Welcome to Design x Culture!
Hi, I’m Judy, and this is Design x Culture, a newsletter about design and culture - design in culture, designing culture, design of culture, the culture of design, and other permutations of thinking about these two together.
Sometimes it’s as simple as figuring out the story behind a beautiful chair or interesting designer – I saw a Pierre Chapo chair at an antique furniture store today and want to learn more. Sometimes it’s about behavior and culture – like why something as banal as toothbrushes in Taiwanese supermarkets can have its own display aisle with samples to experience, what does it say about different cultures of design & capitalism?
The first piece is on the company name and placeholder name, ACME — why is ACME everywhere?
Other questions I’m thinking about: why are bag hooks everywhere in Taiwan? What’s the story behind the avatar designs in Signal, and why are they special? Why are quarantine hotels without windows allowed in Taiwan? (Relatedly, how on earth did the UC Santa Barbara “window-less” mega-dorm get approved?) Why is Brandless a thing (side-note: I HATE BRANDLESS)?
This is what you can expect in the newsletter for now.
Format. Every newsletter will discuss a design observation, which could be digital, physical, or behavioral.
Topics. Broadly culture & design every for now. Perhaps certain threads will emerge as we progress.
Cadence. You will receive 2-4 issues a month!
Community. As the newsletter grows, I hope to build a small community of thinking about design, invite friends to submit design observations or write articles, and interview designers.
If this sounds like fun to you, subscribe below! The newsletter to free & open to readers on the Internet.
You can also share this with folks who you think will appreciate a dose of design & culture writing.
You can also read this newsletter simply in your web browser, through an RSS reader, or using the Substack app.
Who am I to write this? On culture: I grew up a third culture kid and studied cultural anthropology in undergrad. On design: I’ve always loved design, obsessed about fonts, window shopped at furniture stores, and have freelanced as a graphic designer. On writing: you can see some of my personal expository and journalistic writing here.