Week 16 (2023)

Design

New Social Media Platform for Designers

A new ambitious project was recently launched, and nearly immediately shut down.

Explore was a subscription-based social media platform targeted at designers. It had the goal of subverting targeted advertising and the pressures of likes and impressions that haunt many creatives.

The goal was to create community (evident by its domain, explore.family) and focus on the work rather. Paying subscribers of Explore would also have access to features that would allow them to build their portfolios on the platform with a custom domain.

However, upon visiting the homepage you will be greeted by the announcement of their closure.

Personally, it is a shame, but at the same time scary. This highlights not only the competitiveness of trying to enter the social media platform landscape but also the tight grip that capitalism has on the attention economy.

I hope to see the Explore team return, or someone else attempt this model perhaps with a different approach.

You can visit Explore until April 19 2023.

Fabric Made from Bacteria

Using different sources of sugar such as waste feedstocks, the biotechnology company Modern Synthesis, is able to ferment and naturally produce nanocellulose.

The bacteria is laid above a threaded framework that acts as a scaffold upon which the bacteria develops its nanocellulose structure resulting in a material similar to Nylon that is stronger than steel but drapes like leather.

Production of the fabric can be adjusted resulting in very different final products, much like in the use of mushrooms as plastic replacements. However, the big test will be in the cost of production and ease of use by garment manufacturers. Without these variables being competitively similar to the current use of cotton this may take some time to see significant adoption that will impact the carbon emissions of the fashion industry.

You can read further on Dezeen.

Tracy Ma, Creative Director at Homer

In this video by Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Tracy Ma goes over her work as a graphic designer at Bloomberg Businessweek and The New York Times, talking about the relationship between design and information and some of the disconnects between the two which drain creativity. I’ve been a big fan of her work for a long time and it’s incredibly insightful to listen to her thinking and journey to her current position at Homer, Frank Ocean’s jewellery brand.