For decades, design followed a singular truth. Whether it was the insistence that form follows function or the later pivot toward form follows emotion, the industry tended to adhere to a simple formula for design thinking: Find your North Star and follow.
But that formula does not fit todays reality.
Form follows X is no longer a clean equation, because X isnt a single variable. Its a constellation that refuses to be reduced to one guiding idea. Modern design across brands, products, and experiences must use a multidimensional approach, speaking to function, feeling, context, narrative, culture, and experience, all at once.
HUMAN EXPERIENCE DESIGN
Some of todays biggest brands are already accomplishing this balancing act.
Rivian offers a clear example of a brand showing up consistently across form, function, and feeling. At its core, Rivian builds electric vehicles, but the brands shift from product to experience is evident far beyond the car itself. From the thoughtful utility of the vehicles, designed for both rugged performance and everyday life, to its immersive retail spaces (think playground, not showroom), and community activations, Rivian operates at the intersection of engineering, lifestyle, and narrative. The result is a brand where technology, adventure, sustainability, and culture weave together to form a truly unique and modern design.
Meanwhile, Netflix released the final episode of Stranger Things in theaters over the holidays, inviting people off their laptops and into the real world to watch the wildly popular show surrounded by super fans. This, combined with its multi-award winning shows in the West End and on Broadway, not to mention the newly launched Netflix House, is a great example of multidimensional thinking.
For these brands, the new formula is clear: Consumers want experiences that operate on multiple dimensions at once.
MULTIDIMENSIONAL DESIGN ARCHITECTURE
To build for this new landscape, designers must move beyond linear thinking into a multidimensional approach, resting on three core pillars:
1. Anchored in narrative
As in-person and digital environments continue to merge, narrative consistency becomes the glue holding an experience together. The brand story must show up authentically, whether someone is scrolling an app, walking through a flagship store, or entering a fully immersive activation.
Nike does this beautifully. From its Run Club to House of Innovation stores to SNKRS drops, every dimension reflects the same core story: aspiration, movement, self-betterment. Each touchpoint has its own texture, but the spirit remains intact.
2. Breaks skill silos
Multidimensional experiences emerge only when traditional design silos are intentionally broken.
Architects, filmmakers, digital designers, spatial designers, game creatorseach carries a different perspective, discipline, constraint, and freedom. Its only when these ways of thinking converge that the richest experiences emerge.
Disney Imagineering stands as perhaps the most iconic example of this intentional barrier breaking, bringing engineers, artists, storytellers, and technologists together to create environments where narrative, architecture, and emotion coexist seamlessly.
3. AI as the new experience engine
AI is accelerating this shift, giving designers tools to create experiences as adaptive as the people who move through them. Picture entering a space that gently responds to your state of mindlighting softens when youre overwhelmed, or the physical environment adjusts like a host who senses what you need before you do. Multidimensional design thinking is building worlds that feel both impossible and inevitable.
Both Spotifys AI DJ and DeepMinds Genie 3 hint at whats coming: hyper-personalized experiences that meet every individual in real time. Its the next frontier of design (and of hospitality).
FROM NORTH STAR TO CONSTELLATION
Multidimensional design recognizes that humans arent one-note, so our products, environments, and stories shouldnt be either. The designers who thrive will be those who can move fluidly between dimensions, choreographing function, emotion, story, and technology into something deeply human.
Brands like Netflix and Rivian are just early examples of whats possible when we embrace every dimension of lived experience.
Andrew Zimmerman is CEO of Journey.
Whether scrambling for a last-minute gift, looking for something belated to send after the holidays, or just thinking ahead to the next birthday on your calendar, the checkout lines gift card rack has probably crossed your mind. Coffee shops, streaming services, big box retailers. You’ve done this dance before. Grab one, stick it in a card, call it a day. It’s easy. It’s simple. It’s also, for a growing number of Americans, starting to feel stale.
Nearly one in five U.S. adults now say they’d rather receive crypto than a gift card this holiday season. That’s according to a new survey from the National Cryptocurrency Association and PayPal, and it’s not a number many saw coming. Gift cards have been the default for decades. They’re what you buy when you don’t know what else to get. But something’s shifting, and it’s worth paying attention to the driver.
WHY CRYPTO IS SHOWING UP ON WISH LISTS
The case against gift cards isn’t complicated. They can expire. They’re tied to a single store or brand. They sit in wallets and junk drawers until someone remembers they exist, and by then, half the value might be gone to fees or fine print. Americans, on average, waste $90 in unused gift cards every year. That’s not a gift; that’s a slow leak.
Crypto doesn’t expire. It’s not locked to a single retailer. And while it can go up or down in value, it has the potential to grow in value. For younger consumers especially, that flexibility matters. According to the survey data, 58% of buyers see the potential for value growth as a real draw. Another 54% like the flexibility and choice that crypto offers. These aren’t abstract preferences; they’re practical.
Think about your cousin who’s been slowly building a digital wallet on the side. For them, getting crypto as a gift isn’t weird or complicated. It’s exciting. It’s something they can save, invest, and even spend at checkout. Around 23% of shoppers planned to use crypto to purchase gifts this past holiday season, and 35% say the top reason they dont shop and pay with digital assets more often is that not enough stores accept crypto payments.
A MODERN GIFT FOR THE CURIOUS
Not everyone wants to learn a new system just to open a present. Crypto is more flexible, sure, and a natural gift for someone already holding crypto. It does ask a bit more of the recipient who is new to crypto. There’s a wallet to set up, an exchange account to pick, and some basic security steps to learn. If the recipient isn’t a little curious about how it all works, the gift can feel more like a homework assignment than a present.
Your grandma, for instance, may not appreciate getting crypto when all she asked for was a coffee from her favorite local spot. And while her go-to coffee shop may accept crypto payments, a gift card might still make more sense for her. It’s familiar, immediately usable, and it doesn’t require her to learn any new tech. But as crypto becomes more mainstreamand millions are becoming more crypto curiousthere are plenty of free resources to learn about it, without the confusing hype or jargon. For example, the Crypto, Explained podcast or NCAs 101 courses and simulator let you practice using crypto, without using real funds.
