Fraunces
fraunces.undercase.xyz
Designed by Phaedra Charles and Flavia Zimbardi of Undercase Type, Fraunces is a vibrant, modern "Old Style" soft-serif typeface that proudly prioritizes personality over clinical perfection. Taking artistic cues from the expressive, heavily stylized 20th-century typefaces like Windsor and Cooper Black, Fraunces beautifully revives a sense of tactile, hand-drawn warmth and playful nostalgia. As an advanced variable font, it introduces innovative custom axes like Softness—which controls the fluid, organic "inkiness" of the letterforms—and Wonk, which introduces charming, unconventional glyph variations like uniquely leaning stems and flagged ball terminals. Used as the main editorial typeface for a creative agency portfolio, Fraunces acts as a powerful statement piece; its heavy, high-contrast weights deliver an unapologetically bold, editorial confidence, proving that design can be both highly sophisticated and deeply human.
Interviewing Users: How to Uncover Compelling Insights (Steve Portigal)
rosenfeldmedia.com
Interviewing Users by Steve Portigal is the definitive masterclass in the art of the qualitative deep-dive, transforming the seemingly simple act of conversation into a powerful tool for strategic design. Portigal moves past the basic mechanics of asking questions to explore the subtle psychological nuances of empathy, active listening, and rapport-building. The book serves as an indispensable field guide for extracting rich, unvarnished human insights from everyday interactions, teaching designers how to bypass their own biases and uncover the latent needs that users often cannot articulate themselves. For any creative agency, it is a vital blueprint for turning raw conversations into actionable creative springboards.
Archive of archives
archiveofarchives.com
Archive of Archives is a fascinating conceptual and visual exploration that acts as a curated digital sanctuary, capturing the ephemeral nature of human curation and historical preservation. More than just a repository, it serves as a meta-narrative on how we document, categorize, and interact with cultural artifacts, collective memories, and design legacies across time. Visually, it embraces a striking juxtaposition of stark, brutalist layouts alongside rich, historical fragments—an aesthetic that mirrors the raw authenticity and editorial depth of a cutting-edge creative agency. By treating the act of archiving as an evolving art form in itself, the project challenges designers to rethink how we structure information, turning a seemingly utilitarian database into an immersive, deeply poetic visual journey that honors the past while inspiring contemporary digital storytelling.
Just enough research
muledesign.com
"You Need More Enough" by Erika Hall of Mule Design is a sharp, witty critique of organizational decision-making and a celebration of practical evidence-based design. Written to mark the release of the updated edition of Just Enough Research, the post targets a critical corporate dysfunction: the tendency of organizations to set immense resources on fire by making costly choices based entirely on baseless assumptions and executive whims. Hall argues that design research shouldn't mimic dry academia or serve as a bureaucratic shield; instead, true "enoughness" means cultivating a shared organizational capability to ask the right questions at the right time. By demystifying the research process and breaking down internal political barriers, the article reminds creative leaders that design moves only as fast as clarity allows—and that finding "enough" clarity is the ultimate competitive advantage.
The 9 Rules of Design Research
muledesign.com
great insights written by Erika Hall. Lately, I’ve noticed a lot more ambient enthusiasm for research among both early stage start-ups and established organizations. Businesses have embraced the idea that meaningful innovation requires understanding their customers as humans with complex lives.
Think Like a UX Researcher
uxresearchbook.com
Think Like a UX Researcher by David Travis and Philip Hodgson is a sharp, thought-provoking collection of essays that challenges designers to confront their assumptions and elevate the analytical rigor of their research. Written with a delightful blend of academic skepticism and real-world wit, the authors pull back the curtain on the cognitive biases and structural pitfalls that frequently distort usability data. It functions as a philosophical gymnasium for the creative mind, pushing teams to ask tougher questions, analyze data more critically, and approach user behavior with the meticulous curiosity of a scientist and the empathy of an artist.
