Delaney Rebernik

1 week ago | designobserver.com | Delaney Rebernik

When Target reversed course on DEI in early 2025, the backlash was explosive. Civil rights leaders launched a 40-day boycott, warning that the company’s rollback signaled a betrayal of the very communities that propelled its growth. Plans for a “Target Fast” soon drew over 110,000 sign-ups from consumers and faith leaders pressing for accountability and investment in Black-owned businesses.

4 weeks ago | designobserver.com | Delaney Rebernik

The latest economic numbers, released this month, aren’t a pretty picture. Inflation is accelerating, GDP and market volatility is persistent, consumer confidence , and trade tensions are straining household budgets. All as jobless claims mount: The four-week moving average increased by 3,250 in May. Rising unemployment signals an increasingly fragile job market, and women bear the brunt. They comprise but pay more on average for imported goods marketed to them thanks to a gender tariff gap.

1 month ago | designobserver.com | Delaney Rebernik

Authoritarian regimes often single out artists for repression, wary of criticism and independent voices. For this arts writer and media maker, it’s all achingly close to home: Trump has of the Kennedy Center. There are U.S. executive orders targeting the Smithsonian’s curation and mandating Classicism for federal public buildings.

2 months ago | designobserver.com | Delaney Rebernik

On the ruby-slippered heels of DO editor-in-chief Ellen McGirt’s conversation with Wicked director Jon M. Chu, columnist Alexis Haut decipherates the film’s lessons for a design community going through shiz. Wicked wears its societal allegory on its protagonist’s green skin. The 2024 blockbuster is the top-grossing film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical whose source material is the 1995 L.

2 months ago | designobserver.com | Delaney Rebernik |Ellen McGirt

In this installment of “Jet Fuel” — er, “Design Juice” — the first-gen immigrant and second-gen architect says the best airports for our brave new world will blend wayfinding, cultural context, and, sometimes, a smaller footprint. We ground-bound humans love winging about. Global air travel has not only rebounded from peak-pandemic plunges, but also hit record-high demand last year, up 10.4% from 2023 and 3.8% from 2019.