When gifting crypto, there’s also the volatility question. The value of crypto can shift between when you buy it and when your recipient opens it. That is part of the appeal for some people, but for others, it could be a deterrent. If youre in the latter group, consider stablecoins, a type of crypto designed to stay flat in value. And today, trusted financial companies like PayPal are processing crypto transactions and managing price changes behind the scenes so the merchant and consumer are unaffected.
WHAT THIS SAYS ABOUT WHERE WE’RE HEADED
The fact that crypto is even in the conversation as a holiday gift option says something about how far digital assets have come. A few years ago, this would have sounded like a tech enthusiast’s fantasy. Now crypto is showing up in gifting, shopping, donating, and beyond.
Retailers are watching this closely. Payment platforms are too. The gift card industry isn’t going to disappear overnight, but it’s facing real competition for the first time in a long time (or maybe ever). And the competitors aren’t other retailers; they’re entirely different ways of thinking about value, ownership, and flexibility.
For consumers, the takeaway is simple: You have more options now than you did a few years ago. Whether that means grabbing a gift card from the rack or sending some crypto to your friends wallet depends on who you’re buying for and what they actually want. The point isn’t that one is better than the other. It’s that the choice exists at all.
SO WHO’S THIS GIFT REALLY FOR?
Know your audience. If you’re buying for someone who already holds crypto, or who’s been curious about getting started, this could be the moment to skip the gift card aisle, whether it’s for a belated holiday gift, an upcoming birthday, or just because.
Gift cards had a good run. And they’re not going anywhere just yet. But for a surprisingly large slice of the country, crypto is starting to feel like the more interesting option. That shift in consumer behavior, quiet as it is, might be the most telling thing about whats to come next.
Stu Alderoty is president of the National Cryptocurrency Association.
Luigi Mangione is due in federal court Friday for a pivotal hearing in his fight to bar the government from seeking the death penalty against him in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.Mangione’s lawyers contend that authorities prejudiced his case by turning his December 2024 arrest into a “Marvel movie” spectacle and by publicly declaring their desire to see him executed even before he was formally indicted.If that doesn’t work, they argue, the charge that has enabled the government to seek the death penalty murder by firearm should be thrown out because it is legally flawed.Federal prosecutors say Mangione’s lawyers are wrong, countering that the murder charge is legally sufficient and that “pretrial publicity, even when intense” is hardly a constitutional crisis. Any concerns about public perceptions can be alleviated by carefully questioning prospective jurors about their knowledge of the case, prosecutors wrote in a court filing.Mangione has pleaded not guilty to federal and state murder charges, which carry the possibility of life in prison.Friday’s hearing, Mangione’s first trip to Manhattan federal court since his April 25 arraignment, is also expected to cover the defense’s bid to exclude certain evidence. U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett has said she also plans to set a trial date.A cause célbre for people upset with the health insurance industry, Mangione’s court appearances have draw dozens of supporters, some of whom wear green clothing or carry signs expressing solidarity with him.Mangione’s lawyers have asked the judge to bar the government from using certain items found in a backpack during his arrest, arguing that the search was illegal because police had not yet obtained a warrant.Those items include a gun that police said matched the one used to kill Thompson and a notebook in which he purportedly described his intent to “wack” a health insurance executive.One big question is whether Garnett will need to hold a separate hearing on the evidence issue like one last month that took three weeks in Mangione’s parallel state murder case.Mangione’s lawyers want one. Prosecutors don’t. They contend police were justified in searching the backpack to make sure there were no dangerous items and that the gun, notebook and other evidence would have eventually been found anyway.Thompson, 50, was killed Dec. 4, 2024, as he walked to a Manhattan hotel for UnitedHealth Group’s annual investor conference. Surveillance video showed a masked gunman shooting him from behind. Police say “delay,” “deny” and “depose” were written on the ammunition, mimicking a phrase used to describe how insurers avoid paying claims.Mangione, 27, the Ivy League-educated scion of a wealthy Maryland family, was arrested five days later at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, about 230 miles (about 370 kilometers) west of Manhattan.He’s already had success paring down his state case. In September, a judge threw out state terrorism charges against him.U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced last year that she was directing federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty, declaring that capital punishment was warranted for a “premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America.”Mangione’s lawyers argue that Bondi’s announcement, which she followed with Instagram posts and a TV appearance, showed the decision was “based on politics, not merit.” Her remarks tainted the grand jury process that resulted in his indictment a few weeks later, they said.Bondi’s statements and other official actions, including a choreographed perp walk in which armed officers led Mangione from a Manhattan pier, “have violated Mr. Mangione’s constitutional and statutory rights and have fatally prejudiced this death penalty case,” his lawyers said.On Wednesday, federal prosecutors pushed back on what they said were the defense’s “meritless” and “misleading” claims that Bondi’s decision was tainted by her past work as a lobbyist for a firm whose clients include UnitedHealthcare’s parent company.
