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Arun Venkatesan

@arun.is
292 followers 54 following 74 posts

Blog: arun.is/blog Newsletter: arun.is/subscribe @dailydesigner.net

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Arun Venkatesan @arun.is · 21/09/2026
Some things can be bought, used and then sold back for the same price. arun.is/blog/pinned-...
arun.is
Pinned-value goods
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Arun Venkatesan @arun.is · 30/08/2026
Photo essay about the first long trip we took in our ID. Buzz arun.is/blog/buzzin-...
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Buzzin’ down California
A week down the California coast in an electric van that made us stop every couple hundred miles — and the places we found because of it.
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Arun Venkatesan @arun.is · 15/08/2026
Looking back at what the 747 meant to me and the changes in air travel arun.is/blog/do-you-...
arun.is
Do you want to go for a ride?
The 747 shaped how I understood distance, family, and wonder. As it disappears from the skies, I'm trying to figure out what to hand my son instead.
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Arun Venkatesan @arun.is · 20/07/2026
Visited this whimsical place in China that reminded me of Burning Man arun.is/blog/lijiang...
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Yunnan V · Land of Wilderness
A photographic journey through the design principles of a whimsical wonderland.
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Arun Venkatesan @arun.is · 12/07/2026
Books based off of my favorite show about design arun.is/blog/design-...
arun.is
Design Ah! books
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Arun Venkatesan @arun.is · 27/06/2026
Wrote some words about Om and what he has meant to me. arun.is/blog/good-by...
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Good bye, Om Malik
I admired Om Malik and his writing for my entire adult life, then had the fortune of knowing him. A remembrance of a friend, mentor, critic, and guide.
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Arun Venkatesan @arun.is · 22/06/2026
Explored some Japanese symbols that speak without words. arun.is/blog/japan-s...
arun.is
Japanese symbols that speak without words
I look at the Japanese symbols that carry meaning entirely on their own.
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Arun Venkatesan @arun.is · 17/06/2026
@inbn.dev Thanks for creating and maintaining The Component Gallery. It has been super useful to me over the years.
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Arun Venkatesan @arun.is · 14/06/2026
A look into the history of one of my favorite logos arun.is/blog/jr-logo/
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How Japan's railways stayed one while splitting apart
When Japan broke up its national railway in 1987, the new companies agreed on one thing to keep the same.
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Arun Venkatesan @arun.is · 07/06/2026
Wrote about my latest side project. arun.is/blog/daily-d...
arun.is
Introducing Daily Designer
Today I'm introducing a new project called Daily Designer with daily quotes from designers I admire.
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Arun Venkatesan @arun.is · 30/05/2026
I wonder if the Ferrari Luce could have ended up looking any other way. arun.is/blog/ferrari...
arun.is
Why the Ferrari Luce looks like that
Everyone may be dunking on the Ferrari Luce, but I'm not sure it would have ended any other way.
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Arun Venkatesan @arun.is · 25/05/2026
A dream-like visit to an old city in China with snow-capped mountains in the background. arun.is/blog/yunnan-...
arun.is
Yunnan IV · Lijiang
A week in Lijiang — ancient towns, medicinal hot pot, and architecture that looks more like Tibet than China.
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Arun Venkatesan @arun.is · 16/05/2026
Love Hultén’s creations feel like they straddle our world and an alien one. I wrote about the two books covering his work. arun.is/blog/love-hu...
arun.is
Love Hultén Works
Spend enough time with Love Hultén's work and you start to feel like you're mapping an alternate world — one built from wood, electronics, and a very particular kind of whimsy.
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Arun Venkatesan @arun.is · 09/05/2026
Japan has two incompatible power grids with startling consequences. arun.is/blog/japan-e...
arun.is
Japan's invisible electric wall
Japan's power grid has a fracture running through it that no one has ever fully repaired. East and west run on different frequencies.
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Arun Venkatesan @arun.is · 01/05/2026
Dali, China is where I want to retire. I could run, eat, think and feel alive there in a way I’ve never felt anywhere else. arun.is/blog/yunnan-...
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Yunnan III · Dali
Dali in Yunnan may be the best place I've ever visited — better than the Mediterranean or Southeast Asia. Here's why almost no one in the Western world knows it exists.
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Arun Venkatesan @arun.is · 26/04/2026
How the MacBook Neo reminds me of a cult classic Porsche arun.is/blog/cheap-c...
arun.is
When the cheap one is the cool one
Apple and Porsche both figured out the same secret that the cheapest product in the lineup can be the most exciting. It just takes a little intention.
