Design & Nature Reimagined
I connect people to nature through art, information design, and storytelling. I write a weekly newsletter about nature, design, and hope.
Design & Nature Reimagined: Termites
ISSUE #60 Today I'm writing about something that had truly never crossed my mind—termites. In my last newsletter I was trying to figure out what to write about and when I do that I usually just start asking questions that I've been thinking about recently. In doing that, a National Geographic article on termites came up. I read it and was fascinated. So behold... the mystery and power of termites! A single termite is tiny and vulnerable and honestly not able to do much. But a couple million...
Design & Nature Reimagined: Finding wonder
ISSUE #59 I normally don't talk politics in this newsletter but we're at a moment where I'm so angry and scared and sad about what's happening and what we've somehow allowed to happen. I really believe that one thing that helps us have the courage to keep trying is hope. Believing that something can and could be better. Believing that we deserve better. Something that gives me hope are all the people doing amazing conservation work and research. Science matters and today I want to highlight a...
Design & Nature Reimagined: Data storytelling
ISSUE #58 Along with the new year I recently started a new job at a company called Observable that focuses on data visualization. I'm excited to be working with people that share my interest in the power of telling stories with data. Communicating complex data through storytelling can help us connect and understand the world in deeper, richer ways. Data visualization is also a key component in information sharing for nature conservation, species tracking, and climate change. So today I wanted...
Design & Nature Reimagined: I am on my way
ISSUE #57 DESIGN & NATURE REIMAGINED MARISA MORBY Sometimes you read stories that are so powerful that they stick with you and maybe even change you. Today I wanted to highlight a couple stories that have changed my perspective and given me hope. If this email was forwarded to you, you can subscribe here. Action "I am on my way with the necessary equipment" was the message Kerstin Langenberger sent before heading to save a baby swan that had been stuck to the ice on a lake in Reykjavik. There...
Design & Nature Reimagined: Winter Beauty
ISSUE #56 DESIGN & NATURE REIMAGINED MARISA MORBY Winter is always a bit hard for me because it gets dark so early, so today I want to focus solely on the beauty of nature in winter and the way different artists find to highlight it. If this email was forwarded to you, you can subscribe here. Keith Ladzinski is a National Geographic Photographer whose close up of ice crystals shows how much beauty is in things that we can't even see with our naked eye. Olga Prinku does embroidery with dried...
Design & Nature Reimagined: What we see
ISSUE #55 DESIGN & NATURE REIMAGINED MARISA MORBY This last week was filled with a lot of love from friends and family, which was wonderful. On Friday I woke up feeling very thankful for everyone in my life, which I guess is timely since it's almost Thanksgiving. Today I have some small stories about what we see, or don't see, in some cases. If this email was forwarded to you, you can subscribe here. design Every year millions of birds die from flying into windows, because they simply can't...
Design & Nature Reimagined: Finding connection instead of despair
ISSUE #54 DESIGN & NATURE REIMAGINED MARISA MORBY This week's newsletter is different because this week has been different. I've been traveling pretty heavily the past few weeks, first to San Francisco for a tech conference called GitHub Universe and then to Berlin for a creative technology conference called Beyond Tellerand, where I got to see some of the cutest robots ever. I find conferences and community a huge source of support and connection, so it felt especially good to be here during...
Design & Nature Reimagined: Evolution in Industrial Design
ISSUE #53 DESIGN & NATURE REIMAGINED MARISA MORBY I was listening to a podcast with Denny Royal on biomimicry and heard about an industrial design method called the "Soft Kill Option". It's actually a method that's been used for decades, but not something that I'd ever heard about, so I decided to do a bit of a dive and learn more. If this email was forwarded to you, you can subscribe here. design, nature, reimagine In industrial design an option called the soft kill option method exists to...
Design & Nature Reimagined: Issue 52
ISSUE #52 DESIGN & NATURE REIMAGINED MARISA MORBY This week I wanted to highlight nature and design writing from some publications I like and interesting tidbits that I found in my research this week! If this email was forwarded to you, you can subscribe here. design Grist, one of my favorite tech and climate newsletters reports that Barcelona has figured out how to harness and distribute the energy generated when a subway train comes to a stop, sending that energy out to EV chargers...
Design & Nature Reimagined: How color works
ISSUE #51 DESIGN & NATURE REIMAGINED MARISA MORBY Sometimes when I'm finding things to write about, I stumble on something that I didn't know existed. Recently it was structural color. Structural color is created by the reflection and scattering of light. This is different than color created by pigments or dyes, where color is created by the pigment or dye absorbing all of the light except for a specific wavelength of light. The one color that's not absorbed is then the color that you see....
I connect people to nature through art, information design, and storytelling. I write a weekly newsletter about nature, design, and hope.