Design Observer
Design Observer, Ellen McGirt, Rachel PaeseWelcome to Design Observer, a home for curious minds shaping the world. Find your people and new ideas.
| Platform |  | Pricing | Freemium | Publishes | Twice weekly |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Issues | 143 | Founded | 6 years ago | Last Issue | 9 days ago |
| Active | |||||
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designobserver.substack.comLatest Issues
The Met’s audience engagement team is aiming for meaning
Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
What makes you feel like you belong, particularly in a space that may feel intimidating or unfamiliar?
I turned to an expert for answers.
In 2025, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City...
America’s 250th anniversary
It was hotter than July on the Fourth in New Orleans this year, and still, it was a better vibe for America’s 250th celebration than was evidently found elsewhere.
I was in New Orleans to debut our latest podcast, Draw the Line, at a speci...
Your summer reading list
Credit: Nick Fewings via Unsplash
During a recent reporting trip touring Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley,” I listened to Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Talents, published in 1999. It’s the second installment in a prescient trilogy, set in an Am...
"If anybody knew trans people, of course they'd love them"
I was barely nineteen years old when I got my first true glimpse of gay culture.
Telling no one, I had taken a train from college in Providence, RI, to NYC — of course, there was a boy to meet — and we found ourselves walking up and down C...
Observing David Hockney
David Hockney exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, January 2012. Credit: Kleon3 via Wikimedia Commons.
“I’m 82, I’m going to die. We die because we are born.”
It was April 2020 and British artist David Hockney was writing t...
Key Facts
Audience Metrics
Subscribers, engagement, traffic and sponsorship for Design Observer.
| Subscribers | Engagement | 73 | Monthly Web Visits | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Accepts Sponsors | Estimated Cost per Ad | ||||
Chart Rankings
How this newsletter ranks in the official Substack charts.
| #230 |
Authors
The writers behind this newsletter.
Look closer with us, it's all designed.
Editor-in-Chief, Design Observer. I write. I podcast. I draw water drops. I wander.
In its various forms, what I love most is giving curious people better access to perspective-changing stories. Now Deputy Editor for Design Observer, I bring readers closer to the people and ideas that are designing a better world.
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