Michael R. Sisak and Larry Neumeister, Associated Press
Hiring likely remained subdued last month as many companies have sought to avoid expanding their workforces, though the job gains may be enough to bring down the unemployment rate.December’s jobs report, to be released Friday, is likely to show that employers added a modest 55,000 jobs, economists forecast. That figure would be below November’s 64,000 but an improvement after the economy lost jobs in October. The unemployment rate is expected to slip to 4.5%, according to data provider FactSet, from a four-year high of 4.6% in November.The figures will be closely watched on Wall Street and in Washington because they will be the first clean readings on the labor market in three months. The government didn’t issue a report in October because of the six-week government shutdown, and November’s data was distorted by the closure, which lasted until Nov. 12.Another wrinkle: The economy lost 105,000 jobs in October, mostly because federal government employment fell 162,000, reflecting a purge of federal workers earlier last year by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. That drop won’t be repeated.Still, sluggish hiring in December would underscore a key conundrum surrounding the economy as it enters 2026: Growth has picked up to healthy levels, yet hiring has weakened noticeably and the unemployment rate has increased in the last four jobs reports.Most economists expect hiring will accelerate this year as growth remains solid. Yet they acknowledge there are other possibilities: Weak job gains could drag down future growth. Or the economy could keep expanding at a healthy clip, while automation and the spread of artificial intelligence reduces the need for more jobs.Economists do expect Friday’s jobs report to have some good news, driven partly by a rebound from the government shutdown, which likely drove a higher unemployment rate in November. Still, should the rate remain at 4.6% or even tick higher, that would be a cause for concern.“I’m really looking for a lot of that weakness to reverse in December,” said Martha Gimbel, executive director of the Yale Budget Lab, “and if it doesn’t, I am going to start getting much iffier about the labor market.”Either way, December’s report will cap a year of sluggish hiring, particularly after “liberation day” in April when President Donald Trump imposed sweeping tariffs on dozens of countries, though many were later delayed or softened.The economy generated an average of 111,000 jobs a month in the first three months of the year. But that pace dropped to just 11,000 in the three months ended in August, before rebounding slightly to 22,000 in November.Even those figures are likely to be revised lower in February, when the government completes an annual benchmarking of the jobs figures to an actual count of jobs derived from companies’ unemployment insurance filings. A preliminary estimate of that revision showed it could reduce total jobs as of March 2025 by 911,000.And last month, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said that the government could still be overstating job gains by about 60,000 a month because of shortcomings in how it accounts for new companies as well as those that have gone out of business. The Labor Department is expected to update those methods in its report next month.Last November, the U.S. economy had just 770,000 more jobs than 12 months earlier, down from 1.9 million in the 12 months ending in November 2024 and the smallest yearly gain since early 2021. The benchmark revisions next month will likely reduce that figure even further.With hiring so weak, the Federal Reserve cut its key short-term interest rate three times late last year, in an effort to boost borrowing, spending, and hiring. Yet Powell signaled that the central bank may keep its rate unchanged in the coming months as it evaluates how the economy evolves.Should December’s jobs report come in surprisingly weak, it could strengthen case for a rate reduction at the Fed’s next meeting Jan. 27-28.Even with such sluggish job gains, the economy has continued to expand, with growth reaching a 4.3% annual rate in last year’s July-September quarter, the best in two years. Strong consumer spending helped drive the gain. The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta forecasts that growth could slow to a still-solid 2.7% in the final three months of last year.Many economists are optimistic that growth will pick up in 2026, in part because Trump’s tax legislation, approved last summer, should lead to outsize tax refunds this spring. If growth does accelerate, it’s possible hiring may as well. At the same time, there are signs that companies are using technology and other tools to make their workers more efficient, which can spur growth without requiring more jobs.At the same time, inflation remains elevated, eroding the value of Americans’ paychecks. Consumer prices rose 2.7% in November compared with a year ago, little changed from the beginning of the year and above the Fed’s 2% target.
Christopher Rugaber, AP Economics Writer
Fans of Macy’s Inc. will be disappointed to learn that the iconic department store has announced its next round of store closures. Fourteen Macys locations in 12 states will shutter as a result of this move. Heres why and when the closures will take place.
Whats happened?
On Thursday, Macys published a letter from CEO Tony Spring to its employees updating them on the companys A Bold New Chapter strategy, which the department store chain unveiled in February 2024.
As part of that strategy, Macys announced at the time that it would be closing 150 underproductive stores through the end of 2026. Fast Company previously reported on 66 stores marked for closure in January 2025.
In his Thursday letter, Spring said that the Bold New Chapter strategy, which includes simplifying operations and investing in customer experiences that its shoppers value most, is working.
We are seeing customers respond through strong performance in our go-forward business, record Net Promoter Scores, and improved results over the first three quarters, Spring stated.
As a point used to highlight the A Bold New Chapters success, Spring said that the strategys Reimagine element, which is seeing Macys invest in 125 of its best-performing stores, was paying off. Those stores saw comparative sales grow 2.7% in the third quarter, which Spring said was the result of investment in those stores elevated merchandising, store design, and customer experience.
Unfortunately for some Macys employees, Spring also confirmed that the next round of store closures is beginning now.
How many Macys stores are closing?
Springs memo confirmed that Macys will close additional stores. Axios reported earlier that 14 stores that are closing in this round, and those store locations have also been marked with the notation This location is closing on Macys store locator tool.
The 14 stores are believed to be part of the 150 locations Macys previously said would close by the end of 2026 as part of its A Bold New Chapter strategy.
When will the Macy’s stores close?
In a FAQ about the store closures, Macys says the stores impacted will begin their clearance sales this month, and those sales will go on for approximately 10 weeks.
That places the closing date for these 14 locations at around the third week in March.
“These decisions are not made lightly,” Spring said in his letter. “We communicated directly with affected colleagues first and are providing support, including transfer opportunities where available, as well as severance and outplacement resources where applicable.
Which Macys stores are closing?
Fourteen Macys stores will be closing in this round. Those 14 stores are located in 12 states. Fast Company has reached out to Macy’s to confirm. The stores include:
California
Grossmont Center: 5500 Grossmont Center Drive, La Mesa, CA 91942
West Valley Mall: 3200 Naglee Rd, Tracy, CA 95304
Georgia
Northlake Mall: 4880 Briarcliff Rd NE, Atlanta, GA 30345
Maryland
Marley Station: 7900 Ritchie Highway, Glen Burnie, MD 21061
Michigan
Rivertown Crossings: 3850 Rivertown Parkway SW, Grandville, MI 49418
Minnesota
Crossroads Center: 4101 West Division Street, St Cloud, MN 56301
New Hampshire
Fox Run: 50 Fox Run Road, Newington, NH 03801
New Jersey
Livingston Mall: 112 Eisenhower Parkway, Livingston, NJ 07039
Interstate Shopping Center: 225 Interstate Shopping Center, Ramsey, NJ 07446
New York
Boulevard Mall: 1255 Niagara Falls Boulevard, Amherst, NY 14226
North Carolina
Triangle Town Center: 3801 Sumner Boulevard, Raleigh, NC 27616
Pennsylvania
Galleria at Pittsburgh Mills: 100 Pittsburgh Mills Cir, Tarentum, PA 15084
Texas
La Palmera Mall: 5488 S Padre Island Dr Ste 5000. Corpus Christi, TX 78411
Washington
Parkway Super Center: 17855 Southcenter Pkwy, Tukwila, WA 98188
How has Macys store reacted?
Yesterday, when Macys published Springs letter, the companys stock price (NYSE: M) closed up for the day, around 5.5% to $23.72 per share.
