Our favourite cat that isn’t a cat takes brand collabs to another level.
Film/Animation
MOVING STILL — The Running, Art, & Life of Joe Greer
Renowned photographer Joe Greer is attempting to run a marathon under 2 hours and 40 minutes.
Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man trailer leaves fans divided
Marvel Entertainment has just dropped the trailer for Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, the long-awaited animated series that was first announced way back in 2021
Tools
Spektra
A modern and intuitive gradient generator tool that helps designers and developers create beautiful color gradients for their projects.
Architecture
Curved brick protrusions fill Hainan cinema by One Plus Partnership
Chinese studio One Plus Partnership used red bricks to create wave-like surfaces inside this cinema lobby in the city of Haikou, China, emerging from the floors and ceilings to form a reception counter, tables and chairs.
Villa La Moraleja / Vasco Vieira Arquitectos
The primary goal with this project was to create a villa that exists in perfect harmony with nature, fostering a continuous dialogue between the built environment and its natural surroundings.
Illustration
Bits
Illustration by Giacomo D’Ancona
Technology
Magnetic “metasheet” material moves objects like a conveyor belt
The device is essentially a sheet made of elastic polymer with magnetic microparticles embedded in it. A kirigami pattern of tessellating triangles is etched into it, which makes it more flexible to deform on demand.
Scientists Built Tiny VR Goggles for Mice
The aptly named MouseGoggles allow lab mice to more realistically experience virtual reality.