OpenAI Adds Reusable ‘Characters' and Video Stitching to Sora (2 minute read)
OpenAI has expanded Sora 2's capabilities by introducing "character cameos," which allow users to turn pets, illustrations, toys, and other subjects into reusable AI video avatars with customizable sharing permissions. The update also adds video stitching, which combines multiple clips into longer, multi-scene videos, as well as leaderboards showcasing popular content and characters. OpenAI temporarily opened sign-ups for the Sora app in the US, Canada, Japan, and Korea without requiring invitation codes.
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PepsiCo rebrands for the first time in 25 years, and I'm underwhelmed (3 minute read)
PepsiCo has unveiled a new logo, shifting from its 25-year-old design to lowercase letters centered on a “P” surrounded by shapes representing food, drinks, sustainability, and consumer focus, with a tagline of “Food. Drinks. Smiles.” However, critics find it overly complicated, underwhelming, and unlikely to raise awareness of its extensive portfolio beyond Pepsi itself.
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Perplexity Strikes Multi-year Licensing Deal with Getty Images (2 minute read)
AI search startup Perplexity has signed a multi-year licensing agreement with Getty Images, enabling it to display Getty's stock photos across its AI-powered search tools, accompanied by proper attribution and links to sources. The deal marks a shift for Perplexity, which faced plagiarism accusations this year for scraping content and images from news organizations. While Getty was previously part of Perplexity's Publishers' Program for revenue sharing, this new deal legitimizes the startup's past use of Getty photos.
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Good from Afar, but Far from Good: AI Prototyping in Real Design Contexts (12 minute read)
An evaluation of AI prototyping tools, using a real redesign project, found that they can follow instructions to achieve general goals but lack the sophistication to produce thoughtful, high-quality designs without extensive human guidance. More specific prompts with detailed requirements yielded better results, though AI outputs still missed subtle nuances in visual hierarchy, spacing, and grouping that distinguish polished designs from merely adequate ones. The tools are most effective for early ideation and concept exploration, rather than final production, and paradoxically require a strong design knowledge to use effectively.
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UX is More Than Screens: The Art of Designing Emotions (6 minute read)
Steve Jobs transformed Apple by prioritizing emotional design over pure functionality, establishing "form follows emotion" as a guiding principle that science later validated through research showing aesthetics affect perceived usability. Emotional design operates on three levels—visceral, behavioral, and reflective—while AI now amplifies human empathy by creating hyper-personalized experiences that adapt to users' emotional states in real-time. The future of UX depends on synergizing artificial and emotional intelligence to design systems that understand not just user actions, but their feelings, making authentic human connection the ultimate measure of success.
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Developers Shouldn't Learn Design. Designers Shouldn't Code (7 minute read)
The debate over whether designers should code or developers should design misses the real issue: collaboration fails not from lack of shared skills, but from poorly structured roles built around handoffs instead of understanding. True progress comes from clarity—distinct yet connected roles like UX vs. UI and logic-focused vs. view-focused developers—working in a network, not a pipeline. Teams don't need hybrids - they need specialists who understand adjacent disciplines, especially the often-overlooked UI Developer who bridges design and implementation.
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Intuitive Interfaces: What Actually Makes Them Clear (7 minute read)
Intuitive interfaces aren't created through templates or familiar patterns alone, but through systematic work that accounts for business goals, the product, and how users think. Poor visual quality, unmet expectations, high cognitive load, and ignoring user scenarios create "roadblocks" that confuse people and make them feel stupid, ultimately driving them away. The key is adapting interfaces to users rather than forcing users to adapt, focusing on clarity that builds confidence and enables people to accomplish their goals without struggling through confusing design.
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You're Doing Vibe Coding Wrong: Here's How to Do it Right (11 minute read)
Vibe coding can accelerate development when used strategically for low-risk tasks, such as personal scripts, static sites, and prototypes. However, it becomes dangerous when applied to security-critical systems, including authentication, payment processing, or healthcare applications. Common pitfalls include AI-generated security vulnerabilities, accumulating technical debt through prompt-driven architecture sprawl, and debugging code that developers don't understand. To code responsibly, developers need foundational coding knowledge, must break projects into testable units, validate all AI outputs, maintain version control, and choose popular and well-documented frameworks and libraries.
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Pentagram uses clever design to bring unseen women into focus (4 minute read)
UNSEEN, a campaign by Marina Willer and Pentagram, brings global attention to the plight of North Korean women through striking visuals—a translucent red dot covering each woman's face to symbolize both erasure and resilience. Supported by Amnesty International and others, the campaign turns absence into presence using thoughtful design and ethical storytelling to confront hidden suffering while preserving dignity, reminding creatives that powerful work carries responsibility, meaning, and the courage to challenge audiences.
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Jae Lee, Matej Latin & Ralph Brinker
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