Chattanooga, Tennessee, sees itself on the rebound, with a boom in arts and industry. Designers Robbie de Villiers and Jeremy Dooley think they can telegraph these gains with a custom-designed typeface for the city: Chatype.

Spanish collective Boa Mistura recently led a “typographic intervention” with residents in the São Paulo favela of Vila Brâsilandia. Playing tricks with perspective, they made words like “sweetness” and “tenacity” appear to float above the winding pathways.

Citizen architecture critics can learn a few things from Ada Louise Huxtable, the New York Times’ first design critic. A reading of her work yields some tips: Set the scene visually, address history, and remember there’s drama in how buildings make us feel.

Ikea is teaming up with Oregon-based architectural firm Ideabox to get into the prefab housing business. The Swedish-themed one-bedroom abode, which has a design focused on efficient space use, will retail for just shy of $87,000.

After leaving a curatorial post at the Walker, James H. Elliott brought a design sensibility to LACMA when he began as assistant chief curator in 1956, hiring designers like Frederick Usher and Marion Sampler to shape the museum’s communications.

There’s a backlash against architects who are making “buildings that have movement and feeling,” says Frank Gehry. “The notion is that it is counterproductive to social responsibility and sustainability.”

Despite its “bizarre” proportions and serifs that are “some crossbreed of whale and polar bear,” there’s lots to love about the “sexy ugly” typeface Cooper Black, writes Armin Vit.