Design— Feature
The Typeface That Runs the Ferry System
A harbor authority commissioned a typeface for its signs in 1974 and never replaced it. Fifty-two years later it is the most-read piece of design almost nobody has heard of.
Design Desk
Design
Objects, interfaces, typefaces, and public space. Every designed thing is an argument about how people should behave, and this section reads those arguments closely.
More from Design
The rest of the section
Design— Photo Essay
Twelve Objects from the Repair Counter
A repair shop’s counter holds a precise record of how things are built now. Twelve objects, photographed as they arrived.
Design— Dispatch
Benches Designed to Be Slept On
One district quietly reversed a decade of hostile street furniture and kept careful notes. The results are less tidy, and more useful, than either side of the argument expected.
The desk
Who files for Design
Juno Halvorsen
Writes about the infrastructure that decides things on everyone’s behalf.
Culture Editor
Marguerite Okonkwo
Edits the culture section and writes the monthly essay.
Design Editor
Santiago Vela
Reads objects, interfaces, and public space as arguments.
Contributing Writer
Kwame Asante-Reid
Writes long interviews with people who build things.
The Dispatch
Follow Design without checking back.
Not a digest. One piece from the archive or the week ahead, with a note from the editor on why it was worth the reporting time.