How did a municipal grocery store become the design world’s hottest RFP? My newest @its-nice-that.bsky.social column is about Zohran Mamdani’s NYC Groceries, prestige under populism, and what civic branding can learn from meat market signage 🛒 www.itsnicethat.com/articles/eli...

Elizabeth Goodspeed on the branding challenge behind Mayor Zohran’s new municipal grocery stores

Everyone wants to know who will win New York City’s grocery store RFP – the more interesting question is what public identities should actually do.

itsnicethat.com

Spent the weekend scanning the vintage wax paper bread wrappers I've been collecting for an upcoming issue of Casual Archivist 🍞

A new Casual Archivist issue about lesser-than-ephemera and the visual detritus of everyday life (as evidenced though bootleg Bollywood VHS tapes)—read it here casualarchivist.substack.com/p/spine-ting... 📼

Spine-Tingling

I’ve always had a soft spot for design made by non-designers. When I tell people this, they usually think I’m talking about punk flyers, or the kind of sweetly naive drawings of fruit that one might f...

casualarchivist.substack.com

Another excellent edition from @goodspeed.bsky.social ! #designsky casualarchivist.substack.com/p/spine-ting...

I wrote and designed the front of Framework 105, Parsons CD’s annual publication! My intro combines student interviews, archival research, and four new essays to explore how students past and present think about art school, creative work, AI, and life after graduation → draw-down.com/products/fra...

This week, I guest edited The Mortar, a new-ish online publication from the folks behind Stack Magazines! As resident casual archivist, I decided to focus on some of my favorite stories from now shuttered magazines. You can read my commentary + the stories here → mortarmagazine.com/authors/eliz...

Elizabeth Goodspeed | The Mortar

Great stories from the world’s independent publishers

mortarmagazine.com

“What aesthetic is this?” My newest It's Nice That column is about visual trends, the rise of taxonomic warfare, and what gets flattened when culture becomes searchable infrastructure 🏷️ www.itsnicethat.com/articles/eli...

“What aesthetic is this?” Elizabeth Goodspeed on the push to categorise visual culture

Online, images are increasingly treated less as singular works than as pieces of a broader aesthetic puzzle – each with a distinct label. But what gets lost when creativity is compressed into searchab...

itsnicethat.com

New #casualarchivist issue about first-day-of-issue envelopes, stamps as branding, and the power of miniatures ✉️ check your inbox or read it here → casualarchivist.substack.com/p/going-postal

Going Postal

Despite enjoying the look of stamps, I’ve avoided becoming a philatelist for the same reason I’ve avoided getting too into record collecting: I really do not need a reason to be buying more stuff, esp...

casualarchivist.substack.com

“Writing is to graphic design what clay is to pottery.” @goodspeed.bsky.social makes a compelling case for why designers should write: www.itsnicethat.com/articles/eli...

Elizabeth Goodspeed on why design writing needs designers writing

Without designers writing about their own work, design is easy to misunderstand. Writing helps designers work through what they think – and makes that thinking visible to others.

itsnicethat.com

A great read about design writing from @goodspeed.bsky.social over on @its-nice-that.bsky.social going to aim to carve out some time to do some regular writing after reading this www.itsnicethat.com/articles/eli...

Elizabeth Goodspeed on why design writing needs designers writing

Without designers writing about their own work, design is easy to misunderstand. Writing helps designers work through what they think – and makes that thinking visible to others.

itsnicethat.com

Daaaang, another killer edition of Casual Archivist from @goodspeed.bsky.social casualarchivist.substack.com/p/poetic-jus... #designsky

Poetic Justice by @goodspeed.bsky.social Ottoman-era data visualizations from Cerîde-i Adliyye, “The Justice Gazette,” + JulesVernacular, a photographic collection of handpainted French signs collected by @jackusine.bsky.social @jackusine@typo.social casualarchivist.substack.com/p/poetic-jus...

💻 “Faking ‘realness’ on a computer doesn’t get us anywhere new.” – @goodspeed.bsky.social on imperfection as design strategy #analogue #design #AI www.itsnicethat.com/articles/eli...

New Casual Archivist about legal charts that look like blades of grass—from Cerîde-i Adliyye, a Ministry of Justice publication printed in Turkey in the mid-1920s 📊 casualarchivist.substack.com/p/poetic-jus...

Poetic Justice

Today’s collection is a set of Ottoman-era data visualizations from Cerîde-i Adliyye (The Journal of Justice), a Ministry of Justice publication printed in Turkey in the mid-1920s.

casualarchivist.substack.com

Elizabeth Goodspeed on how many designers it takes to make a studio > www.itsnicethat.com/articles/eli...

Gave a talk at Pentagram and it felt like the warmest family reunion!!!

