TLDR Design 2026-03-12

Rumors suggest the iPhone 18 Pro may be slightly thicker (8.8 mm) to accommodate a larger 5,000mAh+ battery and the new 2 nm A20 Pro chip, while Apple may reuse some iPhone 17 Pro molds. If that happens, expected changes like a much smaller Dynamic Island and under-display Face ID could be reduced or delayed.

Apple is reportedly planning to launch a new iMac later this year with a refreshed color palette similar to the MacBook Neo's Silver, Blush, Citrus, and Indigo options. The new iMac would likely feature Apple's M5 chip, following the current M4 iMac lineup that comes in seven colors. It remains unclear whether Apple will use the same Neo colors or maintain its current $1,299 starting price.

Adobe has launched a beta AI assistant for Photoshop on the web and mobile, enabling users to edit images through natural language commands instead of navigating menus. The assistant can modify backgrounds, adjust lighting, remove objects, and guide users through complex workflows via text or voice. It's part of Adobe's broader AI push across its creative suite, which recently expanded to include conversational PDF editing and AI tools in Acrobat and Premiere.

Designing layout content blocks instead of full templates offers a more adaptable approach for modern digital products, unlike rigid page templates that break when content shifts. Modular blocks are self-contained units built on consistent grid systems, allowing pages to scale naturally. This approach speeds up iteration, simplifies developer handoffs, and embeds brand consistency directly into the system.

The Seattle Seahawks' Super Bowl victory demonstrates how a brand culture that contemporizes heritage can be a powerful competitive advantage. Brand provenance - a company's authentic history and origin story - serves as a foundational strength when it preserves the best of the past while staying relevant for present and future performance. Successful brands maximize the paradox between heritage and relevance rather than simply balancing them, creating distinctive value propositions that don't compromise on contradictory benefits.

Design teams often struggle to show impact because they join companies late—after products are already built with little UX—and are sometimes treated as visual executors rather than strategic contributors. To increase their influence, designers must broaden their skills beyond visuals by understanding business, data, leadership, and new technologies like AI and code.

They're not generating product images with AI. They're rendering them in real-time 3D and using AI for everything around it: scenes, styling, variants, animations. The product stays pixel-perfect. Creative scales infinitely. Glossi is the content automation platform that makes this possible, entirely in the browser. One 3D source file in, thousands of production-ready visuals out. See it in action →

Storyship offers AI tools for creating demo videos, audiobooks, and lip-sync content from existing materials such as screen recordings, manuscripts, or videos.

GenPPT AI is an AI-powered presentation generator that uses Claude Opus 4.6 to create professional PowerPoint slides from text descriptions in minutes.

BrandingStudio.ai is an AI platform that creates complete brand identities in 50-70 minutes through seven integrated modules, including strategy, visual design, and launch assets.

Many software products are built like the Winchester Mystery House—features added without a coherent plan—because teams ship in silos without designing the overall user journey first. Companies need a “blueprint” approach to design that maps how users move through systems and how components connect, especially with AI accelerating development, or they risk creating fast but fragmented experiences that drive customers away.

Women designers in the Dribbble community share diverse stories of building creative careers on their own terms, from freelance illustrator Irene Neyman, who reformatted her career after becoming a mother to prioritize intentional project choices. Miné Day, co-founder of MUTI Studio, emphasizes creating collaborative work cultures where people feel valued rather than having to prove their worth. Their experiences highlight that being a woman in design means choosing visibility over safety and defining success through personal values rather than traditional paths.

Curation of Curations is a website by Sulaimaan Durrani that gathers high-quality design inspiration videos, documentaries, interviews, and talks into one dark-mode destination, free of algorithmic noise. The site features carefully selected content from sources like Google Design, Apple, and Vox, focusing on quality over quantity with videos that require attention rather than passive consumption. It serves as an antidote to creative fatigue by providing designers with curated content worth watching, organized like a cinema lobby with thoughtful editorial judgment.

French illustrator Linda Merad created a surreal lithography-inspired animated campaign for Hermès' “Venture Beyond” theme, turning a small Instagram commission into a broader digital project featuring a whimsical seahorse journey through a fantastical world.

Many UK creatives are leaving or considering leaving due to economic pressures, as work slows, budgets shrink, and clients become more cautious about spending.

Firefly is designed for seamless integration into Adobe's creative workflow and commercial safety, while Midjourney excels at visual exploration and artistic outputs.