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A LITTLE ROOM FOR CURIOSITY

Little Discoveries

Illustrated reads, from a quick discovery to a closer look. Pick a topic. Follow your curiosity.

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A little language adventure

A little Chinese.

Pictures, words and a game. Curiosity speaks every language.

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A little Italian.

Everyday words, pictures and little games. It all starts with ciao.

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Little Discoveries

A little more to discover.

Design · Philosophy · Plants · Curiosities · Words. Ideas worth a closer look.

Read all 5 discoveries

Original illustrations made with AI assistance. Facts and sources stay in plain sight.

Every edition, a little discovery.

5 reads

Naoto Fukasawa: music begins with a gesture · Laozi: the journey begins beneath your feet · Papyrus: before the sheet, a water-loving plant · Scallops: there is a mirror inside the eye · Origami: a word folds action and material together

7 reads

Eva Zeisel: two objects keeping each other company · Peirce: a useful hypothesis opens an inquiry · Poinsettia: the red parts are not petals · Narwhal: that long spiral is a tooth · Criterio: deciding what matters before choosing · Emmental: a hole needs somewhere to begin · Fileteado porteño: a line can carry a city’s memory

7 reads

April Greiman: pixels can stay in view · Mary Astell: learn to reason before passing judgement · Banyan: roots can become columns · Axolotl: those feathery tufts are gills, even in adulthood · Entusiasmo: when inspiration had a god within · Pasta softens as water moves into its starch · Al Sadu: knowledge also travels through hands

7 reads

Lucienne Day: a garden can become a language of shapes · Seneca: noticing time, even when it slips away · Cotton: the white tuft starts with a seed · Platypus: a bill that finds clues the eyes cannot see · Nostalgia: an Italian word for a return we long for · Baking powder: bubbles begin when ingredients meet · Silbo Gomero: a whistle can carry words across a valley

7 reads

George Carwardine: a lamp that finds its balance · Wittgenstein: what do games have in common? · A giant that belongs to the grass family · Why snow crystals grow in six directions · The Italian word album: from white to remembered moments · From cream to butter: changing what surrounds what · Vanuatu: when a line connects movement and storytelling

7 reads

Sori Yanagi: two curves can become a stool · Iris Murdoch: we can change how we see another person · Prickly pear: those broad pads are not leaves · Fennec fox: those ears have two jobs · Matita: an Italian pencil word with a stone in its past · Red cabbage: an ingredient that changes colour · Batik: designing where the colour cannot go

7 reads

Anni Albers: a wall can be made of threads · Mencius: a good action starts with a sprout · Maidenhair fern: a plant that does not wait for flowers · A barn owl’s neck is not a hinge · Muscolo: the little mouse hiding in an Italian word · A banana keeps changing after harvest · Fado: one voice, one city, many stories

7 reads

Saul Bass: the film begins before the first scene · Jane Addams: before helping, learn to listen · Lavender: one purple spike holds many little flowers · The elephant’s trunk: precision without a single bone · The Italian word calendario: a notebook of dates and debts · Yogurt: milk transformed by tiny workers · Capoeira: the circle matters as much as its centre

7 reads

Margaret Calvert: the sign that lets you concentrate on the road · Karl Popper: what would make you change your mind? · Dandelion: a tiny flight full of empty space · A giraffe’s neck: longer, not more crowded · Biblioteca: books and a place to keep them inside one word · Whipped egg white: air finds a network · Kimjang: preparing for winter and sharing the work

7 reads

William Morris: a leaf can become a rhythm · Bertrand Russell: making room for a good question · Stone pine: the umbrella has needles too · Clouds are not made of visible water vapour · Pazienza: an Italian word for staying with a task · Ice cream has an ingredient you cannot see: air · Kente: a broad cloth begins with narrow strips

7 reads

Paul Rand: a small mark can do a big job · Diogenes: do I need it, or do I want to impress? · The coast redwood: even a giant needs its landscape · A rainbow is a circle: we usually see only part of it · Desiderio: check the word before reaching for the stars · Grainy honey: its sugar is changing arrangement · Día de Muertos: an offering can hold a story

