{"id":8557,"date":"2026-06-09T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/johnfreeborn.com\/words\/?p=8557"},"modified":"2026-06-08T23:13:31","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T06:13:31","slug":"weekly-design-links-06-09-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnfreeborn.com\/words\/weekly-design-links-06-09-26\/","title":{"rendered":"Weekly Design Links \u2013 06\/09\/26"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Progress is all we can ask for. I’ve been making very small steps in my automation mission. This past week, I created automated workflows using Airtable to push my saved links into other Airtables (is the plural of an airtable, airtables?). This seems like a small thing\u2013and yes, it’s small. But, in the process, I’m adding data into the new table. The dream, which is still a ways off, is creating one list and then using automation to push it into WordPress here in one click. Baby steps\u2013but the steps are happening. Someday soon, I won’t have to create this three times. Maybe I could bring the email version back. Do people want another email in 2026?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Web Design\/UX\/UI<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Introducing the 2026 Apple Design Award winners<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every year, the Apple Design Awards recognize innovation, ingenuity, and technical achievement in app and game design. But they\u2019ve also become something more: A moment to step back and celebrate the work of Apple developers across the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why I don’t use icon fonts in Figma<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My argument is that in Figma, it is better for icons to be stored as SVG paths, within individual main component frames, rather than rendering icons in text layers using an icon font.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Industrial Design<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Mechanical Pencil<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

An illustrated celebration of the engineering around us<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Art\/Illustration<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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The Painter Turning Scottish Myth And Woodland Mystery Into Contemporary Illustration<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marc C. Green is a painter and digital illustrator who makes haunted landscapes, folklore scenes, and creature-filled mythic imagery. His work feels rooted in nature, old stories, and eerie atmosphere, with a clear rejection of AI-generated imagery in favor of hand-made illustration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Habib Hajallie\u2019s Meticulous Ballpoint Pen Drawings Examine the Depths of Emotion<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In ballpoint pen on found fragments of philosophical and historical texts, Habib Hajallie delves into the emotional realm of memory, connection, and loss. The Kent-based artist often celebrates Black cultural figures and beloved family members, along with examining his own personal experiences as a British man of Sierra Leonean and Lebanese heritage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Typography<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Make the Letter Bigger<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Initials served as a kind of textual wayfinding, guiding readers through texts and aiding them in locating passages, long before page numbers were commonplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Architecture<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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In China, a Pair of Mountainside Caf\u00e9s to End All Caf\u00e9s<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hangzhou-based architecture firm Slow Coral Design received an unusual request: Could you design two caf\u00e9s, to be built into the side of a volcanic mountain range?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Work<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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After Automation<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

AI progress creates more work for humans, not less<\/p>\n\n\n\n

950 design studios, read as a slow list.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A working index of studios whose practice the editor finds worth returning to. Entries are collected slowly, without ranking, and each is kept short on purpose \u2014 a pointer, not a review. Navigate by discipline, geography, or simply read it as a list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tools\/AI<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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The Four Design Jobs AI Created (So Far)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“AI design” is one label but has forked into four different types of work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ideogram 4.0<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Built for design: open weights, multilingual text, precise layout control, editable elements, and realistic 2K images.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Progress is all we can ask for. I’ve been making very small steps in my automation mission. This past week, I created automated workflows using Airtable to push my saved links into other Airtables (is the plural of an airtable, airtables?). This seems like a small thing\u2013and yes, it’s small. But, in the process, I’m […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8587,"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_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[132,16,9,15,14,49,18,21,20,19,30],"class_list":["post-8557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-creative-links","tag-ai","tag-architecture","tag-art","tag-illustration","tag-industrial-design","tag-tools","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\/06\/mountain-coffee.webp?fit=880%2C587&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnfreeborn.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8557","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=8557"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/johnfreeborn.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8592,"href":"https:\/\/johnfreeborn.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8557\/revisions\/8592"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnfreeborn.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnfreeborn.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnfreeborn.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnfreeborn.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}