What’s Happening: As publishers face economic and workplace uncertainties, brands are embracing the power of the page as a medium for passion projects.

The Download: Emerging talent. 1,700 patents and more than 120 years of brand heritage. Funky carpets in cinema multiplexes from the ‘90s. These are just a few of the topics that brands like Spring Studios, Herman Miller, and A24, respectively, are bandying about in their new print magazines. Unlike the traditional life cycle of PR, press, publish, and repeat, these brands are funneling resources into storytelling on their own terms. The shift coincides with a tumultuous media landscape that sees legacy publishers very publicly grappling with labor relations, profitability,
AI slop and leadership.

While all three brands do continue to work with traditional media, helming their own publications grants them a certain freedom that gets lost when media bonafides have to reckon with issues of page allocation, advertiser relations, and whether or not a pitch is even a “fit.” After all, it’s hard to imagine anyone other than, say, Herman Miller, running a feature dedicated to its furniture stress-testing protocol as its newly published collectible tome, Ideas, does.

Likewise, the inaugural issue of Spring Studios’ biannual magazine, Ode, debuted with a companion exhibition in Milan dedicated to celebrating up-and-coming photographers like Sebastian Kapfhammer, artists Luke Nugent and Stacey Gillian Abe, and hairstylist Pablo Kuemin, who nearly all happen to be former collaborators. And A24? They’ve long marched to the beat of their own drum with off-kilter merch and an in-house fan club. Waxing poetic for the design hallmarks of ‘90s cineplexes in printed matter is probably just another Tuesday for them.

In Their Own Words: “Content can live in different places digitally, online, and social media, and we do program to all these different platforms to reach people where they are,” says Kelsey Keith, Herman Miller’s brand
creative director.

Surface Says: In an era of comebacks, wouldn’t it be nice if the magazine industry’s roaring ‘20s were upon us?

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If Festen Architecture founders Charlotte de Tonnac and Hugo Sauzay have anything to say about it, subtlety speaks volumes. That’s certainly the case at Paris’s newly refreshed Hotel Balzac, whose warm oak and softly glowing interiors are the result of a recent revamp by the local studio. Named for the French writer Honoré de Balzac, the five-star hotel radiates a timeless elegance befitting its perch among the Eighth Arrondissement’s regal monuments. A pristine lobby lounge offers Petrossian caviar and an abundance of black truffle while clefs d’or concierges ensure the hotel’s discerning clientele are equipped to enjoy Paris on their own terms.

The Place hotel in Florence has unveiled an unexpected collection celebrating the genius of Leonardo da Vinci through groundbreaking reproductions of his manuscripts. Featuring a series of recreated books crafted from specially treated leather and printed to match the original documents to the finest detail, it offers a rare glimpse into da Vinci’s mind. Each page showcases his sketches of architectural marvels—war machines, anatomical studies—and his idiosyncratic writing style, often from right to left in a self-invented language. The collection, a collaboration with the esteemed Florentine publishing house Giunti Editore, presents da Vinci’s original notes alongside translations, providing today’s readers with a clear understanding of his revolutionary ideas and musings.

Our weekly roundup of the internet’s most preposterous headlines, from the outrageous to the outright bizarre.

Artwork Featuring Christ Overlaid With Looney Tunes Characters Removed by Sydney Council After Threats of Violence [The Guardian]

Let’s Maybe Draw the Line at Hot Dog Martini [Punch]

Mount Everest’s Highest Camp Is Littered With Frozen Garbage, and Cleanup Is Likely to Take Years [AP]

Nazi Drugs Are Sweeping Across Europe [Vice]

It Began As a Rewilding Experiment. Now a Bear Is on Trial for Murder. [1843]

Pooping on the Moon Is a Messy Business [Wired]

Soup Broth Is Damaging South Korea’s Highest Mountain, Warn Officials [CNN]

Through community-minded projects ranging in scale from outdoor pavilions to affordable housing complexes, the architect E.B. Min is leaving a mark on her home base of San Francisco and beyond. Her growing firm, Min Design, builds off her foundation in landscape design and fascinations with storytelling and science to fuse elements of architecture, nature, and art into programs that check all the functional and aesthetic boxes.

Ethimo is an Italian company specializing in high-quality outdoor furnishings and decor, with a sophisticated mix of design and function. All the products incorporate a careful selection of materials (including FSC-certified teak), often used in unusual combinations, and have outstanding attention to detail.

Surface Says: With offerings ranging from sun pavilions to lounge furniture and even a sporting collection, Ethimo’s pieces exude the ease of Mediterranean living, no matter where they are.

Mysterious microbes are alive and thriving in “hell’s foyer” at Earth’s center.

An extremely rare Sex Pistols vinyl broke auction records, fetching $31,000.

Nike’s “shockingly good” Tekken 8 Foamposite came from a video game.

McDonald’s shares a Where’s Waldo–style campaign for Quebec’s moving day.