7 reads

Florence Knoll: people come before the chairs · David Hume: it always happens, but will it happen again? · Tillandsia: the plant hanging its leaves in the air · A blue sky is a journey made by light · Robot: before the laboratory came the stage · An apple turns brown: air enters the story · Tango: a culture that meets on the dance floor

7 reads

Massimo Vignelli: a map does not need to say everything · Kant: people are not tools · Drosera: when the dew is actually a trap · Goats keep a horizontal eye on the world · Finestra: an Italian word that opens more than a wall · Glossy chocolate has a hidden order · Talavera: the heritage is in the gesture too

7 reads

Susan Kare: a computer begins with a square · Montaigne: understand before repeating · A sunflower changes as it grows · The gecko’s secret beneath its toes · Bussola: a word with a box inside · An onion is not telling a sad story · Sodai: a hanging garden made of straw

7 reads

Otl Aicher: a picture that helps you find your way · William James: noticing is already a choice · Victoria amazonica: a leaf with a structure underneath · A sea star walks on feet beneath its arms · Gioco: an Italian word that began with a joke · Mayonnaise: lots of tiny droplets staying together · Finnish sauna: a tradition is also what people share

7 reads

Rietveld: a chair you can see through · Zhuangzi: the butterfly that unsettles a point of view · Strelitzia: that beak is part of a pollination system · A bat flies with a very different kind of hand · Cultura: the Italian word with soil on its shoes · Popcorn: the big leap starts inside a kernel · Washi: a learned movement inside a sheet of paper

7 reads

Enzo Mari: making something changes how you look · Simone de Beauvoir: freedom needs other people · Lithops: a plant with windows on top · The satin bowerbird decorates its courtship · Ciao: a greeting that changed its distance · Bread rises because it can hold on to bubbles · Singapore: cultural heritage can have a spare seat

5 reads

Charlotte Perriand: a chair begins with a gesture · Confucius: learning includes recognising what is missing · Aloe polyphylla: reading a spiral, finding a mountain · Penguins: those leaps are part of swimming · Testo: words hold together when they are woven

5 reads

The Eameses: when wood suggests a change of plan · Spinoza: understand a feeling before it takes the wheel · Baobab: start the wonder with its leaves · Crows remember a face. And learn from one another · Scuola: a word with time to understand inside it

5 reads

Achille Castiglioni, light takes a shortcut · John Dewey, try something and understand what changes · Nelumbo nucifera, the leaf that lets mud slide away · The cuttlefish changes the shape of its skin too · Compagno, an Italian word with bread to share

5 reads

Alvar Aalto, a bend that makes room · Mary Wollstonecraft, learning to choose · Pilea peperomioides, look beneath the leaf · Seahorses, the dad with the baby bump · Meraviglia: a word with a plural beginning

4 reads

Verner Panton, a chair in one piece · Epicurus and the pleasure of enough · Oxalis triangularis folds up for the evening · Honey bees give directions by dancing

4 reads

Eileen Gray, a table that makes itself comfortable · Aristotle, a friend is not a service · Welwitschia, two leaves for a lifetime · Butterflies taste where they put their feet

4 reads

Isamu Noguchi: a sculpture you can switch on · Socrates and the limits of expertise · Venus flytrap: a leaf waiting for confirmation · The sea otter already brought the tools

4 reads

Marianne Brandt, geometry at teatime · Simone Weil, attention that makes room · Mimosa pudica, the leaf that folds · The wombat’s bathroom geometry

4 reads

Bruno Munari: the use of a useless machine · Epictetus: the weather does not take orders · Monstera deliciosa: the holes come as standard · An octopus has three hearts. All with jobs to do.

4 reads

Dieter Rams: fewer things, done better · Hannah Arendt: the world has more than one viewpoint · Ginkgo biloba: a little fan with a long history · Flamingos: pink is on the lunch menu