However, the gain in shares probably has little to do with the announcement of the closure of those 14 stores, as the company has long informed investors that it plans to close 150 locations by the end of this year.
Instead, the share price gain was most likely driven by Spring’s comments about the companys 2.7% comp growth in its Reimagine stores and 9% comp sales growth in its Bloomingdales stores in the third quarter.
With yesterdays share price jump, Macys shares are now up 7.57% for the year as of the time of this writing. Over the past 12 months, Macys shares have jumped nearly 48% and in the last few months have traded around levels not seen since January 2023.
Welcome to the first Fast Companys Plugged In of 2026, and Happy New Year to you.
More than 18 years ago, as the internet was transforming how we consume everything from news to music, someone called books the last bastion of analog. That someone happened to be Jeff Bezos. And he made the observation in a Steven Levy Newsweek article about Amazons original Kindle e-reader, a device designed to drag books into the digital age.
Bezoss comment resurfaced in my consciousness last week, as I read a New York Times article by Elizabeth A. Harris and Alexandra Alter on how the book publishing business fared in 2025. The upshot: It did pretty well overall, and remains a surprisingly analog enterprise.
To be clear, the internet in generaland Amazon in particularhas transformed how we buy and consume books. Market share figures for booksellers are tough to come by, but estimates show the company controlling 50% or more of print book sales, leaving chains such as Barnes & Noble and independents to jostle for whats left. Thats before you account for e-books and audiobooks, where Amazons Kindle and Audible platforms are overwhelmingly dominant.
Despite that, paper books remain popular, and many people choose to buy them at brick-and-mortar stores. As of mid-December, roughly three-quarters of the 707 million books sold last year were of the traditional, dead-tree variety. In the first 10 months, e-books accounted for only 11% of revenue, down from 17% in 2016. The American Booksellers Associations ranks swelled by 422 new shopsindependent ones, not chain operations. On top of that, we got dozens of new Barnes & Noble locations, with more on their way.
All of that suggests that books in their classic form arent just running on fumes of nostalgia or consumer inertia. Much of whats delightful about the whole experience of engaging with the medium is inherently physical, in ways that other mediamusic, movies, newspapers, magazinesare not.
I knew that a year ago when I declared that I was going to go out of my way to read dead-tree tomes in 2025, starting with the tower of them stacked on my nightstand. Taking the time to do so was a rewarding experience, and though life interfered with me reading as many as Id hoped, Im looking forward to continuing the quest in 2026 and beyond.
As I wrote in that newsletter, Im hardly an e-book hater. Theyre often cheaper than print equivalents. They let you carry your entire library wherever you go. They can be easily searched. For nonfiction volumes being read for research purposesa meaningful chunk of my book consumptionthey beat print as the best overall format.
Still, as I also wrote back then, e-books havent lived up to their full potential. Typographically and layout-wise, they remain rudimentary compared to paper. And even when they do things that print cant, they dont always do them well.
Thats been my experience with a new AI-powered Kindle feature called Ask this book. Introduced last month for thousands of titles in the Kindle iPhone and iPad apps, it lets you use a chatbot-style interface to pose questions about a books contents. To avoid spoilers, it defaults to its answers reflecting only what youve read so far.
The tool has proven controversial, in part because authors arent compensated and cant opt out. But when I tried it with my Kindle edition of Walter Isaacsons Steve Jobs, the big problem was that it was terrible. Its responses repeatedly mangled factual material, from the circumstances of Jobs time at Reed College to the year the iPod was introduced. They also failed to provide any citations, rendering them useless as entry points for additional reading within the e-book.
Ask this book does have the potential to evolve into something more interesting and useful. But when it comes to the shopping experience, for both digital and print books, Amazon has been marching in the wrong direction for years. Author Cory Doctorow coined the term enshittification to describe how tech products tend to grow customer-hostile over time. In his new book Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It, he declares Amazon to have reached a terminal stage of the phenomenon.
Indeed, the companys original taglineEarths biggest bookstorenow feels more like a threat than a promise. Even if you cut the company some slack for offering a shopping experience thats relentlessly utilitarian rather than intellectually stimulating, the place is in shambles. Search results are smothered with unrelated sponsored links and blatantly AI-generated junk books. Pages devoted to specific authors may be missing books, or, worse, list ones they didnt write. The search results for John Grisham started with a paperback copy of his 2002 novel The Summons for an absurd $51.76, with an estimated delivery turnaround of up to two weekseven though Amazon also has it for under 10 bucks with free Prime overnight shipping.
For decades, the fact that local book shops couldnt compete with Amazons massive inventory seemed like an existential weakness. But the best ones curate their selections in ways that offer a powerful alternative to Amazons unedited sprawl. To my knowledge, no online merchant has replicated the artful serendipity of brick-and-mortar book browsing, where wandering the aisles and stumbling across stuff you never knew existed is part of the point, not a distraction.
Recently, I did much of my holiday gift shopping at one of my favorite Bay Area bookstores, Menlo Parks Keplers. A large storebut not a completely enormous oneits a joy to get lost in. I didnt have to elbow my way past AI slop or sponsored chum, and emerged with a stack of books I would never have discovered through online shopping.
Unlike Amazon, Keplers doesnt offer discounts off list price. Actually, it tacks on a small surcharge to pay its employees a living wage. I am happy to pay it. The 70-year-old store, which almost went out of business in 2005, doesnt feel like a relic. Instead, like every good bookstore, its an idea too vibrant to be rendered irrelevant by technology. Its heartening to think the publishing industry has settled into a groove that will keep such neighborhood gems viable for years to come.
Youve been reading Plugged In, Fast Companys weekly tech newsletter from me, global technology editor Harry McCracken. If a friend or colleague forwarded this edition to youor if you’re reading it on fastcompany.comyou can check out previous issues and sign up to get it yourself every Friday morning. I love hearing from you: Ping me at hmccracken@fastcompay.com with your feedback and ideas for future newsletters. I’m also on Bluesky, Mastodon, and Threads, and you can follow Plugged In on Flipboard.
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One of Ikeas most popular lamps of the past several yearsnicknamed the donut lampis about to get a smart, colorful upgrade.
