Design criticism that names names
Reviews and analysis of rebrands, tools and trends, written by people who look past the press release. We say what a piece of work gets right, what it gets wrong, and why, with the specific decision or designer named. When a rebrand claims sharper contrast or better accessibility (a11y), you can check that claim yourself with our True-Contrast Smart Palette, a WCAG contrast checker that suggests fixes. Treat its output as a starting point: any calculator can get a shade wrong.
Explore the CSS Variable Architect Try the True-Contrast Smart PaletteWhere design work gets argued over
Criticism and commentary is the part of the site where a piece of design work gets held up against the brief it was answering. A rebrand, a new grid system, a shift in how a studio handles type: each gets examined for the problem it was trying to solve and whether the solution actually holds up.
What separates a critique from a write-up
A write-up describes what changed. A critique says whether the change was the right call and explains the thinking behind that judgement using the actual decisions made. The way Klim Type Foundry handles optical sizing gets discussed in a piece like this because it illustrates a principle about matching letterforms to context.
- Names the studio, designer, or project rather than speaking generally about "good typography" or "strong branding"
- Takes a position on whether the work succeeds, and on what terms
- Points out at least one tradeoff or weak spot, because praise without reservation reads as promotion rather than analysis
- Explains the mechanism behind a decision
Some claims made about a piece of work are checkable. When a studio says its new brand palette meets accessibility guidelines, that is a statement with actual maths behind it, and a critique that takes the claim on trust is doing less than one that checks it. Our True-Contrast Smart Palette runs a foreground and background pair through the same relative luminance calculation the guidelines specify, and returns a contrast ratio alongside PASS or FAIL badges for the AA and AAA thresholds, so you can see whether a PASS badge in a press release actually holds up before you repeat it. Like any calculator, it depends on the hex values you give it, and a typo or a slightly wrong swatch will hand back the wrong reading, so it works as a check on your own judgement.
Where this fits against the rest of the site
The Inspiration Showcases section exists to surface work worth looking at. The Design Feed covers what's happening in the industry as it happens. This section moves slower, because a piece here might sit with a single rebrand or a single design system for two thousand words, and an argument needs that room to hold together.
If you've written a piece that argues a position on design work and think it belongs here, the editorial address is designblog@contactforsales.com.
Criticism is easier to write than the decisions underneath it are to make
The tools below let you test the same variables and contrast ratios that turn up in the pieces you've just read, though neither is a substitute for judgement: each can return a wrong or unsuitable answer, so treat the result as a starting point. If a piece has you weighing a text and background pairing, the True-Contrast Smart Palette will check it against the WCAG thresholds and, where it fails, suggest a fix that holds the original hue and adjusts brightness alone, or say plainly when no shade of that hue will reach the target on that background.