Derek Jones

TOTTIE - THE STORY OF A DOLL'S HOUSE (1984): Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin's Smallfilms, home to Bagpuss and The Clangers, gave us this charming series about the inhabitants of a doll's house. Young viewers weren't prepared for a favourite character's death by immolation...

So that was Wednesday October 29th 2025. Crikey. Another day done, another (more or less) here. So it goes.

(Released this very month in 1986, just 39 years ago, Watchmen #6, with its iconic cover by Dave Gibbons & John Higgins.)

And so to bed. Sleep well, gentle sentients of Planet Earth.

Siku

Call for contributions: Annual Symposium 2026 (Submissions by: 15 December 2025 17:00 GMT) Association of National Teaching Fellows Symposium 2026 12th-13th May 2026 at the Newcastle University Roll up! Roll up! It’s that time of year where the most exciting call for papers happens…

Call for contributions: Annual Symposium 2026 (Submissions by: 15 December 2025 17:00 GMT)
ntf-association.com/call-for-con...

The next Futures of Design Education discussion: Surfacing Institutional Contexts of Design Education.

Andrew Whitcomb Ulises & Navarro Aguiar

Friday 14 November 2025 at 15:00 GMT (NOTE later start time)

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/surfacing-...

Anyone into Design Ed is welcome to come along!

It's absolutely insane looking at Darwyn Cooke's early work

The Open University is seeking a partnership to co.deliver a seminar series on all aspects of Pedagogic Research, Scholarship and Innivation.

Let me know if this appeals.

@Welspraxis.bsky.social

Londonderry: 90-year-old woman graduates university 90-year-old Maryette was the oldest of more than 300 graduates at the Open University's ceremony in Belfast on Tuesday.

How lovely is this 😍 So proud to work for this amazing institution @openuniversity.bsky.social BBC News - Great-grandmother graduates university at 90 years old
www.bbc.com/news/article...

Colin MacNeil

Next time somebody asks me what Bluesky is like, I'll send them this

PLAY SAFE: FRISBEE (1978) BAFTA-nominated all-time classic PIF, and part of the Scarred For Life Hall of Fame. Poor Jimmy famously gets 66,000 volts up his hoop whilst trying to retrieve his frisbee, while sister Amy looks on helplessly. All together now: "JIMMYYYYYYY!"

A usb port with the letter usb printed in both orientations. It also says “literature only” next to it

Firstly, great to see a discerning USB port. But also good to see recognition that NO ONE knows why these things have spin 1.5 and never go in first or second time

Also, there’s a definite wathammer 40k vibe there too :)

Universidade de Aveiro drain cover with studio properties book on it

Universidade de Aveiro bollard with studio properties book on it

Universidade de Aveiro main concourse with studio properties book in the foreground

Gotta love a uni that has its own branded drain covers and bollards

Very interesting. We’ve been relying on this by instinct in design subjects but this might be an interesting way to expand ideas and definitions of design and spatial literacies…

Seeking human traces in AI writing Introduction

There is a lot of excellent insights here, but the thing that is newest to me is the idea that generated images reveal the flaws and limits of LLM “thinking” more than text because of differences in people’s visual literacy
meresophistry.substack.com/p/seeking-hu...

STEM Freshers': OpenTalk- Visions Matter YouTube video by The Open University's Faculty of STEM

My talk on seeing the amazing Jennie Lee as the leqd designer of the OU and whay visions matter - youtube.com/live/VTV7kNz... #outalks

Now available online in english: Naoki Urasawa interviewing Katsuhiro Otomo about his work and his manga "Domu" during one hour.
"Manben" is such a great TV program.
>> www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/...

The first book launch for Studio Properties is this Friday 12 September at 13:00

Hear us talk about why “There is something very special about studio as a place of practice and learning"

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/book-launch-studio-properties-a-field-guide-to-design-education-tickets-1431651380819

Tiernan Trevallion

An utterly splendid Swedish movie poster for 1958’s Horror Of Dracula.

This issue, with that centre page.

There's going to be an online book launch of Studio Properties, hosted by the DRS Education SIG!

Next Friday, 12 September 2025 at 13:00 BST.

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/book-launc...

Come along to hear from myself and fellow authors about the ideas behind the book. There may be cake.

Hedley - that's HEDLEY - Lamarr

SKELETOR, you boob

These guys have exactly the same energy

Hope you enjoy it! And completely agree re paper - nothing like it. :)

A top-down view of a pack of materials I got from The Open University. There's a workbook, a sketchbook, a poster, some postcards, and a paper pack. It's all designed with white, dark gray, red and blue colours.

Am about to start my second year of study with The Open University. The materials arrived today, looking and feeling good. Three cheers for good quality paper sketchbooks.

Lickability, Heft, and Looking Good - Studio Properties This is a quick post about the physical book itself: the Artefact [> 151] that is Studio Properties. I’m not exaggerating when I say that we spent a long time designing the book. From the start we wan...

To celebrate the launch of the Studio Properties book, we've invented two new metrics for measuring quality - Heft and Lickability.

Feel free to use these to measure your own book collections...

You're welcome!

studioproperties.org/lickability-...

Becoming a designer is like making a good cheese: it takes time and lots of bacteria.

How to make a book about a messy object - Studio Properties Should a book about the educational design studio include a definition of studio? Probably. Have we defined studio in Studio Properties? Umm … yes … and … no. Studio is challenging to define. It just ...

And fellow author James Corazzo has a nice post on How to Make a Book About a Messy Object, if you want a sneak peek: studioproperties.org/how-to-make-...

The Studio Properties: A Field Guide to Education book looking lovely with its pink and green organic cover.

Just noticed that, with the publication of the new book, it's currently 30% off if you order direct from @bloomsburyacad.bsky.social - that's nearly a tenner off: www.bloomsbury.com/uk/studio-pr...