Weekly Links — 5th November 2026

I’ve been away on holiday, so weekly links took a little break too. I’m back now, and here’s this week’s reading.

🕰️ Ten Minute Focus

Safari will ’dark mode’ your site for you — Safari 27.3 beta introduces an opt-in Adaptive Dark Mode that automatically adapts light sites to dark ones.
If we stop, we lose — Piccalilli calls on web educators to keep teaching, arguing that practical experience, specialist skills, and creativity still matter when working with LLMs.

Branding

Tomáš Brousil on how to choose typefaces that work in the real world — Tomáš Brousil shares four practical tips for selecting typefaces that function effectively in real-world design projects.
Carling unveils refreshed identity by BrandOpus inspired by football heritage — Carling has unveiled a refreshed identity by BrandOpus that reinforces the brand’s connection to football heritage and community.
Major design IP reforms announced to tackle copycats, courtroom costs, and SUD protection — The UK government has announced major design IP reforms to modernise protection and address issues such as copycats and courtroom costs.
Canva Latest Tech Company To Announce Major Layoffs As Demand Weakens — Canva, the creative software firm, is set to announce significant layoffs as demand weakens.
Young Jerks Adds Tropical Vibes To Sunr Flavor Crystal Drink Mixes — Young Jerks brings a tropical visual identity to Sunr’s flavour crystal drink mixes.

Pick three — Buzz Usborne considers the hidden cost of trying to make creative work good, fast, and cheap.
Avant Garde — A look back at Avant Garde, the magazine that broke taboos, rattled nerves, and made a few enemies.
Building an AI-ready design system library — A code-first approach to building, checking, and maintaining a Figma design system library.
The window with no buttons — An introduction to reading the terminal, written for designers who find its interface unfamiliar.
Grail — Grail is an iOS self-improvement app that transforms real-world quests into RPG stats through branding and a scroll-driven 3D web experience.
What do you do when a design solution is already pre-built? — How to respond when a ready-made solution becomes the “Fastest Idea in the Room”.

I’M HAVING A BREAKDOWN: DREAMCAT, the monster that wasn’t his — Joost Jansen explains why he asked to cut a monster he had spent two weeks drawing for DREAMCAT, a film about himself.
RevThink Hosts John Warrillow for a Webinar on Building a Business Buyers Want — RevThink’s 4 November webinar with Built to Sell author John Warrillow focuses on what makes a creative business valuable to buyers.
The Haunted Hotel That Sings Back: Anil Glendinning on There Are No Ghosts at the Grand — Friday Sundae’s Anil Glendinning discusses painted memories, ska, and singing power tools alongside the creative choices behind the Tribeca Games Award winner There Are No Ghosts at the Grand.
Artful Being Brings Collage Animation to Football’s Off-Pitch Careers — Danny Cato’s cut-out animation introduces teenagers to the careers behind football in an eight-part series for The Open University and BBC Bitesize.

What We Learned From the 2026 Midterms About Data Centers and AI (Voters Really, Really Hate Them!) — The Dieline considers voter opposition to data centres and AI in the 2026 US midterms.
In a world of panic, calm and certainty win — Rafat Ali advised that while panic around AI is widespread, the people who stay calm and certain are the ones everyone listens to in uncertain moments.
AI can generate the interface. What makes it worth caring about? — As AI becomes more capable of assembling interfaces from established patterns, designers need to decide where an experience should surprise, celebrate, or simply leave someone alone.
What AI has changed in Design Systems, and what is still up to us — Marianne Ashton-Booth, David Sward, and Nicolas Chatelain explain that while AI automates easy tasks, human governance, adoption, and process remain essential for Design Systems.

“It Gives Great Demo” — Steve Jobs argues that touchscreens fail ergonomically despite offering great demos, noting that practical usability often outweighs impressive presentations.
Write mo’ — The author declines #NaNoWriMo due to a busy schedule but feels compelled to write more, inspired by vintage science fiction like The Nine Billion Names of God.
Palaces Of The Crow by Ray Nayler — Ray Nayler’s Palaces Of The Crow balances descriptions of human cruelty with themes of mutual aid, presenting a group-focused survival story set during World War II.
Jobs Podcast — Chris Coyier joins Nathan Puls to discuss making things, making a living, and a hypothetical week in which Nathan takes over Chris’s job.
Self-reinforcing quality / adopting verification pattern — Imprint Engineering adopts a verification pattern popularised by poteto’s pstack, requiring pull requests to generate documentation of verification steps and feedback from an ai-code-review tool.
Celebrating SIM Cards — Jim Nielsen celebrates moving his mum’s SIM card to a replacement iPhone and having it connect immediately, without troubleshooting or a call to the carrier.

Paper Mono — Paper Mono is a free and open source monospace font family offering eight variable weights and coding ligatures.
Re-Implementing :nth-child() With Modern CSS — A modern CSS implementation combines the :nth-child selector with style queries and sibling-index() to conditionally select child elements.
Modern CSS Might Make Your Front-End More Complex — Gabriel Shoyombo warns that replacing JavaScript with modern CSS features can simplify specific code while increasing the wider application’s complexity.
The new full-stack designer (video) — HeyDesigner’s roundup includes a video on the full-stack designer, personal software, and making features generic in CSS.
What’s !important #20: GTA 6 Scroll Effects, Scrollspies, random() — The final What’s !important instalment on the CSS-Tricks website announces the series’ return in an expanded newsletter format.

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