Design Reviewed #3

The latest issue of Disegno’s new sibling publication, Design Reviewed #3 is a warm, witty and incisive compendium of some of the best design writing going: a series of nine essays examining topics from government policies intended to promote repairable fashion, to AI technology designed to assess the quality of olive oil.

The winter 2023/24 edition of Design Reviewed launches on 30 November, and is already available to pre-order through our online shop. For anyone hoping to buy a copy as a Christmas gift, we’ve shared last order dates to ensure guaranteed delivery at the bottom of this article.

The issue covers a range of stories, including Lagos Space Programme’s garment-based research into queerness in a west-African context; a vision of bike-based spatial navigation advocated by Beeline; the rise of Stills, a new stock photograph website created by designers for designers; Tatiana Bilbao’s ruin-like aquarium in Mazatlán, Mexico; and much more.

‘To Speak Amongst Ourselves’ by Joshua Segun-Lean
‘To Speak Amongst Ourselves’ by Joshua Segun-Lean

‘Remnants of a Retreating Sea’ by Michael Snyder ‘The Modern Milkman’ by Jonna Dagliden Hunt ‘To Speak Amongst Ourselves’ by Joshua Segun-Lean ‘Stock Creep’ by Lara Chapman ‘The Attention of Passersby’ by Joe Lloyd
Rather than strict qualitative assessments, each text offers a personal reflection on design and the contexts in which it operates. Blending humour, critique and in-depth reporting, the texts take design out from the studio and situate it in the real world.

Design Reviewed #3 includes essays by Michael Snyder, Jonna Dagliden Hunt, Joshua Segun-Lean, Joe Lloyd, Felix Chabluk Smith and Lily Wakeley, as well as Disegno’s Evi Hall, Lara Chapman and Oli Stratford. It has been designed by Jonas Hirschmann, with creative direction from Studio AKFB.

‘Rising, Dancing, Twisting’ by Oli Stratford
‘Rising, Dancing, Twisting’ by Oli Stratford

‘Good Road, Bad Road’ by Evi Hall ‘Patching the Machine’ by Felix Chabluk Smith ‘The Corruptibility of Olive Oil’ by Lily Wakeley ‘Rising, Dancing, Twisting’ by Oli Stratford
Design Reviewed #3 contains:

1. Eccology: Remnants of a Retreating Sea

Michael Snyder assesses an aquatic institution’s acceptability for modern-day Mazatlán.

2. System: The Modern Milkman

Jonna Dagliden Hunt pours out domestic products with På(fyll), a container engineered to reduce plastic waste.

3. Body: To Speak Amongst Ourselves

Joshua Segun-Lean sifts the influences interwoven in Lagos Space Programme’s fashion collections.

4. Interface: Stock Creep

Lara Chapman scrolls through an alternative stock photography website that aims to court designers.

5. Media: The Attention of Passersby

Joe Lloyd corrals the miscellaneous thoughts behind Thomas Heatherwick’s Humanise crusade.

6. Space: Good Road, Bad Road

Evi Hall gets on her bike to forge a new relationship with London’s streets, with help from Beeline’s Velo 2.

7. Policy: Patching the Machine

Felix Chabluk Smith considers getting his trousers taken up.

8. Technology: The Corruptibility of Olive Oil

Lily Wakeley questions whether equipping AI to analyse olive oil leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

9. Object: Rising, Dancing, Twisting

Oli Stratford becomes lost in the relationship between lava lamps and respectability.