Dec 7, 2023

Here’s what’s happening today in design: Pinterest Predicts 2024 trends; Meta's new text-to-image AI; Google's GPT-4 killer; NoCode holiday get together Dec 13th; How AI is fooling the photography world; Embedded experiences in conversational UI; Getting started with AI-based tools as a designer; You can now chat with Luke Wroblewski's website; Designers discuss complexity and design; Figma prototyping masterclass ; Some juicy graph explorations; Product illustrations take time, but how much?; A wavy music store mockup.

TODAY IN DESIGN 1909

The Dawn of the Plastic Age: Leo Baekeland Patents Bakelite.

On this day, the course of material science and design was irrevocably altered as Leo Baekeland, a Belgian-American inventor, secured a patent for Bakelite. This marked the birth of the modern plastics industry. Bakelite was the first thermosetting plastic, a material that would not melt or reshape once cured, opening up a world of possibilities across various industries.

Bakelite's heat resistance and electrical nonconductivity made it an ideal material for a multitude of uses, ranging from telephones and electrical insulators to jewelry and kitchenware. Its versatility and ease of production heralded a new era of manufacturing and design, symbolizing the move towards modern synthetic materials.