Design Observer

{{Short description|Architecture and design website}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}

{{Infobox website

| name = Design Observer

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| url = {{URL|http://designobserver.com}}

| commercial = Yes

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| language = English

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| owner = Observer Omnimedia

| author = Rick Poynor, Michael Bierut, Jessica Helfand and William Drenttel

| editor = William Drenttel

| launch_date = {{Start date and age|2003|10|df=no}}

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Design Observer is a website devoted to a range of design topics including graphic design, social innovation, urbanism, popular culture, and criticism.{{cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/extras/indybest/house-garden/the-10-best-architecture-blogs-7912530.html|title=The 10 Best architecture blogs|last=Muston|first=Samuel|date=5 July 2012|work=The Independent|access-date=4 September 2012}} The content of the site includes essays, articles, reviews, blog posts, and peer reviewed scholarship. It is the host of the architecture and urban design publication Places (formerly a print academic journal) and the podcast Design Matters with Debbie Millman.{{cite web|url=http://www.cooperhewitt.org/press/2012/08/06/design-matters-wins-2011-people%E2%80%99s-design-award-0|title=Design Matters Wins the 2011 People's Design Award|date=21 October 2011|publisher=Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum|access-date=4 September 2012}}

Four prominent design writers founded the site in October 2003:{{cite web|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-135804791.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140611030833/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-135804791.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=11 June 2014|title=PRIVATE VIEW: Time we blogged-on.(web logs on web design)|last=Shaughnessy|first=Adrian|date=1 September 2005|publisher=Design Week |access-date=4 September 2012}} Rick Poynor was the founder and first editor of London-based Eye magazine, in addition to being author of many books; Michael Bierut{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2011/oct/20/typo-london-graphic-conference-livestream|title=TYPO London conference livestream|last=Evans|first=Lisa|date=20 October 2011|work=The Guardian|access-date=4 September 2012}} is a partner in the New York office of Pentagram and is a design critic at Yale School of Art; Jessica Helfand is also a critic at Yale and is author of numerous books; the late William Drenttel (1953 - 2013) was a designer, critic and partner with Jessica Helfand of Winterhouse Studios in Connecticut.{{cite web|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-142905220.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140611030831/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-142905220.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=11 June 2014|title=Blogs: Graphic Design|date=6 March 2006|publisher=Creative Review |access-date=4 September 2012}}

Frequent contributors over the years have included; Steven Heller, John Foster, Adrian Shaughnessy, Dmitri Siegel, Alice Twemlow, Tom Vanderbilt, Lorraine Wild, Rob Walker, Alexandra Lange, Mark Lamster, John Thackara, Véronique Vienne, Julie Lasky and more.{{Cite news|url=http://www.aiga.org/aiga-partners-with-design-observer|title=AIGA and Design Observer to join forces, setting a milestone in online design publishing|date=2016-10-07|work=AIGA|access-date=2017-07-05}}

In 2016, Design Observer and AIGA joined forces to work in collaboration as a larger online platform for design.