Why Parallel Universe
Every object, page and poster has a twin you never see: the version made of choices.
The name began as a play on the domain, paralleluniver.se, but it describes the subject well.
Behind every designed thing sits a parallel universe of decisions. Someone chose this typeface instead of the twenty others they tried. Someone moved the button because people kept missing it. Someone decided the chair would be a little lower, the label a little larger, the colour a shade warmer. You never see those versions. You only see the one that survived.
This site is about that hidden world. The essays look at what designers actually do, how related disciplines differ, how a career in design takes shape, and how one city in particular, Stockholm, developed a way of seeing that still influences design far beyond Sweden.
What we write about
- Practice: the everyday work of digital and graphic designers, explained plainly.
- Distinctions: the lines between design, art, illustration and code, and why they matter.
- Careers: realistic advice for people starting out.
- Place: Nordic and Stockholm design, its history, its institutions and its arguments.
What we don’t do
We don’t run sponsored reviews, and we don’t publish rankings of tools or services. Essays are updated when something important changes; the date at the top of each one shows when.