Growing Graffiti Moss

Modular phones, petrified bird photography, the Empire State Building's green roof and more in our weekly look at the web

Seemingly everyone is into growing moss script and graffiti these days, but there’s one girl who has it down to a science. Anna Garforth’s artwork thrives—it’s beautiful when it goes up, and even more interesting as it continues to grow and evolve. Inspired by the moss growing in the script on old grave stones, Garforth initially experimented in written graffiti and eventually mastered her technique. …

The Psychology of Language on Facebook

Modular phones, petrified bird photography, the Empire State Building's green roof and more in our weekly look at the web

As part of the World Well-Being Project, which leads initiatives to analyze social media’s big data for application to psychological theory, a new University of Pennsylvania study is sharing insights on the internet’s linguistic and personality trends. Amassing 75,000 volunteers, researchers examined status updates containing over 700 million words, phrases and topics. Through predictive analysis, they were able to match language with simple personality questionnaires, …

Revisiting 1950s Design

Modular phones, petrified bird photography, the Empire State Building's green roof and more in our weekly look at the web

In the spring of 1952, famed designers George Nelson, Charles Eames and Alexander Girard hosted a “Sample Lesson” before an overflowing audience in LA. These designers, who still stand for the most important and lasting design era guiding designers today, hosted the event in response to a need to rethink art and design in education. Mickey Friedman—a star graduate student at the time and later …