#124 - Maximalist assemblage

Hey everyone,

Welcome to issue #124, your weekly roundup of what’s happening in design, code and typography.

News (from me) #

I just published my intentions for 2020. They’re fairly rough but should give you an idea of how I wish to spend my time and energy over the course of this year.

Thought provoking #

“It is easy to feel like a minimalist when you can order food, summon a car or rent a room using a single brick of steel and silicon. But in reality, it is the opposite. We are taking advantage of a maximalist assemblage. Just because something looks simple does not mean it is; the aesthetics of simplicity cloak artifice, or even unsustainable excess.”

The empty promises of Marie Kondo and the craze for minimalism. Does minimalism really make us any happier? From Kyle Chayka via Robin Rendle.

The Split Personality Of Brutalist Web Development. A brief history of Brutalism and the different ways it manifests on the web.

Design and Code #

Johna Mandel breaks down CSS Grid for Designers with a well illustrated article.

All Design Conferences. A simple list of all design and front-end conferences for the year. By Pablo Stanley, Hyrum Palmero, Alejandro Dorantes and Chloé Gray.

Min and Max Width/Height in CSS. Ahmad Shadeed explains the maximum and minimum CSS properties, providing possible use cases and tips.

What is the future of product design in the 2020s? Design leaders from Facebook, Intercom, Dropbox, Animoodles, and more share predictions about the coming sea change that is product design.

Typography #

Courier Prime, just launched on Google fonts, is a new take on IBM’s Courier which was designed in 1956 by Howard Kettler.

A short history of body copy sizes on the Web. A great read from Florens Verschelde.

In the latest episode of Designing in the Browser, Una Kravets talks about Typography on the web and variable fonts.

Redesign: Perfecta Trifecta. Frank Chimero on typography atmosphere and setting criteria for typeface selection.

Something to watch #

Lets learn Eleventy. On “Learn With Jason”, Zach Leatherman shows us how Eleventy makes building static sites fast and fun.


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