The original donut lamp debuted back in 2023 as part of Ikeas 20-piece Varmblixt collection with the Rotterdam-based designer Sabine Marcelis. With its glossy orange glass and soft, retro glow, the lamp quickly emerged as a fan favorite: In the three years since its debut, Ikea says one donut lamp has sold every five minutes in the U.S. Its the companys best-selling lamp, both in the U.S. and worldwide.
Given the lamps popularity, Ikea has teamed up with Marcelis for a new version, this time featuring a smart function that allows it to cycle through a curated palette of colors. The new donut lamp will be available for $99.99 starting in April, alongside a $149.99 color-changing version of a pendant lamp that also debuted as part of the original Varmblixt collection.
[Photo: Ikea]
The updated lamps come as Ikea is investing more into its smart products with a new range of easy-to-use bulbs, sensors, and smart plugs that debuted in November. Both the donut lamp and the pendant lamp are compatible with Ikeas smart home system hub, Dirigera, as well as Matter, the smart home technical standard that undergirds the rest of the companys smart home tech. This new integration signals that as smart systems become more central to Ikeas product approach, we might see the company begin to integrate new functions into more of its most popular items.
[Photo: Ikea]
How the donut became Ikeas most popular lamp
Theres a pretty good chance that youve stumbled across Ikeas donut lamp on your feeds. Since 2023, the lamp has gone viral multiple times among design enthusiasts. It’s become so ubiquitous that Marcelis says shes often walked past houses and seen it glowing through the windows.
It was pretty wild how viral it went, she says. When designing Varmblixt, I wanted to create timeless pieces that could be interpreted in many ways. The fact that the lamp can be both wall mounted and used as a table lamp already makes it very versatile. It’s a lamp that even if you have nothing else in a room, it works.
On TikTok and Instagram Reels, the donut lamp has generated an entire subgenre of videos dedicated to donut lamp hacks that use colorful electrical tape pasted over the interior bulb to darken the hue of the lamp. But with the smart donut lamp, Ikea fans will no longer need to risk overheating tape to curate their own lighting vibe.
[Photo: Ikea]
The donut lamp gets a colorful facelift
To make the smart donut lamp compatible with a range of colors, Marcelis traded the originals glossy orange surface for a matte white exterior that lets the interior bulbs colors shine through.
Its soft in texture and void of color, making the internal light source and colors it creates inside the volume glow in a really soft, diffused manner on the shell, Marcelis says.
Users can choose to connect the lamp to the Dirigera hub, which allows them to access a full color spectrum of more than 40 hues, adjust light intensity, and fiddle with dimming settings. The lamps default setting, however, is controlled by a remote featuring 12 colors selected by Marcelis specifically for the collection. The sequence moves through different temperatures of white light, into glowing amber and red, followed by soft pink, cool lavender, turquoise, yellow, and back to white.
I wanted the presets that you can vary between with the remote to be 12 specific atmospheres that range from alert work-mode light to party mode and all the way to cozy, calm mode, Marcelis says. I’ve had an early prototype in our guest room for the last six months, and this one pretty small lamp can change the hue of the whole room.
Resilience is not an inherited trait. It is a disciplined practicea way of showing up that is cultivated over time through deliberate training of the body, mind, and spirit. In high-stress environments, whether on the battlefield, in the boardroom, or in the quiet turmoil of daily life, the ability to remain steady amid volatility is what separates reactive living from intentional leadership. What many discover, often through hardship, is that resilience is less about bracing against impact and more about widening the internal space between stimulus and response. That spaceViktor Frankl called it the foundation of freedomallows for clarity, intentionality, and courage.
For decades, both in SEAL training and in my work with leaders, Ive observed that individuals who perform well under pressure share one common characteristic: they have learned to work with their minds rather than be ruled by them. This does not happen in moments of crisis. It is forged through consistent practices that strengthen attention, emotional steadiness, and a grounded sense of purpose. These are the pillars of mental toughness and well-being, and research continually affirms their effectiveness.
“Meeting the Witness”
Mental toughness begins with self-awarenesswhat I call meeting the witness. Before a person can regulate emotions or reframe challenging situations, they must learn to observe their inner world without being consumed by it. In Unbeatable Mind, I describe how an untrained mind behaves like a restless monkey, leaping from fear to fantasy, often amplifying stress rather than resolving it. Neuroscientific research supports this observation: studies from Harvard and Yale show that mindfulness training decreases activity in the brains default mode network, the system associated with rumination and self-critical thought. This reduction leads to greater emotional stability and improved executive control.
Breathe
Once awareness is established, the next layer of resilience comes through breath control. Box breathinga cornerstone practice in SEAL traininghas profound physiological effects. Stanford neuroscientist Andrew Huberman has highlighted that controlled exhalation slows the heart rate by activating the parasympathetic nervous system, promoting calm and clarity. Additional research from the National Institutes of Health demonstrates that slow, diaphragmatic breathing lowers cortisol levels, improves heart-rate variability (a key marker of stress resilience), and enhances cognitive performance during demanding tasks.
In intense environments, breath becomes an anchorrestoring coherence when chaos presses in. Emotional regulation is equally essential, and scientific literature is increasingly clear that avoiding difficult emotions weakens resilience. Psychologist James Gross, from Stanford University, has shown that emotional suppression increases physiological stress, while emotional awareness paired with cognitive reframing reduces anxiety and improves overall well-being.
Modern culture encourages distraction, numbing, or avoidance when emotions feel overwhelming. Yet true strength emerges when we turn toward discomfort and understand its message. Emotional awareness is not indulgence; it is intelligencedeeply connected to sustainable performance.
Self-compassion
Working with emotions also requires cultivating a compassionate inner dialogue. Research from Kristin Neff and Christopher Germer demonstrates that self-compassion reduces stress and anxiety while increasing resilience and perseverance. Many high performers assume harsh inner criticism fuels achievement, but studies continue to show the opposite: people who practice supportive self-talk persist longer, recover faster from setbacks, and perform better under pressure. This aligns closely with the warrior ethosdiscipline married to self-respect.
The Five Mountains
Another pillar of resilience is adopting an integrative approach to growththe Five Mountains framework. A person cannot expect to perform well under pressure when their physical, mental, emotional, intuitive, and spiritual domains are misaligned.