Don't Make Me Think (Steve Krug)
dn790002.ca.archive.org
Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug remains the undisputed, evergreen bible of web usability, celebrated globally for its common-sense brilliance and breezy, humorous delivery. Krug’s central thesis is elegantly simple: a digital interface should be inherently self-explanatory, eliminating cognitive load so users can achieve their goals effortlessly. Through his legendary "Rocket Surgery" framework, he demystifies usability testing, demonstrating how observing just a handful of participants can instantly reveal a website’s most critical design flaws. It is an essential foundational text that reminds every creative agency that beautiful aesthetics must always serve absolute functional clarity.
The User Experience Team of One (2nd Edition)
rosenfeldmedia.com
The User Experience Team of One by Leah Buley is an empowering, highly pragmatic survival guide tailored specifically for solo practitioners and agile creative teams operating under tight constraints. Buley masterfully dismantles the myth that impactful user research requires massive budgets and endless timelines, offering instead a treasure trove of lean, high-velocity UX methods that deliver maximum value with minimal friction. Beyond the tactical exercises, the book places a heavy emphasis on internal diplomacy—equipping designers with the vocabulary and framework needed to champion a user-centric culture, align stakeholders, and demonstrate the undeniable business value of design to skeptical clients.
Universal Methods of Design
bol.com
Universal Methods of Design by Bella Martin and Bruce Hanington functions as an indispensable, encyclopedic "cookbook" for the creative mind, offering a curated repository of 100 rigorous research and design methodologies. From classic behavioral observation tactics like Fly-on-the-Wall to collaborative structuring exercises like Card Sorting, each method is brilliantly distilled into a concise, visually engaging two-page spread. This highly structured, accessible format makes it a powerful antidote to creative block, allowing designers and researchers to quickly diagnose complex problems, choose the perfect exploratory tool, and execute effective solutions. For a creative agency, it serves as the ultimate practical reference manual, democratizing advanced design methodologies and providing instant inspiration for mapping out comprehensive, innovative project strategies.
This is Service Design Doing
thisisservicedesigndoing.com
This is Service Design Doing by Marc Stickdorn, Markus Hormess, Adam Lawrence, and Jakob Schneider is a visually stunning, masterfully orchestrated guide that expands the boundaries of design from isolated touchpoints into holistic ecosystem experiences. The authors brilliantly demonstrate that an app, a website, or a poster never exists in a vacuum; rather, it is a single orchestrating element within a customer's broader, continuous journey. Despite its comprehensive depth, the book remains intensely practical, serving as an actionable toolkit loaded with real-world frameworks like Customer Journey Maps and Service Blueprints. For a creative agency, it is the ultimate field guide for aligning front-stage user experiences with back-stage business operations, enabling teams to co-create seamless, impactful end-to-end services that resonate across every physical and digital channel.
Riso Art: a creatives guide to mastering risography
copyrightbookshop.be
A practical guide to Risograph printing for anyone who wants to broaden their printing horizons and be inspired by the wide variety of possibilities offered by this relatively easy-to-use and fascinating technique.
Figma Design Research
figma.com
The Figma Resource Library for Design Research serves as a vital, collaborative bridge between raw user insights and active interface design, anchoring product strategy directly within the digital canvas. Moving far beyond abstract theory, this modern repository offers a highly practical, product-driven framework that shows teams exactly how to integrate user testing, empathy mapping, and stakeholder alignment into their daily design loops. By showcasing real-world case studies and providing instantly actionable FigJam templates, the platform deconstructs the research process into a transparent, team-wide sport rather than a siloed academic exercise. For a creative agency, this resource hub is indispensable for streamlining the handoff between research data and high-fidelity prototyping, empowering cross-functional teams to collaborate seamlessly and turn user feedback into beautiful, validated user experiences in real time.
The Design of Everyday Things
bol.com
The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman is the undisputed foundational text of user experience, establishing Norman as the definitive "godfather" of human-centered design. Through his famous critique of poorly designed everyday objects—such as doors that entice you to pull when you should actually push—Norman brilliantly shifts the blame of "user error" away from human psychology and places it squarely on flawed design logic. The book trains designers to see the world through the lens of cognitive psychology, introducing core behavioral concepts like affordances, signifiers, and feedback loops. It is an absolute must-read for any creative agency, providing the essential empathetic mindset required to decode how humans interact with their environment and to build digital interfaces that feel instantly intuitive, seamless, and friction-free.
