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Any serious guitar store offers hundreds of brightly hued stomp boxes (aka effects pedals), lined up in rows as tempting as a candy display. Unlike guitars, which are visible to everyone at a performance, only the musicians see the stomp boxes—they're little private galleries of color, typography, and illustration. But there's nothing precious about them. Stomp boxes get used hard: Over time, they're beat up and worn down, their history of rehearsals and shows permanently embedded in their finishes.

A variable font is a single file that acts like multiple fonts. Variable fonts can improve page-load times, but their appeal goes way beyond that: Site visitors get an improved reading experience, and designers get greater creative freedom. While it's still early days, some software applications—including the latest Illustrator and Photoshop—and many web browsers do support the technology, and more will follow. It's a good time to understand how variable fonts work and how to use them in your web designs.

Pentagram partner Natasha Jen thinks of the design business as a kind of performing art. “Wherever you are in an organization, that defines the stage on which you are playing,” she says. “But it is up to you what you choose to play, how you prepare, how you engage the audience. I think of Pentagram as a really large stage on which I am lucky enough to perform.”

For more than four years, Adobe has been inviting the creative community to participate in the Adobe Remix program—by “remixing” and putting their own spin on our iconic logo. This recent Remix was the work of Mumbai-based industrial designer Siddhant Jaokar, who says his creation was inspired in part by classic Indian architecture and architectural motifs. He explains, “Indian architecture has evolved through many centuries, and India has many different architectural styles, from the rock-cut architecture to Art Deco…. Similarly, my style as an artist is always evolving.”

The W3C has a comprehensive list of requirements that can be completed to achieve web accessibility, be that at AA or the stricter AAA level. However these are not enforced and, as a result, often overlooked. They're also not exactly up to date, as the last full version of the WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) was released nearly a decade ago. 

But don't worry, there are many simple ways to make your sites more accessible, and ensure that as many people as possible can enjoy your content. Here are seven tools that will help you on your way to a website layout and site that works for all...

Food was the theme of the latest edition of thread, a series of creative events in Bristol curated by Fiasco Design. Over the course of the evening, in between trips to the pizza van and making tortillas in mini kitchens, there were three talks about food, design, and how they can work together. 

School connections can be integral to professional success. Take British architect Nick Leith-Smith. After completing studies at Glasgow’s Mackintosh School of Architecture and a stint at the Office for Metropolitan Architecture, he went on to earn his graduate degree at London’s Architectural Association.

There, his fellow classmate Kristina Blahnik Hulsebus introduced him to her uncle, Manolo Blahnik—a household name even before Carrie Bradshaw’s obsession with his stilettos on Sex and the City. And the rest, as they say, is history.

This spring marks many firsts for Henzel Studio. The Swedish rug manufacturer headed up by Calle Henzeland Joakim Andreasson is known for its collaborations with artists and fashion designers, Mickalene Thomas and Helmut Lang among them. Now, in conjunction with Art Basel Hong Kong, Henzel has rolled out pieces by two new artist collaborators, exhibiting them in Asia for the first time at the city’s flagship of Joyce, considered a vanguard of fashion retail. Through May, the store exhibition features three new carpets by Norwegian painter Bjarne Melgaard and one by Swiss sculptor Olaf Breuning. They’re interspersed with pillows in similar patterns as well as existing rug editions by the likes of Richard Prince.