paris

A look at what’s under the feet of Parisians and New Yorkers.

In the dark middle of the race, runners need encouragement, reminders that they’re strong, that the finish is ahead: plausible, real, within reach.

A missive from quite another big medium arrives in my mailbox.

David Byrne’s concert in Paris was an inspiring reminder of the simple pleasure of sharing the amazing stuff you make.

An exhibition of torn poster art asks fascinatingly relevant questions in an era of online mashups and user-generated content.

Paris solves a problem with its bike-sharing program by turning hill-climbing into a game.

My post office features a clever heat-map grid to announce slow and busy hours. A perfect idea for the web.

As Paris morphs into the Riviera, some clever icon design works its own transformation.

Your faithful correspondent fell under the browbeating eye of authority on a few recent and essentially trivial occasions, making me think a bit about the effects of control, rule enforcement and tone in my own work.

Tons of cool historical design in the Paris subway is getting gutted.

A coffee tasting leaves a caffeine buzz and a lesson that applies to design, too: In matters of taste, subtlety is everything.

A park bench becomes a subversive design element. Every project needs one.

A neighborhood landmark gets a garish transformation, and thoughts wander to designer responsibility and online communities.

The Louvre lifts a photo ban, and visitors go insane. A small change in the rules can spark dramatic behavior shifts, not always for the better.

A new bike-sharing program in Paris suggests that a modest fee buys good behavior.

Nuit des Musées shakes up stodgy preconceptions about museums and reveals them as lively, relevant places.

The Paris Marathon prompts your correspondent to ponder what makes creative people tick in adversity.

In a promising concept that needs some refinement, YouTube DJs go head-to-head in a fight to create the best mix.