Banknotes, Big Books, and my Cat
A reimagined euro, and a pop-up the size of a room
Happy August š
A shameless plug for a personal project, alongside the usual things that have caught my eye in design, product, and tech this month š
Iām making an app! š
Iāve been designing apps and websites for over a decade, but this is the first one that's mine from start to finish. Designed on paper, then in Figma, then built out properly for iPhone.
Itās for the small stuff youāve been meaning to do for weeks and havenāt. Itās not a to-do list, a pomodoro timer, or another AI-slop productivity app.
No dodgy addiction mechanics, gaslighting, blame, or AI. Iāve been running it on my own phone for weeks, and it works. Thatās all Iāll say for now.
If youād like, I can add your name/handle to the app credits as a thank-you for being the first people to try it out :)
A Very Expensive Rebrand š¶
The European Central Bank is giving the euro its first full redesign since 2002. Over 1,200 designers entered, and itās been whittled down to 10 final designs. My personal favourite is Austrian design studio PunktFormStrichās bird-heavy designs. Spot the visualised blocks that represent the rhythm and pitch of the bird calls. Noice.
And the runner-up for me is Berlin-based studio Neue Gestaltung, with a design that I think is just a touch too distinctive; itās hard to tell if itāll look dated a few decades from now. But it fits the brief for āmodern, European, and a little bit different.ā
But there are lots more to look at. View all the designs, and vote for your favourite here
Pop-up Lights and Shadows š
Los Angelesā Central Library turned 100 and celebrated with the largest pop-up book ever made. āLuceros y Penumbrasā opens to nearly 10 metres wide, still built from the same fabric, paper, and glue found in non-room-filling books that donāt require a big stick to operate.
Fantastic Finials āļø
Mark van Leeuwen is an Italian-Dutch lettering artist in Berlin. While most of his work appears on The Gram, I enjoyed a quick scroll through his website. And now I have Solar Power stuck in my head.
Renaissance Portraits on Kitchen Roll š§»
Helena Minginowicz airbrushes Renaissance-style Botticelli-ish portraits onto machine-embossed paper towels, then seals each one between thick slabs of acrylic. An enjoyable contrast between revered high society art and the thing that I clean my cat sick up with.
Thanks for reading š¤
Thatās it for August. Hope you found something interesting, and Iāll give more details next month about my mystery app that Iām designing, if youād rather follow the journey than get early access :)
Best wishes,
Tom š¢