The scientific community increasingly recognizes this integrative model. The American Psychological Association notes that resilience is multidimensional: physical fitness improves stress tolerance; emotional intelligence enhances decision-making; and spiritual or purpose-driven frameworks improve long-term well-being and post-traumatic growth. These capacities reinforce one another. Neglect one domain, and the others are forced to absorb its weight.
Purpose and rituals
Purpose also plays a critical role. Research from the University of Pennsylvanias Positive Psychology Center shows that individuals with a strong sense of purpose experience lower stress, recover more quickly from adversity, and maintain higher levels of long-term motivation. Purpose acts as a stabilizing forceturning challenge into training rather than threat. When we reconnect with our deeper why, stress stops feeling like something to escape and becomes an arena for mastery.
Finally, resilience requires consistent rituals. In SEAL culture, the saying earn your trident every day reflects the truth that competence and courage must be renewed continually. Behavioral science supports this principle. Studies from MIT reveal that daily habits built through small, repeated actions create long-lasting neurological pathways, making resilience more automatic over time. Rituals such as breathing, movement, meditation, journaling, and visualization condition the mind and body to return to calmness quickly, maintain perspective, and operate from clarity. When practiced consistently, they create a durable internal foundation long before stress arrives.
Becoming whole
High-stress environments will always challenge the mind. They compress time, elevate stakes, and magnify uncertainty. But those conditions do not diminish a persons potential; they reveal it. Resilience grows when we learn to work with challenge rather than brace against it. It grows when we cultivate awareness, train the breath, embrace emotional truth, strengthen ourselves holistically, and commit to purposeful living. These practices form the stable internal structure that remains grounded even when the world around us feels uncertain.
The ultimate aim of resilience is not to become hardened or invulnerable. It is to become wholeto act from a place of grounded presence, compassion, and courage.
When you train your mind, emotions, and spirit in an integrated way, you develop a capacity for calm action that not only carries you through difficulty but enables you to serve others more powerfully. Resilience becomes less of a shield and more of an offering.
This is the path of the warrior-leader. It is available to anyone willing to train deliberately, look inward honestly, and step forward courageously. In this work, there is no finish lineonly deeper layers of awareness and growth. Each moment presents a new opportunity to choose steadiness, clarity, and purpose over reactivity and fear. That choice, made repeatedly, builds a resilient mind for life.
2025 was a year defined by buttholes and fury.
AI companies, fueled by unlimited piles of cash, got in line with the same approach to branding: whats been scatalogically dubbed a butthole logo. The amorphous circles neither propel you forward like a Nike swoosh nor ground you like an Apples apple. Instead they spin you around, hypnotizing you into who knows whats next, just keep staring.
At the same time, a polarized America debated its way through a newly political era of designwhat you can see everywhere from the Trump administrations choice of typeface to its decision to weigh in on brand plays from Cracker Barrel and American Eagle. Marketers seized this uneasy moment to snag engagement by overtly pissing us off.
So whats awaiting us in 2026?
Its a question we posed to several leading brand designers. Of the themes that followed, everyone seemed to agree that in 2026, well see the design worlds response to AIor, perhaps more accurately put, its many responses to AI. At the same time, were hearing early indications of designers who plan to draw more lines in the sand with clients, and take a more active role in this tenuous techno-political moment.
Just-Exactly-Not-Quite-Right design
Lately, most every conversation about design turns very quickly into one about AI: How will it affect our work? Our creativity? Our livelihood? I am sure we dont yet know the answers, but my hope is that we use these new tools in interesting and creative ways. In the meantime, I think a trend we will see in 2026 will be a renewed focus on humanity in the work we do and the brands we create. (And I dont just mean using puppets to sell iPhones.) I think there will be a deliberateness in the use of the quirky. There will be things that are made purposefully off in design, typography, illustration, and photography. The imperfect will become more interesting and powerful. Capturing the in-between moments, qualities that AI would scrub out.
[Illustration: FC]
I like to call it just-exactly-not-quite-right design, which suggests a skill and precision in making things look off. The wrong and the weird will be even more interesting and desired. I love the idea of logos that make you uncomfortable while still being beautiful, photography that catches the wrong moment, brand colors that shouldnt go together but somehow do. I look forward to seeing things that will look perfectly wrong in a way that only imperfect humans can makea way to show that we are not robots, yet.
And one more thing, if I may: Design and designers need to get more involved. This moment on earth calls for it. Obviously, in terms of using our abilities to make a difference, but also to figure out how to responsibly use this AI that we all cant stop talking about.
We need to be part of this conversation. What is our responsibility, in terms of ethics, energy, and ecology? What are the standards and regulations we set for ourselves and our clients? How do we protect ourselves and make the (design) world aware of the deeper implications of the use of AI? I think we owe it to ourselves and to our community to put ourselves in the narrative, because if we dont, someone else will make the rules for us. I believe we will (we must) see that happening more in 2026.
Emily Oberman, partner, Pentagram
Micro-epic: the language of now
The micro-epic unfolds in seconds. It is the reel that halts your finger mid-scroll, the meme that captures a cultural mood before you can articulate it. We often view these condensed narratives as a form of manipulation intended to trigger reactions, and, today, to keep us enraged. This skepticism is justified. But criticizing brevity itself overlooks a crucial point: Fitting more into less is not inherently corrupting. This is how stories adapt when attention becomes scarce.
History provides us with insight. In 17th-century Japan, Matsuo Bash transformed the initial stanza of collaborative poetry into a stand-alone art formthe haiku; three lines encapsulated entire seasons, fleeting emotions, and universes. Constraint didn’t diminish his artistry; it focused it. Today’s micro-epics can function similarly. A screenshot imparts knowledge. A six-second clip moves us. A sharp edit emits truth. The concise format is a pliable tool. The crucial question is what we choose to make: something true and lasting, or an improved way to sell, enrage, and distract. The grammar of the micro-epic is new, but the choice is old.
Forest Young, global design and AI resident, Wolff Olins
A renaissance of craft
In 2026, well witness the renaissance of craft and detail. A surge of the “How did you do that?!” kind of work, the work that demands serious control and detail-orientedness to execute. A pushback against the ease of automation.
