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My daughter is 7 years old, and when she wakes up, the first thing shell often do is position herself in the center of an unruly pile of stuff on our basement floor. Construction paper. Tape. Stuffed animals. Pipe cleaners. Markers. Bits of ribbon.To me, its the definition of disarray. To her, it puts the creative process in arms reach. It provides exactly what she needs to, minutes later, emerge with a charming invention or piece of art. I mention this not only as a proud father, but because its the best metaphor Ive been able to find to describe Soot. Soot is a visual catalog thats in many ways reminiscent of Pinterest, Behance, or even Instagram. But with $7.7 million in funding, its team is focused less on building the next social network than challenging the status quo of creative UX. Instead of showing just one image or a few images at a time, Soot displays hundreds to thousands of images on your screen at once, allowing you to mainline loosely sorted visual information.[Image: courtesy Soot]Built upon open-source AI and data viz technologies, Soot sorts and organizes images by visual similarity, or by metadata like an artists name. The spacing is intentionally organic rather than overly rigid, so that what youre looking at becomes a resolved shape instead of a grid. And what youre left with is less a feed or website than it is a digital painters palette, or a vast mood board of visual inspiration for you to wade through with your cursor.[Image: courtesy Soot]In this sense, the premise of Soot is perhaps more philosophical than directly practical. Its 2025, and were still surfing in the vertical linear scroll. [People] look at the feed as the upper limit of what we can do, says Soot cofounder Jake Harper.Harper believes that the file structures of the Macintosh share the same logic with the scroll of TikTok or Instagram. These are linear organizational views optimized to show you one thing buried under another at a time. The folders and subfolders that inhabit our desktop interfaces force us to inefficiently dig for information and can devolve from discovery to compulsion.Instead of having information in a scroll, you could see from structures that [pool] like a well thats not as insidious as the feeds, he says. A lot of the negative impact of computers is inherent to the geometries of the interface.[Image: courtesy Soot]An exploratory interfaceHarper began his career designing as a sound artist with Soundwalk Collective, before making his way to the self-driving car company Zoox (acquired by Amazon) to lead the expression and communication of robotic vehicles. His cofounder, Mary Nally, is the founder of Drop Everything, a creative retreat taking part every two years on the tiny Irish island of Inis Oírr.Soot is organized into invite-only personal spaces, and then everything from the service combines onto a site called Soot World. That includes 4 million pieces of media at the moment, from its 25,000 users in a private beta. Each Soot space can be built from media sourced in all sorts of ways, from direct uploading to copy and pasting URLs from YouTube or a social media account. Monthly subscriptions will be available for individuals, and also companies, as the service scales.But what about the Soot experience itself? A tour through the Guggenheims catalog demonstrates how the interface sings. Drag around, and youll see the groupings of impressionists like Monet abutting geometrically focused futurists like Gino Severini, before arriving at the dynamic explosions of Wassily Kandinsky. In terms of art history, you can tap into each piece to see its name, year, and provenance, revealing that its all a bit of a blender. But zoomed out visually, Soot creates a gradient vibe that just makes sense.[Image: courtesy Soot]I remember the first time I saw all my own artwork in Soot, Harper says. It was like, damn, seeing things from 15 years agoa rejected student project next to something I made a week ago. It was a really weird experience. The interface is fascinating in that it demonstrates just how low a lift our single image feeds are in an era when we all have supercomputers in our pockets. The fact that I can mouse over thousands of images through my browser, without my aging Macbook cursing at me through the fan, is a most certain demonstration that our computers are able to do a lot more than we ask of them these days. Zooming in and out in Soot with my trackwheel is instantaneous. And the entire school of images (they do self-organize almost like fish) moves with a satisfying inertia. [Image: courtesy Soot]That said, in my own observations, I found tht I was really only focusing on one image at a time. Soot didnt open some new capacity in my brain. But seeing these interrelated ideas in my peripheral vision still seemed meaningful. And being able to explore a swatch of images in X, Y, and Z space felt more like true exploration than the whims of the algorithm.[Image: courtesy Soot]I am curious to see where Soot goes next, and can only imagine how we might begin to push the norms of UX as ideas like this leave the web browser and entire spaces like VR. I honestly dont know if the next 20 years of visual interface looks more like this, or more like the conventions in the 20 years weve had before. But I do think that, in the era of AI and seemingly limitless processing, we need more experimentation rather than less. We need to stretch what we think might be possible before we settle for whats worked so far.Were not fully there yet. Right now were in our GPT2 era, says Harper, alluding to the moment before OpenAI went mainstream. The core users love it, but its not ready for mass-market adoption.