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Arun Venkatesan @arun.is · 17/04/2026
A love letter to the best camera I've ever owned. arun.is/blog/leica-cl/
arun.is
A love letter to the Leica CL
I fell in love with a camera Leica discontinued. Four years later, it's still in my bag — and nothing has come close to replacing it.
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Arun Venkatesan @arun.is · 10/04/2026
I've realized the trap with AI isn't that they produce bad writing, but that they let you skip figuring out what I actually think. Here's how I use AI in my writing. arun.is/blog/ai-enha...
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Arun Venkatesan @arun.is · 03/04/2026
Second part of my series about visiting Yunnan, China. arun.is/blog/yunnan-...
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Yunnan II · Kunming
Kunming was the best first impression of Yunnan with its mild weather, delicious food, and rich history.
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Arun Venkatesan @arun.is · 27/03/2026
A look through some rare books by my favorite designer. arun.is/blog/without...
arun.is
Naoto Fukasawa’s without thought catalogs
A look at the without thought workshop catalogs by Naoto Fukasawa and how observation is so important to design.
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Arun Venkatesan @arun.is · 26/03/2026
Issue 86 of my monthly newsletter is going out on Monday. Subscribe here: arun.is/subscribe/
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Arun Venkatesan @arun.is · 20/03/2026
arun.is/blog/yunnan-...
arun.is
Yunnan I · Homebase, Shanghai
Shanghai is my home base in China — and this time, I finally figured out why. A few days, a handful of places, and a tension I didn't expect to find running through all of them.
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Arun Venkatesan @arun.is · 13/03/2026
The gear and principles behind how I run arun.is/blog/on-runn...
arun.is
On running: principles and gear
A pre-dawn run through Lijiang's old town, and the gear, principles, and philosophy behind how I train.
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Arun Venkatesan @arun.is · 06/03/2026
Redesigned my personal website and wrote some words about it. arun.is/blog/arun-is...
arun.is
Introducing arun.is 3.0
How I turned four years of incremental improvements into something focused and coherent.
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Arun Venkatesan @arun.is · 03/03/2026
We have had the ID. Buzz for a few months and it has been a dream. It still brings a smile to our faces every day. We took a long road trip recently and had far more fun than we did last roadtrip in a luxury SUV.
Volkswagen ID. Buzz
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Arun Venkatesan @arun.is · 27/02/2026
Last issue of the series of photoessays about my trip to Kanazawa arun.is/blog/kanazaw...
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Kanazawa IV · An interlude in Tokyo
After a week in Kanazawa, we returned to Tokyo, the city in Japan I know best.
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Arun Venkatesan @arun.is · 24/02/2026
I tried so many browsers recently and landed back in Chrome, but with vertical tabs
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Arun Venkatesan @arun.is · 20/02/2026
Part 3 of my series about why Kanazawa is my favorite place in Japan so far. arun.is/blog/kanazaw...
arun.is
Kanazawa III · The old
How the actions of the ruling clan in Kanazawa centuries ago lead to it surviving WWII.
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Arun Venkatesan @arun.is · 13/02/2026
Exploring the new in Kanazawa arun.is/blog/kanazaw...
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Kanazawa II · The new
Why did a mid-sized city on the Sea of Japan become a place where contemporary culture flourishes alongside five centuries of tradition?
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Arun Venkatesan @arun.is · 08/02/2026
Part one of a series about why Kanazawa is my favorite place in Japan so far arun.is/blog/kanazaw...
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Kanazawa I · On the way
A Ferrari designer's train delivered us to a city where Pritzker Prize architecture coexists with centuries-old samurai districts. We had no idea what we were in for.
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Arun Venkatesan @arun.is · 21/12/2025
Thank you everyone for making 2025 so great. arun.is/blog/2025-ye...
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The year in review: 2025
This year has been a return to the routines that once defined how I lived my life
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Arun Venkatesan @arun.is · 02/12/2025
Words and photos from Savannah, Georgia. arun.is/blog/savannah/
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Creative Savannah
A photo journey the creative landscape that is Savannah, Georgia.
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Arun Venkatesan @arun.is · 11/11/2025
Made a wallpaper inspired by Liquid Glass and the classic Mac “hello” arun.is/blog/hello-l...
arun.is
Hello, Liquid Glass
I've made a wallpaper inspired by the icon Mac "hello" and Liquid Glass.
