Type at Size

Serifs returned as a signal

After a decade of geometric sans everywhere, serifs came back — not because they read better but because they read as a decision. What the move actually signals, why it arrived at display size first, and where it falls apart when it reaches body copy.

The platePrinted flat, the ramp that reads as depth on a screen keeps almost none of the illusion.

The word "open" spelled out in bold black letters on individual tiles against a plain wall

Type at Size

Big type is cheap

Setting a headline at 120px is the least expensive way to look designed, which is exactly why so much of the web now does it.

Rows of hanging fabric swatches in navy, olive, yellow, rust and burgundy tones

Dark Mode

Dark is a second palette

Inverting the light theme produces glare, muddy accents and vanished shadows. A dark theme needs its own greys, its own accent saturation and its own depth cues.

A dark rectangular canvas mounted off-center on a large white gridded sheet

Broken Grid

A break needs a grid

Overlap and offset only read as deliberate against something regular. Without the regularity underneath, a broken grid is indistinguishable from no grid.

Most of what reads as taste on a screen is a platform default that everybody inherited at the same moment.

Six standing sections