{"id":8209,"date":"2026-03-24T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/johnfreeborn.com\/words\/?p=8209"},"modified":"2026-03-23T23:23:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T06:23:17","slug":"weekly-design-links-03-24-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnfreeborn.com\/words\/weekly-design-links-03-24-26\/","title":{"rendered":"Weekly Design Links \u2013 03\/24\/26"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It’s been a busy few weeks. I’m getting through it. That’s what we do, right? Plug away, iterate, fail, try again, get closer, go way off course, realign, discover something, break it, start over, get to a solution that you can live with, start again, find a nugget that you love, iterate some more, and suddenly you’ve found the solution. Hopefully, you are all closer to the end of the sequence than to the beginning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Web Design\/UX\/UI<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Design Systems Report 2026<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year, we heard from 147 design system practitioners across organizations of all sizes\u2014from scrappy startups to global enterprises. As always, our goal is to provide an honest snapshot of where design systems stand: the wins, the struggles, and the emerging opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Onboarding is a transaction<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

…onboarding is one of the few moments where you have a user\u2019s complete attention and their clear intent. They just decided they want what you\u2019re building. They\u2019re motivated. They\u2019re present. That is not a moment to rush through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Illustration\/Branding<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Artists shares how he created Penguin Random House’s Playful Penguins campaign<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alan the penguin gets an ensemble cast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Care Wireless Brand Identity Gives Connectivity a Human Face<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Classmate Studio gives a government program a friendly mascot emblem, warm blue palette, and a distinctly human presence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Incredible Cyberpunk And Synthwave Digital Art Exploring Quiet Isolation And Melancholy<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steve Sch\u00fctz is a digital artist who creates nostalgic, atmospheric, and highly detailed dreamscapes by merging \u201ccreative intuition with AI tech.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Architecture<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Resting Pavilion in Osaka Expo \/ MIDW<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The entire site is excavated into a sequence of alternating hollows and mounds, simultaneously enabling soil removal while generating a rhythmic topography. A roof is then cast using this terrain as formwork, lifted, rotated 90 degrees on plan, and placed back onto the ground. In doing so, a continuous, cave-like void is created between the earth’s undulating surface and the raised roof.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Typography<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Yuni Grotesque: A Compressed Sans-Serif from TypeMates<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A compressed 12-style sans-serif from TypeMates built for bold branding, big headlines, and expressive typesetting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photography<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Spectacular Mountain & Nature Photos From The 2026 Memorial Maria Luisa Awards<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in its 36th edition, this prestigious global competition continues to celebrate the raw magnificence of mountains, nature, and adventure through extraordinary photography.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Graphic Design\/Branding<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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This rebrand combines maps and fingerprints into something special<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Environmental charity gets a new look.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Revolte AI Branding: The Future of Automated Intelligence<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Studio builds a cold, precise identity for automated intelligence: geometric marks, dark palettes, and sharp typographic contrast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Work<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Design\u2019s influence is expanding, and here\u2019s why that feels hard<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As AI accelerates creation and raises expectations, designers are navigating a field that\u2019s bigger, faster, and more demanding than ever<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s been a busy few weeks. I’m getting through it. That’s what we do, right? Plug away, iterate, fail, try again, get closer, go way off course, realign, discover something, break it, start over, get to a solution that you can live with, start again, find a nugget that you love, iterate some more, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8221,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[16,9,11,88,13,15,10,18,21,20,19,30],"class_list":["post-8209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-creative-links","tag-architecture","tag-art","tag-branding","tag-design-systems","tag-graphic-design","tag-illustration","tag-photography","tag-typography","tag-ui","tag-ux","tag-web-design","tag-work"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/johnfreeborn.com\/words\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Care-Wireless.webp?fit=1600%2C894&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnfreeborn.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnfreeborn.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnfreeborn.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnfreeborn.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnfreeborn.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8209"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/johnfreeborn.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8243,"href":"https:\/\/johnfreeborn.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8209\/revisions\/8243"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnfreeborn.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnfreeborn.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnfreeborn.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnfreeborn.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}