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Arun Venkatesan @arun.is · 15/10/2025
Photos and thoughts from a family trip to Charleston, SC. arun.is/blog/charles...
arun.is
Charleston's historic fabric
Photos and thoughts from a short family vacation to one of America's oldest cities
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Arun Venkatesan @arun.is · 07/10/2025
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Arun Venkatesan @arun.is · 31/08/2025
Learned a lot from five years of my newsletter. Here’s to five more. arun.is/blog/five-ye...
arun.is
Five years of the arun.is newsletter
My learnings after five years of writing the newsletter.
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Arun Venkatesan @arun.is · 04/08/2025
Made a little charging station to tame the mess of cables around the house. arun.is/blog/diy-mod...
arun.is
My DIY modular charging station
How I built a modular USB charging station with a focus on material honesty.
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Arun Venkatesan @arun.is · 11/07/2025
Photoessay of the beautiful cultural spots I visited in Milwaukee arun.is/blog/milwauk...
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Milwaukee's many faces
A family trip to Milwaukee, Wisconsin showed me the surprising mix of old and new, urban and rural that this city has to offer.
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Arun Venkatesan @arun.is · 27/06/2025
With devices lasting longer, I now have the unique opportunity to hold on to older designs I love the most. arun.is/blog/aesthet...
arun.is
Aesthetics over upgrades
With devices lasting longer, I now have the unique opportunity to hold on to older designs I love the most.
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Arun Venkatesan @arun.is · 06/06/2025
I wrote about the T-shirts I have been designing. arun.is/blog/tech-t-...
arun.is
Designing wearable tech history
I've designed some shirts inspired by technology history.
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Arun Venkatesan @arun.is · 31/05/2025
Made an insanely great T shirt cottonbureau.com/p/5UQTE8/shi...
cottonbureau.com
insanely great! by Arun Venkatesan
Homage to the product that started the personal computer revolution.
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Arun Venkatesan @arun.is · 25/05/2025
Photoessay exploring what makes Mexico City so special arun.is/blog/mexico-...
arun.is
Mexico City's embrace of culture
On my last visit to Mexico City, I discovered what makes this city special
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Arun Venkatesan @arun.is · 18/05/2025
“Nintendate” shirt. cottonbureau.com/p/V4GMBB/shi...
cottonbureau.com
Nintendate by Arun Venkatesan
The visual style of one of our favorite game companies meets the hardware of another.
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Arun Venkatesan @arun.is · 04/05/2025
Or favorite places in and around Tokyo for both children and adults alike.
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Family adventures in Tokyo
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Arun Venkatesan @arun.is · 26/04/2025
How constraints catalyze creativity
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The creative power of constraints
Constraints act not as limitations but as catalysts for creativity. Examples from architecture, design, and art reveal the paradoxical relationship between boundaries and innovation.
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Arun Venkatesan @arun.is · 28/03/2025
A long walk around Shanghai guided by my camera and my curiosity. arun.is/blog/shangha...
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Photowalk through Shanghai
I spent five hours wandering through Shanghai with my camera, discovering hidden coffee shops, historic buildings, and the beautiful chaos that makes this city unforgettable.
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Arun Venkatesan @arun.is · 02/03/2025
Sigma shocked the world this week with a minimalist new camera, one that I think is pure expression of Japanese aesthetic traditions. arun.is/blog/sigma-bf/
arun.is
Sigma BF: less camera, more vision
By embracing Japanese minimalism, Sigma's BF camera creates a new relationship with technology — one that celebrates presence over specifications.
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Arun Venkatesan @arun.is · 24/02/2025
We burned through savings and faced uncertainties, but our sabbatical year was worth it. arun.is/blog/year-lo...
arun.is
My year-long sabbatical
We burned through savings and faced uncertainties, but our sabbatical year was worth it.
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Reposted by Arun Venkatesan
Marcin Wichary @aresluna.org · 14/02/2025
I think every designer should write a love letter to a font at least once in their lifetime. This is mine: A 150-year-old font you have likely never heard of, and one you probably saw earlier today. aresluna.org/the-hardest-...
aresluna.org
The hardest working font in Manhattan
A story of a 150-year-old font you have never heard of – and one you probably saw earlier today.
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Arun Venkatesan @arun.is · 09/02/2025
Photos and words about memory, change, and returning to Suzhou, China after twenty years. arun.is/blog/suzhou/
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Suzhou twenty years later
I returned to Suzhou after twenty years, seeing the Chinese city through new eyes as I introduced my children to a place that shaped me as a teenager.
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