Elizabeth Goodspeed

i came upon this wonderful website yesterday thanks to @goodspeed.bsky.social ! graficailustrada.uy/Portadas-de-...

🏀 Over the Topp at The Casual Archivist by @goodspeed.bsky.social Topps, founded in Brooklyn in 1938 as a chewing gum company, first began packaging #sports #tradingcards with gum in the 1950s. + Luckbook, #lotterytickets from #Japan casualarchivist.substack.com/p/over-the-t...

My newest @its-nice-that.bsky.social column is about Szilveszter Makó, why commercial brands want auteurs, and the paradox of "selling out" 💸 www.itsnicethat.com/articles/eli...

I'm going to be ON THE RADIO tomorrow from 6-7pm talking about design and visual trends! You can listen in on 91.1FM WFMU in the NY + NJ area, or stream live on wfmu.org. Call us with some fun questions! 📻 wfmu.org/playlists/LU

New issue of Casual Archivist about 1990s Wired magazine, nostalgic tech, and representing the future ⚛️ casualarchivist.substack.com/p/wired-up

Smartest thing It’s Nice That has done: hire @goodspeed.bsky.social. Dumbest thing It’s Nice That has done: take Meta money to do an advertorial puff piece on the IG rebrand. Anyway, here’s another good Goodspeed article: www.itsnicethat.com/articles/eli...

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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...

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... 📼

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...

“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...

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

“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...

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...

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...

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

“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.”👇

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...

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...

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 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.

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...

🥭 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 reveals the industry’s ongoing tension around identity, ambition and scale. https://ow.ly/xTc150XBTmR

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...

I wrote about the changing typographic landscape of Sunset Strip as seen through Ed Ruscha’s photos of the street from 1965-2007. Published on Sunset Over Sunset, a new website from @gettymuseum.bsky.social that explores different stories of urban LA history 🪧 www.sunsetoversunset.org/stories/signs

🚂 All Aboard! Casual Archivist by @goodspeed.bsky.social Guest: Vedad Siljak Tyco Toys * Fonts In Use @FontsInUse@typo.social #Ephemera #Typography #VedadSiljak casualarchivist.substack.com/p/all-aboard

LA palette cleanse: really great graphic design deep dive into the Ruscha Sunset archive by @goodspeed.bsky.social focusing on the evolution of the signage www.sunsetoversunset.org/stories/signs

Thank you to the folks at the @flickrfdn.bsky.social for asking me some truly fantastic questions about archiving, the ephemeral nature of digital archiving, and what I've learned from working with Brits. (As ever, Flickr remains the best website on the internet!!!) www.flickr.org/a-chat-with-...

Brand designers love the control, originality and ownership of making their own fonts. But how is custom type reshaping the culture and economy of type design itself? I wrote about why so many design studios are creating fonts and what it means for the rest of us! www.itsnicethat.com/articles/eli...

Elizabeth Goodspeed on why custom type has become branding’s newest obsession. https://ow.ly/zBwn50XgWpQ

@goodspeed.bsky.social on what happens when design becomes prefab. ow.ly/qB1f50X29HY

I spoke alongside Pablo Rochat at Air's inaugural creative summit "Age of Aquarius"—we talked about about craft vs. creativity, the early AI ~*fever dream*~ aesthetic, and why actually making stuff still matters! Recorded here → youtu.be/F0QWo8R_jA0

My newest column for @its-nice-that.bsky.social is about the rise of pre-fab brand kits, "move fast and break things," and how identity is often starting to matter more than product! ⏱️ www.itsnicethat.com/articles/eli...