Weekly Links — 14th October 2026

🕰️ Ten Minute Focus

• A Practical Guide To Naming Things — Smashing Magazine provides a guide on naming UI components, including conventions and resources.
• Odyssée — Odyssée explores a philosophy of integrity in aesthetic medicine through evidence-based treatments and enduring patient relationships.

Branding

• How Kit Studio switched Exell to EXF.STUDIO with ASCII ingenuity — Kit Studio transitioned from Exell to EXF.STUDIO using ASCII characters, altering the brand identity.
• Hachette opens free publishing design festival for minority ethnic creatives — Hachette UK opens a free publishing design festival for minority ethnic creatives, aiming to increase visibility and access.
• All Purpose’s identity for Two Tribes Brewing is resolutely ‘craft’, while also turning its back on all which that signifies — All Purpose’s branding for Two Tribes Brewing examines its stance on the craft identity, as described by the excerpt.
• Philip Lindeman builds a slightly haunted Sofia of night shops and stray cats in less than two weeks — Philip Lindeman created a fictional night city for his solo show in under two weeks.
• 50 years on, here’s why TypoCircle still matters, and deserves celebrating — Run by volunteers since 1976, the organisation is marking its half century with £15 posters by Paula Scher, Margaret Calvert and more.

Design

• Emerging patterns: design leadership in 2026 — Findings from nearly 120 design leaders — pathways, mentorship, portfolio careers, tooling, and the human qualities of leadership.
• twks — An independent creative agency in Geneva since 2011 partners with brands and institutions to develop brand, digital presence, and campaigns.
• Bringing warmth and fun to São Paulo’s bars and restaurants — References, details and techniques being deployed by Brazilian design studios to bring playfulness and nostalgia to the city’s streets.
• Agentic systems are the future of brands — Agentic Brand Systems, a Little Plains research note.
• F*cking good libraries — A browsable semantic library for creative development resources.
• Lidar Drone Scanning — A Riotters R&D experiment turning raw drone LIDAR scans into a real-time 3D point cloud, rendered live in the browser with WebGL.

Motion

• Diptyque “Médicis” | Chris Ullens — Chris Ullens turns the making of Diptyque’s wax Médicis vase into a miniature stop-motion workshop.
• DUCKS | AJ Jefferies — A quiet day in the park takes a strange turn in AJ Jefferies’ animated short, with music and sound design by Megalithic Sound.
• Monumental FX Establishes US Presence Through Modern Post Partnership — Monumental FX partners with Modern Post to integrate US workflow, project management, and finishing support.
• Watch your 6! | Cub Studio — Cub Studio collaborated with Bremont Watches to develop a watch series featuring Felix the Cat.

AI

• What the AI era owes you — The article examines the uncertainty surrounding job displacement due to AI and the lack of guaranteed new roles.
• AI-generated UI is fast design, not UX — The article examines the contrast between traditional craftsmanship and modern AI-generated UI, focusing on design qualities and user interaction.
• First AI came and scooped up your art. Now it’s scooped up Adobe. — Adobe integrated AI tools that used images without consent, then reused them repeatedly.
• The New Siri’s Biggest Strength Is Not Intelligence — A useful AI assistant needs relevant personal context, the capability to use it, and an experience that helps users understand its limits.

Misc

• Laser Storm — The article examines a small indoor entertainment venue on McKnight Road north of Pittsburgh, focusing on its design and activities.
• Kelsey — The article examines Kelsey’s experience with healthcare insurance amid a political ad featuring her.
• Apple’s App Icon HOA — Louie Mantia examines the trend of app icons shifting toward the squircle shape on iOS and macOS, analyzing the implications for design and uniformity.
• Lake Of Souls by Ann Leckie — The article discusses the structure and themes of short fiction collections by Ann Leckie, focusing on standalone stories, stories from the Imperial Radch series, and stories from the world of The Raven Tower.
• “I’m Embarrassed on Behalf of the Tech Industry” — Ben Thompson expressed embarrassment on behalf of the tech industry regarding difficulties in managing digital tools for non-tech users.
• WordPress MCP — The article discusses WordPress hosting services, focusing on functionality and provider performance.

Nerd Alert

• Justice for CSS — An article examines various creative uses of CSS, including a tournament and specific projects.
• The Index: Issue #201 — The Index: Issue #201 examines web platform features and developer tools, including a color contrast tool and a website for framework and LLM-free focus.
• Stash Invites the Community to Take the State of Motion Survey 2026 — Stash, in association with Motionographer, is gathering perspectives on Motion Design and animation in 2026. The five-minute survey closes October 30.
• Chat is AI’s command line — More than a mark, Why icon consistency is harder than it looks, Named breakpoints without Sass, CSS does your tooltip positioning now.
• “Getting off the Modernization Treadmill” — Alexander Petros examines the evolving meaning of "modernize" and its impact on website accessibility and user experience.