Side Salad: Run, Don’t Walk, I’m Sculpting Butter
June 18, 2026
Good morning from Dieline’s editor-in-chief, Bill McCool. Here’s your daily side serving of design news, short musings, brand stuff, and forgotten ephemera.
Richard Nixon hasn’t had this much heat since Family Ties.
Seriously, though, what snow? Denver wants citizens to cut back on their water usage, and this is a mighty good billboard.
This is your semi-annual reminder that comic nerds can be the worst, and they have some thoughts on the more “androgynous” Batgirl update.
Good piece here from Rudy on what the proposed bipartisan CREATOR Act does—and critically—doesn’t do. The whole “provide visual artists the exclusive right to authorize the commercial exploitation, or public distribution in or affecting interstate commerce of a stylistic impersonation of that visual artist, and for other purposes” sounds nice in theory and all, but seemingly doesn’t go nearly far enough.
Pepsi’s Cherries & Cream didn’t have to go this hard.
I am a state fair enthusiast, because where else on this planet can you witness butter sculpting, eat a deep-fried pickle that’s shoved into a Twinkie, and see the Gin Blossoms all in the SAME PLACE? Anywho, would love to go to this Smithsonian exhibit, State Fairs: Growing American Craft.
Serious question for the record geeks—after Big Star and Teenage Fanclub, obviously, are Gin Blossoms the very next best power pop band?
Charlotte interviewed designer Daniela Barrio de Mendoza, and now I want to move to New Zealand for the work-life balance we all crave.
Required summer reading for all brand designers.
Genuinely love these bottles from Visualbraingravity. Sure, I know I’ll never find one of these at my local Market Basket (shoutout to the greatest store playlist of all time), but I love that they look as if they’re deflating right before your eyes.
You are that much closer to your summer Friday now. Toodles.
-Bill