For a futurist, our request might have been unwelcome: look back. Thankfully, artist and technologist Julian Bleecker agreed, offering his top 10 moments from 2012 in a list that ranges from acts of God (Hurricane Sandy) to the completely man-made (Instagram and “computational photography” cameras) to the pop cultural and artistic (Frank Ocean, Tom Sachs, and the death of the Beastie Boys’ Adam Yauch).

Under the motto “books in an expanded field,” Badlands Unlimited aims to challenge ideas about publishing to encompass everything from art shows curated for the Kindle and iPad to experimental typography and artist e-books. In an interview with Barcelona-based Latitudes, Badlands’ Paul Chan, Ian Cheng, and Micaela Durand discuss their work “embracing every facet of a book’s social life today.”

Already known nationally for its parks system, Minneapolis stands to burnish that reputation with a new plan for the upper reaches of the Mississippi. RiverFirst aims to establish parks as an engine for economic development along the river corridor, from St. Anthony Falls to the city limits some five miles to the north. City officials call it the park system’s “next frontier.”

Christophe Szpajdel, who has created some 10,000 brand marks since the 1980s, may be among the more prolific logo designers anywhere. He may also be one of the most unusual: he creates identities for bands such as Pyre, Vomit of Torture, and Godrot. When he visited Minneapolis for the opening of Graphic Design: Now in Production, Szpajdel added one more name to the list: the Walker Art Center.