Welcome to the weekly Design Dispatch. This week we're talking how photography is adapting to social distancing, ways to celebrate together when you're apart, and the One Room Challenge is here to motivate you to tackle that room you've been avoiding (you know the one.)

DESIGN NEWS:

Photographers have been finding creative ways to work with clients during quarantine. Two solutions to family photography that we've seen crop up are portraits through a window that feel like a perfect reflection of this unique time and, more recently family portrait sessions over video chat like these by Clementine Studio SF, billed as a low-fi way to capture your moments remotely.

The One Room Challenge is back, and for the uninitiated, it's the time of year where a bunch of interior design bloggers (myself included) run around their homes attempting to pull off a full room transformation on a short timeline, like contestants on an episode of Chopped. Luckily this year, the competition was extended by a couple of weeks for a more manageable Covid-era pace. If you're looking to glow-up your own space head over the website for some major inspiration.

Having celebrated my own daughter's birthday shortly after quarantine began, I'm no stranger to quarantine celebrations. While most things have come to a standstill, people are still finding creative ways to commemorate life's milestones with one another, big and small, from cocktail parties over Zoom, to drive-by parades. This article from the LA Times has some great ideas if you’re planning one yourself.

LOCAL INTEREST:

Bay Area-based illustrator Wendy MacNaughton (known for her artwork in Salt Fat Acid Heat) is hosting Draw Together, an engaging art lessons for kids, live on Instagram at 10 am PST, M-F. If you can't make it then, the videos are available on Youtube anytime.

Local street artist Fnnch is letting you join in the bear hunt movement but with a twist with his Honey Bear hunt kit. The kit comes with a masked version of one of his signature honey bears, printed out on paper to be hung in a window for your neighbors to enjoy. The kits cost just $18, and you can decide if you want your address to be included in the official map or not.

READ:

I just finished the book Because Internet by linguist Gretchen McCulloch, and it's a fascinating take on how language has evolved alongside digital culture, examining the impact of everything from how social media channels are the online equivalent to third spaces to the history and genesis of meme culture.

That concludes our weekly Design Dispatch. If there is anything you would like to add to the list, feel free to leave a comment below, and if you have a tip for a future column, feel free to drop us a line.

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