Ken ZinserNotes, essays, etc.
2023
Woodworking and furniture design, revisited (1.6 MB)
How I capture thoughts and ideas in the moment
Photos from India (2.7 MB)
Photos from Little Island (770 KB)
Photos from the American Museum of Natural History (1.9 MB)
Neon (10 MB)
2022
Custom domains for iCloud Mail
2021
Slow down and write better emails
The Rise and fall of Getting Things Done
No such thing as a fresh start
2020
Quit trying to attract a crowd and just help people
Give yourself permission to be creative
While you’re at it, make it sing
Electric cars and perpetual motion machines
Want to leave a legacy? Be a mentor
The benevolent dictator of the internet
Ambiverts, problem-finders, and the surprising psychology of making your ideas happen
How could the TDC be a racist organization?
Don’t confuse legibility with communication
On criticism versus trolling, fragmentation of design, and joining Pentagram
Guide to internal communication
2019
7 leadership lessons over 2.5 years
The three qualities leaders need in an uncertain future
The human skills we need in an unpredictable world
How Thom Yorke learned to stop worrying and (mostly) love rock stardom.
Being a leader means giving up control
Why cynicism matters when you’re making change
A not-quite-textbook definition of systems design
Vignelli Center for Design Studies (1.7 MB)
2018
How to get the most out of a conference
Writing sensible email messages
2017
Mike Birbiglia’s 6 tips for making it small in Hollywood. Or anywhere.
If you dropped your notebook in a lake
A 200-year transformation: How the Mall became what it is today
The writing class I'd like to teach
2016
It makes no sense that word processors are still designed for the printed page
World's biggest indie ad agency Wieden+Kennedy have mastered office culture, too, NBD
CreativeMornings Seattle with Electric Coffin
The opposite view of landmarks
The absurd primacy of the automobile in American life
9 basic principles of responsive web design
A visual history of which countries have dominated the Summer Olympics
Rethinking how business schools teach design
Why it pays to be grumpy and bad-tempered
Silver Spring has the 'sorriest bus stop in America'
Jiro Ono and René Redzepi have a cup of tea
23 buildings that resemble the things they sell
The big sort: an insider's tour of a recycling plant
A guide to the fine art of refrigerator aging
The rectangularness of countries
Introducing Office Fonts from H&Co
No grades, no timetable: Berlin school turns teaching upside down
New logo and identity system for Mastercard by Pentagram
How to win friends and influence people—online
People first, designers second
With an updated Nutrition Facts label, the FDA settles an eternal question: Why Helvetica?
Google charmed by grandma's polite searches
Christo's newest project: walking on water
How NYC gets its drinking water
An aerial view of Europe's carbon footprint
Big questions before little ones
Why I like the new Met logo (and why you should give it a chance)
Overthinking and redesigning a fragmented date format
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
Franklin Gothic by Morris Fuller Benton