028: Marcel Duchamp, grocery lists, and color theory
Plus a guide for archiving your work.
Graphic design, visual delights, and things worth noticing, delivered twice a month.
Happy summer!!! There are some online delights waiting for you below. Enjoy.
🛠️ Rethinking color theory by Ruxandra Duru from Google Design
Color theory is a fascinating and complex topic I never tire of reading about. This piece provides a brief and clear lesson on color theory paired with a three-step approach to creating color combinations.
I have read this multiple times and find myself learning something new every time.
To us, colors change depending on context. There is no such thing as a perfectly neutral backdrop; everything affects everything else.
🗄️ Fictional brands archive by Lorenzo Bernini and Gianluca Ventani
An archive of fictional brands from movies and TV with comprehensive overviews of each brand and their work in context. Really good stuff.
🛠️ How to archive your work digitally by Cedar Pasori
An incredibly comprehensive guide for archiving your work from beginning to end. It includes tools for archiving, file naming conventions tips, process, and organization advice. It’s some of the most practical advice every designer, artist, writer should read.
“The process of archiving your work can also provide productive hindsight, and even help you break out of a creative rut. Re-familiarizing yourself with your past work—some of which you may have forgotten about—can be a powerful process. Taking a moment to review and collect what you’ve done in the past can remind you of your creative and professional evolution, and can even give you clues for what kinds of work to pursue next.”
🗄️ Brand guidelines dot net by Lee Black
A carefully curated selection of brand guidelines. A great index of brands to keep in your toolbox for reference.
📖 Duchamp’s Last Day by Donald Shambroom
The book walks you through the minutiae of Marcel Duchamp’s lovely day before he quietly died in his home. It tenderly and breezily looks at the artist’s life and death in a short and poignant way. And it’s the perfect size to bring in a tiny purse.
This isn’t a design book per se, but I really liked it and hadn’t read anything like this before so I just had to share.
“Judging by its sober design, its small scale, and its large mortality mission, you might not guess that Duchamp’s Last Day is as droll and as pleasurable as it is. Crack it open and the attentive reader is pulled between artistic intimacy and historic scale by a bravo performance capturing the ephemerality of life and the physicality of art.” via Hyperallergic
Some more things worth noticing:
🗄️ Grocery lists dot org by Bill Keaggy
A collection of 4,000 grocery lists, that’s it. It’s one of those blogs-turned-books of a bygone era made by a devoted hobbyist that I love so much.
🗞️ Low-risk flyer by
An essay about confronting your inner authoritarian. This essay was so good and has left me thinking about it ever since. My friend Maggie and I talked about it at length over text and then more during an eight hour hang-out.
“After many years of obsessive self-censorship, there’s a significant part of me that loathes people who don’t share my extreme sensitivity to the space around me; people who stick out, people who are slow to react, people who mess up. As is often the case with authoritarian impulses, there’s a petulant “how come?” at the root. How come you get to step out of line? How come I have to be on my best behavior while you get to make a fuss? Do you think you’re exempt? Think you’re special? Why can’t you just fucking conform?”
🗞️ The restored CM G1 House in LA by Willett and Ome Dezin
Losing my mind over the beauty of this insane 1960s home in Laurel Canyon. It’s full of custom furniture builds like the hourglass table and chairs set, the slatted doors, and the study desk (left to right). It made me want to buy a house and cover it in wood paneling.
🎧 Hip Replacement Ep. 11 with Anu Lingala () by Ben Dietz and
I really enjoyed their cultural commentary on today’s media landscape, the state of Substack (cool? not cool? dumb question!), Gen X, and religion. I love hearing smart people talk.
Anu’s newsletter touches on trends and brand strategy and it’s one of my favorite things to receive in my inbox. Read her piece on regressive nostalgia.
Ok bye!!!!!
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Honestly this may be your best dispatch yet! So many goodies!