What Adobe Knows About AI That Most Tech Companies Don’t
inc.com
An interview with Adobe’s SVP of Design about how the company is building AI features people want to use.
When Brand Fonts are Open Source
design.google
Discover why brands from IBM to Github open up their fonts to everyone, and how you can reap the rewards.
Learn Photoshop
adobe.com
Adobe Photoshop Learn & Support serves as the definitive digital academy and foundational playground for visual storytellers, bridging the gap between raw creative instinct and technical mastery. Rather than functioning as a dense, static software manual, this curated learning ecosystem offers an immersive, highly visual curriculum packed with step-by-step tutorials, industry case studies, and expert workflows. From mastering the precision of non-destructive layer editing and complex selections to leveraging cutting-edge generative AI tools, the platform systematically deconstructs advanced digital artistry into digestible, actionable milestones. For a creative agency, it represents the ultimate ongoing reference hub—an essential tool for sharpening a design team’s technical execution, optimizing production asset workflows, and pushing the boundaries of what is visually possible.
Learn Adobe Firefly
adobe.com
Adobe Firefly Learn & Support serves as the definitive masterclass for commercially safe, generative AI artistry, guiding creators through the new frontier of ethical, prompt-based design and prompt engineering. The platform offers a forward-thinking curriculum that deconstructs the mechanics of AI-driven creation—ranging from generating photorealistic text-to-image assets and seamless vector recoloring to executing advanced generative fill and text-effect manipulations. By emphasizing workflows that blend machine intelligence with traditional design sensibilities, it teaches creators how to co-create with AI while maintaining absolute creative control and brand integrity. For a creative agency, this learning hub is an essential resource for accelerating the ideation phase, quickly generating rich mockup assets, and safely scaling visual content without the copyright risks traditionally associated with generative models.
Learn Indesign
adobe.com
Adobe InDesign Learn & Support serves as the ultimate digital sanctuary for editorial architecture and typographic precision, guiding designers through the intricate art of long-form layout and multi-page document design. The platform offers a beautifully structured curriculum that elevates typography and page layout from functional alignment to an expressive art form, deconstructing everything from advanced master page systems and paragraph styles to complex grid layouts and interactive digital publishing. By blending hands-on tutorials with professional, high-production asset workflows, it empowers creators to navigate the delicate balance between structural rigidity and visual fluidity. For a creative agency, this learning hub is an essential resource for mastering editorial design, brand guidelines, and premium print or digital brochures—ensuring that complex information is translated into flawless, highly readable, and cohesive visual narratives.
Learn Illustrator
adobe.com
Adobe Illustrator Learn & Support stands as the ultimate launchpad and ongoing reference ecosystem for vector-based precision, empowering designers to transform abstract concepts into scalable, razor-sharp visual realities. Designed to accommodate both novice creators and seasoned agency professionals, the platform offers a masterfully curated curriculum that deconstructs everything from foundational path-building and typography manipulation to complex pattern generation and advanced perspective drawing. By blending interactive, step-by-step tutorials with real-world industry asset workflows, it demystifies the mechanics of infinite scalability. For a creative agency, this learning hub is an essential asset for mastering corporate branding, iconography systems, and large-scale digital illustrations—ensuring that every design asset remains flawless, responsive, and beautifully executed across every imaginable medium.
Learn Adobe Express
adobe.com
Adobe Express Learn & Support serves as the ultimate catalyst for high-velocity, intuitive content creation, democratizing professional design and empowering creators to move from spark to polished asset in mere moments. This agile learning hub deconstructs the mechanics of rapid visual storytelling, offering a streamlined curriculum that covers everything from leveraging premium, curated templates and video editing to mastering quick actions like background removal and instant asset resizing. By seamlessly blending social media workflows with advanced, cloud-connected asset libraries, the platform shows creators how to maintain absolute brand consistency at scale. For a creative agency, it represents a powerful tool for accelerating daily asset production and agile social media execution—enabling teams to turn out striking, high-impact social graphics, flyers, and short-form videos with remarkable efficiency and zero creative friction.