Another banger from @goodspeed.bsky.social

“Faking ‘realness’ on a computer doesn’t get us anywhere new.” – Elizabeth Goodspeed on imperfection as design strategy

As AI and digital tools make polish effortless, analogue imperfection has taken on new cultural weight. But what does “analogue” actually mean when most things are made, shared, and consumed digitally...

itsnicethat.com

“If the goal is to prove something wasn’t made by AI, faking ‘realness’ on a computer doesn’t really get us anywhere new. […] What’s being described as an ‘analogue revival’ is less a material shift than a semiotic one.”👇

Elizabeth Goodspeed@goodspeed.bsky.social · 6mo ago

My first @its-nice-that.bsky.social column of the year is about faking imperfection (fauxbi-sabi) and what it means to have a resurgence of analog aesthetics without analog tools 📷 www.itsnicethat.com/articles/eli...

My first @its-nice-that.bsky.social column of the year is about faking imperfection (fauxbi-sabi) and what it means to have a resurgence of analog aesthetics without analog tools 📷 www.itsnicethat.com/articles/eli...

Elizabeth Goodspeed on the limits of imperfection as a design strategy

As AI and digital tools make polish effortless, analogue imperfection has taken on new cultural weight. But what does “analogue” actually mean when most things are made, shared, and consumed digitally...

itsnicethat.com

Thank you to Works But Makes Noises for having me on their podcast! Topics discussed include: what design school doesn’t teach, my scanner, archives versus mood boards, folk packaging, trend reports vs. in–out lists, and writing as a way of thinking → podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s...

Special Guest Elizabeth Goodspeed on Design Education, Experimental Branding, Weird References, and Archiving Everything

Podcast Episode · Works But Makes Noises · 01/26/2026 · 1h 5m

podcasts.apple.com

We watched John Carpenter's "They Live" recently and I'm gobsmacked that no one has recommended it to me before. Twilight Zone if it included a 10 minute wrestling scene and more people getting drop-kicked out of windows. And, of course, SO much Futura. Perfect movie, 10/10.

One small step for advertising; new Casual Archivist issue about proto-virality and 1960s moonvertising 🌝 casualarchivist.substack.com/p/apollo-11

One Small Step for Advertising

Today’s collection is a series of moon-themed ads from 1969-ish. I found these via my local library book sale, which is put on twice a year by a group of chatty octogenarians (plus one sprightly fifty...

casualarchivist.substack.com

🌙🚀 One Small Step for Advertising by Elizabeth Goodspeed @goodspeed.bsky.social Moon-themed ads from the 60s. + The E. F. Caldwell & Co. Collection at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum Library #ads #vintage #Ephemera casualarchivist.substack.com/p/apollo-11?...

Great look at the distinct design of one of the goofiest board games of the year.

Magical Athlete — Elizabeth Goodspeed

elizabethgoodspeed.com

Responding to @goodspeed.bsky.social timely op-ed in The Architect's Newspaper about how rebranding some websites is a problem in search of a solution www.archpaper.com/2025/12/nati...

I wrote a piece for @archpaper.com about 18F, the National Design Studio, and the insidiousness of “rebranding” government services instead of improving them. Thanks to my editors for letting me use the phrase “tread on me daddy” in an architecture publication 🫡 www.archpaper.com/2025/12/nati...

I like this a lot. @blackfreelance.bsky.social this is about designers but might be of interest to you.

Elizabeth Goodspeed@goodspeed.bsky.social · 8mo ago

How many designers does it take to be a studio? I wrote about how "studio" has shifted from structural descriptor to signal; shorthand for how a practice wants to be read. But as "studio" stops signaling size + authority, do mythologies around growth collapse too? www.itsnicethat.com/articles/eli...

🥭 Elizabeth @goodspeed.bsky.social on how many #designers it takes to make a #studio #itsnicethat The question of what counts as a “studio” – and what you call one – reveals the industry’s ongoing tension around identity, ambition and scale. #design www.itsnicethat.com/articles/eli...

⚫ Signs of Life by @goodspeed.bsky.social at #SunsetOverSunset Signs are actors. Some are wallflowers, barely speaking above a whisper, while others shout and flirt, beckoning for attention. #sign #design www.sunsetoversunset.org/stories/signs

“the United States is a lot more generous to corporations than it is to people” I’ve written about why I’m an S-corp as a freelancer, but this is the distillation of it all We find safety and security in numbers…and as corporations

Elizabeth Goodspeed@goodspeed.bsky.social · 8mo ago

How many designers does it take to be a studio? I wrote about how "studio" has shifted from structural descriptor to signal; shorthand for how a practice wants to be read. But as "studio" stops signaling size + authority, do mythologies around growth collapse too? www.itsnicethat.com/articles/eli...