A few years ago, when AI started becoming more widely used, optimists (myself included) predicted that the economy of craft would rise as a result, that mediocre work would become even more devalued. My prediction is that this year, we’ll start to see a return on that prediction. Since releasing the ornamental Eternal Research identity, Ive had multiple conversations with fellow design leaders and studio heads who mentioned theyd been attempting similar ideas, which tells me people’s heads are already moving in this direction.
I believe this shift will show up across all facets of design, from fashion (see the era-specific details in Chanels recent subway show) to interior design (already having a maximalist moment) to architecture, where Googles top search terms now include postmodern, art deco, and googie.
[Images: Fender]
How this impacts branding is both a question and a challenge. The strongest logos have notoriously been the simplest ones, and I dont believe that fundamental truth will change. However, we may see more vintage logos redrawn for the digital age (see Mouthwashs Fender), detailed custom typefaces (Ive got my eyes on Sharp Type), and craft that comes forward in design systems and motifs.
[Screenshot: Sharp]
The real question is whether this resurgence of craft will be a lasting cultural immune response, or if its merely a countertrend. My prediction is that, like all trends, it will rise, peak, and eventually balance out with another trend that fights back (perhaps the return of minimalism in a couple of decades). But whatever is to come, the bottom line is that we are at the very, very exciting beginning of an incredible and mind-blowing design shift, and I couldnt be more excited to witness it.
Talia Cotton, founder and principal, Cotton
The AI logo apocalypse continues
There are more than 212,000 active AI companies worldwide. More than 62,000 are startups. In the past year alone, more than 300 new AI companies launched. The gold rush is real. The money is loud. And the visual landscape looks like a cosmic field of identical swirling apertures paired with bland product interfaces.
Call it the AI butthole logo phenomenon. Credit the meme that said what the industry wouldnt.
[Screenshot: courtesy Lisa Smith]
Despite the anxiety that AI will replace creatives, these companies are still hiring the best ones. Top-tier designers. World-class agencies. Serious budgets. And yet the output keeps collapsing into the same hyper-sanitized aesthetic: abstract gradients, circular vortex marks, glowing rings, vaguely intelligent blobs, and product design so neutral it feels algorithmically flattened.
This is branding by autocomplete. Safe. Smooth. Instantly forgettable.
This isnt a creativity problem. Its a confidence problem.
For an industry obsessed with disruption, AI is remarkably afraid of standing out. Legitimacy is signaled through sameness. Familiar shapes. Approved colors. Visual language thats already been validated by capital.
[Screenshots: courtesy Lisa Smith]
When OpenAIs sphincter-adjacent logo succeeded, it didnt just brand a companyit branded the category. It quietly set the standard for what serious AI is supposed to look like. Circular. Abstract. Untouchable.
Now any AI company that doesnt resemble a glowing anatomical opening risks being written off before its even understood.
Innovation everywhere. Originality nowhere.
Lisa Smith, global chief design officer, Uncommon
Old dogs, new tricks
In a disrupted world, new ideas and talent will rise from unexpected places. Incumbents will realize that what got us here will not get us there. As the old guard works to reinvent, many will break away, resulting in unexpected work from unexpected places. It will be the best of times and the worst of times for creativity.
We are seeing change to our industry that we have not seen for 100 years. Holding groups are in decline, creative leaders are being replaced with tech and finance experts, and some of the most prolific creative firms have ceased to exist. This fallout creates incredible opportunity, a leveling of the playing field, where independent agencies will claim their space and usher in a new wave of creativity.
What will play out this year is a continued battle ver the use of technology: What is real. What is fake. What is human. We will continue to discuss the uncanny valley of AI advertising and whether brand evolutions done the hard way are good, even if no one can tell.
Work has become easier to make and harder to remember. As production tools are democratized, speed and scale are mistaken for value, even as quality, memorability, and persuasion are left behind.
Tosh Hall, global chief creative officer, JKR
Democratic tools drive differentiation
Creative tools are easier than ever to access and engage with. Weve moved from desktop, single-serve software that was often the regard of a fewhidden behind downloads and deep technological know-howto cloud-based creative platforms where everyone gets to play.
And now we’ve welcomed AI into the mix. Image generation makes an art director of everyone and vibe coding democratizes code. Everyone gets to be grammatically correct and sharp in their writing. Brand guidelines are checked by machines, not people. AI is bringing people closer to the ability to execute their ideas, which means know-how is no longer enough.
So what happens? The expectation of brands, and the standard of their design, rises. Weve seen this before in consumer expectations of the webfor example, compare the aesthetic of Web 1.0 to 2.0. The result of better tools is better practitioners and more experience. Design itself becomes more critical than ever, but is less of a differentiator. Its table stakes.
So wheres the opportunity? Taste, ideas, andperhaps most importantlydaring to differentiate from the market and vertical you exist within.
In today’s world, where everyone can have great design, the meaningful, strategically rigorous brands that take a strong position on who they are and how they appear will ultimately win.
Jowey Roden, chief creative officer, Koto
A scarcity of taste
AI will continue to pollute the world of marketing and communications, contributing noise, clutter, confusion, and complexity through artificial imagery, videos, messaging, and brand elementssomething the world isn’t asking for and surely doesn’t need more of. If you look at the Jaguar, American Eagle, and Cracker Barrel of it all, these brands made noise, and some were immediately rewarded for it.
But they could have seen better outcomes if they committed to answering some essential, tough questions beforehand.
We will see more cases like this next year as budgets continue to tighten, and as the competition for attention intensifies. At the same time, well see the opposite from truly great brands making investments in what not to do and where not to show up.
As asset creation becomes cheaper, marketing budgets will reallocate to high-quality foundational brand building (clarity, consistency, voice). Since audiences can now smell the faintest BS more easily, smart marketers will ask, What do we actually stand for, and how do we say it clearly? This will give rise to the intermediary expert in 2026.
The winning brands will almost appear to play it safe, when in fact they’re just intentional, consistent, focused. Deliberately narrow in their ambition and crystal clear in their positioning. They won’t sound like they were written by the algorithmthey’ll sound like someone who knows exactly what they believe, who they’re talking to, and why it matters.
If that sounds simple, it’s because it is. But committing to simplicity, clarity, and authenticity so that your customers get you requires the opposite of what AI offers. It requires taste.
