DESIGN DISPATCH

Apple Reveals Candy-Colored iMacs, and Other News

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Apple’s updated iMacs

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Apple reveals uncharacteristically colorful products at its spring product launch event.

Apple unveiled a slew of new products and upgrades during its annual spring product launch event, including a new iPad pro, a long-awaited AirTag location tracker, and an updated Apple TV and remote. Most notably, the brand slimmed the design of its iMac and introduced seven candy-hued colors, including peach, mint, and lavender—perhaps a nod to its early days, when Apple was known for infusing unexpectedly bold colors into tech. The new iMac, which will be available for purchase in the second half of May, also comes with colorful keyboards, mouses, and trackpads. 

Chicago increases its public art budget by 15,000 percent for a new cultural program.

As part of a new $60 million cultural recovery program called Arts 77, Chicago will bolster its public art budget from $100,000 to $3 million—a 15,000 percent increase. Per an announcement from Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot’s office, the program “signals a new direction for Chicago’s cultural policy, which in the arts are embedded in initiatives and strategies across city government.” Five collectives and artists have already been awarded $100,000 to spearhead ambitious public art projects, while seven more organizations have been earmarked to fund projects by individual artists.

Crib bumpers, which were originally designed to protect infants, are linked to many deaths.

Bipartisan legislation is being introduced that will ban the sale of crib bumpers, which are still being sold across the United States despite having been linked to dozens of deaths and more than 100 serious injuries of sleeping infants since 1985. While bumpers were originally designed to protect babies, research shows they can do the opposite: Infants suffocate in the bumper and suffer sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). “The fact that these deadly products can still be found on shelves across the country is extremely confusing to new parents who don’t believe stores would be selling them if they were truly dangerous to Babies,” Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) said in a statement about the Safe Cribs Act. “We should be doing everything we can to help new parents and end preventable deaths like these.

Kris Van Assche. Photography by Johan Sandberg

Kris Van Assche departs LVMH’s Berluti as creative director after three years at the helm.

LVMH Group has announced that Kris Van Assche will depart heritage menswear label Berluti after three years. “In order to maintain our commitment to both savoir-faire and innovation, we have decided to let Berluti lead its own rhythm and give freedom to its presentation schedule,” CEO Antoine Arnault said in a statement. Before Berluti, Van Assche helmed Dior Homme from 2007 to 2018; there’s no word on his next word.

Did the Boring Company’s Hyperloop between Baltimore and Washington get canceled?

Plans for a Hyperloop to connect Baltimore and Washington, DC, may have been scrapped. All mentions of the tunnel, as well as one connecting L.A.’s Red Line subway and Dodgers Stadium, have been scrubbed from the Boring Company’s website. Both lines had recently been mired in lengthy environmental review processes, so their subtle disappearance suggests that founder Elon Musk may be backing away from the projects. The Las Vegas Hyperloop is still proceeding, though it involves boarding a Tesla and telling a human driver which station to let you off at—a far cry from 16-person high-speed shuttles that were originally promised.

Image courtesy Virtually Human

Today’s attractive distractions:

This curious machine repurposes microplastics into injectable tattoo ink.

A visual journalist’s playful sketches help explain climate change to kids.

People are spending real money to breed digital horses on the blockchain.

Michelangelo’s David receives a 3D-printed twin that weighs ten times less.

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