Design Reviewed #2
As sunshine, sweat and unbearably hot buses mark the arrival of summer at Disegno’s HQ, we are turning our fans on full-blast, settling down on flat-packed furniture with cooling cans of something fizzy, and dipping into the new edition of Design Reviewed.
The summer 2023 edition of Design Reviewed #2 hits the news stands on June 29 (with its hot-publication-summer vibes at the ready), and it is already available to pre-order through our online shop.
Travelling from the Amazon rainforest to Tokyo’s public toilets, from a Munich-based manufactory to Chicago’s streets and suburbs, and from 1980s USA to contemporary London’s grassroots football pitches, the issue contains 10 essays in which writers get hands-on with design and its various manifestations in the world.
The texts offer personal reflections on design and the contexts in which it operates but are not intended as qualitative assessments of their subjects. We hope they make you chuckle, make you ponder, and perhaps even tug at your sun-warmed heartstrings.
Our second issue includes essays by Nathan Ma, Piti Koshimura, Michael David Mitchell, Simón Ballen Botero, Adrienne Brown, Natalie Kane, Ann Morgan as well as Disegno’s India Block, Lara Chapman and Oli Stratford. It has been designed by Jonas Hirschmann, with creative direction from Studio AKFB.
Design Reviewed #2 contains:
1. Object: Waste Not, Want Not
Nathan Ma Meets with Hella Jongerius amidst the faded lustre of porcelain.
2. System: In Praise of Public Toilets
Piti Koshimura tours the Tokyo Toilets, taking stock of out relationship with accessible on-street restrooms.
3. Media: Death is in the Air
Michael David Mitchell straps in for Hollywood’s doomed love affair with 1980s design and consumerism.
4. Policy: Pitch Dreams
Lara Chapman talks tactics with Assemble’s plan to open up football to more women and non-binary players.
5. Interface: Building Instructions
India Block reads the manual for flatpack furniture that’s been designed to be perpetually repaired.
6. Ecology: Beyond the Pursuit of El Dorado
Simón Ballen Botero returns to Medellín in search of a newly designed relationship with Colombia’s ecosystems.
7. Space: No Fidget Spinners
Adrienne Brown steps outside to join a workshop with Chicago’s Mobile Makers.
8. Phenomena: Sugar/No-Sugar
Oli Stratford gets pepped up on Pepsi as part of a tidal wave of freshly rebranded fizzy drinks.
9. Technology: Seeing Through the Hype
Natalie Kane peers at technology’s relationship with AR through a pair of XReal Air spectacles.
10. Body: Time for a Change
Ann Morgan complicates her parental duties with Sumo, Luisa Kahlfeldt’s design for a reusable nappy.
Design Reviewed #2 is released on 28 June 2022. Is it available to order from our online shop now.