Jason Cieslak, global president, Siegel+Gale
2000s Techno-Dystopia and the return of Playstation 1 and 2
Whats resurfacing under the name 2000s Techno-Dystopia is not nostalgia for the early internet so much as a reacceptance of its emotional climate. Metallic sheen, hostile minimalism, moody art direction, synthetic hues, sharp typography. This was an era when technology felt powerful, alien, and immersive. Interfaces didnt bend to legibility, they required you to adhere to their logic. They didnt have best practices. They had vision. They didnt baby you. You didnt customize them. You entered them.
What makes this trend different from earlier nostalgia cycles is its lack of comfort. There is no warmth, no sepia filter, no promise of simpler times. This isnt classical retrofuturism, its a new retrofuturism. Cyber Y2K is not about childhoodits about adolescence under fluorescent light. When design has taken out all danger, well, thats exactly what we begin to crave.
This brand of Cyber Y2K does not ask to be liked. It asks to be registered. Its surfaces are reflective but emotionally opaque. Typography is narrow, sharp, slightly uncomfortable to read. Motion design favors glitches, flickers, abrupt transitions. There is often a sense that the interface is not meant for you. Or at least not designed with you in mind. This is branding that does not flatter the users self-image as a creative collaborator. It restores a kind of asymmetry: The brand has power; you encounter it.
Y2K-era Playstation Ads [Images: Sony]
For a decade, branding moved in the opposite direction. Platforms softened their edges, adopted warmth, and borrowed the language of care just as they consolidated control. In the age of AI, that friendliness has collapsed under its own dishonesty. Generative systems speak fluently but impersonally; they produce without intention or empathy. Against this backdrop, 2000s Techno-Dystopia reads as truthful. Cold surfaces, dark and shiny, mirror how technology is actually felt now.
This aesthetic always carried sex appeal. Early-2000s futurism framed the body as optimized, sharpened, and slightly inhuman. Slick skin, hard lighting, hyper-controlled silhouettes. Desire was technical, not romantic. That logic converges almost perfectly with the cultural rise of GLP-1 drugs. No discipline arc, no wellness sermon. Just outcome. The body, like the interface, becomes something tuned rather than understood.
Together, these forces explain whats to come. 2000s Techno-Dystopia rejects reassurance in favor of intensity. It doesnt promise warmth or fun, but it does have momentum and a strange, polished appeal, not optimistic for the future necessarily, but a pomise to look good getting there.
This aesthetic is not anti-capitalist. It is capitalism shedding its friendliness. It reflects a recognition that users no longer believe brands are on their side. And so brands can stop pretending. They become systems again. Brands dont need to feel human to be enjoyed.
In an era saturated with friendliness, the cold interface is radical. Chrome reflects, but it does not empathize. That may be the point.
Rion Harmon, cofounder and executive creative director, Day Job
Brands love to insert themselves into cultural conversations or piggyback on buzzy current events, a strategy sometimes called newsjacking. But it can happen without seeking, or even wanting, the attention. The borderline absurd virality of a Nike tracksuit evidently worn by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro as he was taken into the custody of American captors is the most high-profile recent examplebut it definitely wont be the last.
This form of what we could call involuntary product placement can be a conundrum for brands, which prefer to be associated with upbeat or positive events, not dictators or controversial geopolitics. And thats been made even more challenging by a starkly divided political climate that has put brands from Bud Light to Tesla to Hilton in the crossfire, and a hypercharged social media environment that constantly hungers for new angles, riffs, and takes on whatever is hogging the spotlight.
Of course, involuntary product placement isnt new: If you remember the car chase climaxing in O.J. Simpsons arrest, you know he was driving a Ford Bronco. Yet unsolicited pop-culture brand cameos arent always bad. Ocean Spray, for instance, enjoyed a boost after it accidentally had a starring role in a feel-good viral clip of a skateboarder sipping the drink as Fleetwood Macs Dreams played. And in a marketing-soaked world, plenty of accidental brand appearances scarcely register.
@420doggface208 Dreams (2004 Remaster) – Fleetwood Mac
But that same ubiquity is part of what makes brands such handy and ultimately irresistible signifiers for people to latch on to and exploitespecially now, when they pop up in full-on news spectacles amplified by social media. Spawning instant and endless memes (and, increasingly, AI fakery), these events soak up and repurpose all the relevant cultural material they can, brands very much included.
When a healthcare executive was gunned down in Manhattan in 2024, for example, coverage of the subsequent manhunt included plenty of online scrutiny of his jacket, backpack, and other gear. Since Luigi Mangione was arrested on murder charges for the crime, brand sleuths have continued to obsess over his courtroom style choices, snapping up items like a merino sweater from Nordstrom he wore to his arraignment.
Luigi Mangione arrives at Manhattan Criminal Court on December 23, 2024, wearing a sweater from Nordstrom. [Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images]
The Maduro tracksuit has brought all this to a new level, attracting attention for how much attention it was attracting. Searches for Nike Tech spiked, and styles and colorways similar to the jacket and pants Maduro wore were selling out; some reviews on the brands site seemed to wink at the whole scenario. (Viva Venezuela!!) There was something disconcerting about the presence of a globally recognizable brand in a moment typically governed by the visual codes of state power, design writer and educator Debbie Millman observed. Athleisure replaced uniform; a logo supplanted insignia.
The specific tracksuit has its own cultural significance, a New York Times style assessment on the matter reported, and has lately served as a uniform of sorts for some rappers and athletes (and their fans). Less seriously, of course, the juxtaposition of a detained head of state and Nike gear was fodder for a slew of ironic meme humora steal his look parody; the mock slogan For the gym. For errands. For federal custody, and so on.
A brand caught up in an involuntary product placement moment certainly doesnt want to be seen as celebrating the attention. But really any kind of acknowledgment can be fraught.
When the healthcare executives killer was still at large, the CEO of Peak Design recognized the shooters backpack as one made by his company, reached out to law enforcementand ended up being threatened by customers who evidently wanted the fugitive to escape.
As for Nike and its tracksuits unplanned week in the spotlight, the company swiftly replied to an inquiry from Fast Company, declining any comment. Sometimes when a brand finds its products placed in the middle of the cultural conversation, the best move is to just do nothing and wait quietly until the news moves on.