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E-Commerce
The color of the summer is here, and it started with a chocolate bar. Pistachio (both the food and the color) is all the rage right now. The nut entered the limelight over the past several months after various food creators on TikTok popularized Dubai chocolate, an indulgent chocolate bar filled with pistachio cream, tahini, and shredded phyllo dough. This spring, Dubai chocolate officially made its way into the mainstream, appearing as a cookie at Crumbl, a shake at Shake Shack, a chocolate bar at Trader Joes, a donut at Krispy Kreme, and a returning latte flavor at Dunkin. [Photo: Patislove] Demand for Dubai chocolate has spiked so high that pistachio producers in Iran exported 40% more nuts to the United Arab Emirates in the six months leading to March 2025 than they did in the entire 12 months before. Some stores have had to limit sales of the bars due to disruptions of the global pistachio supply chain. But it turns out that for customers in the U.S., theres a bonus to the trend besides an influx of tasty treats: The nut is relatively shielded from potential tariffs. Come what may, chances are that its about to be a very nuttyand very greensummer. A mechanical shaker harvests pistachio nuts on a farm in Californias San Joaquin Valley. [Photo: Ed Young/Design Pics Editorial/Universal Images Group/Getty Images] America dominates the pistachio market The U.S. is the top producer of pistachios globally, accounting for about 75% of the worlds supply, according to Zachary Fraser, president and CEO of American Pistachio Growers (APG). The second-largest producer is Iran. The 2024-2025 U.S. pistachio crop harvest, Fraser says, was 1.1 billion pounds in-shellthe third-largest harvest in the history of the industry. So far, Fraser reports, the Trump administrations tariffs have not had an immediate impact on the nut’s production. The industry is closely monitoring tariffs as the situation evolves, and we are active in the conversations with government officials to stay on top of the changing dynamics, Fraser says. Continuing to invest in market development and new countries to drive demand is part of that strategy. From APGs perspective, theres been a marked rise in interest in pistachios over the past several months. Recognizing the trending Dubai chocolate bar, its been exciting to see the popularity of pistachios grow across many other food and beverage products, Fraser says. Were seeing pistachios incorporated across baked goods, spreads, snacks, ice cream and more. [Photo: Shake Shack] Pistachio goes beyond the bar Pistachios arent staying confined to sweet treats, either. As the nuts flavor profile has risen into stardom, so, too, has its signature sage-green hue. In the past two months or so, pistachio green has exploded from the chocolate wrapper to fashion runways, mood boards, and even interior design. In March, Homes & Gardens called the hue designers go-to color for spring and summer 2025. In May, Harpers Bazaar noted that the gastronomic shade defined recent fashion shows by Miu Miu, Prada, Alexander McQueen, Gucci, and others. The average American is also becoming enamored with the color. According to Pinterest global data from January to March 2025, searches for pistachio chocolate bar surged 1,989%, while searches for pistachio outfit ideas jumped 361% and those for pistachio green weddings were up 285%. Sydney Stanback, global trends and insights lead at Pinterest, says pistachios are “having a major moment” on the app, noting, What started in the kitchen is now spilling over into style, with this earthy green inspiring everything from homemade desserts to intentional fashion choices.”
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E-Commerce
Antonia Saint Dunbar, cofounder of the period underwear brand Thinx, loves the way she feels when she’s wearing heels. “It has a divine geometry,” she says. “It creates a perfect pitch for your body, elongating your leg, creating an anatomical architectural balance.” Saint Dunbar isn’t alone: Even as society has become more casual, making sneakers and Birkenstocks acceptable to wear in more situations, many women still love the way they look and feel while wearing heels. But sometimes this means compromising comfort for style. While running Thinx in heels, Saint Dunbar says she often had to scan the room for a place to sit because her feet hurt so much, and took cabs so she wouldn’t have to walk. Part of the reason that heels are so uncomfortable is that many early shoe designers were men. They designed heels they believed would make women look attractive, but had no idea how the shoes would feel on the wearers feet. Today, women aren’t willing to compromise on comfort. This is particularly true after the pandemic, Saint Dunbar says. Stuck at home, women stopped wearing heels and turned to more comfortable footwear. Now painful heels feel even more unacceptable. The good news is that there’s a new generation of shoe brands focused on designs that make them more comfortable, including Sneex, Nomasei, and Marion Parke. Saint Dunbar herself is among these founders. In 2016, while still running Thinx, she launched Antonia Saint NY, which creates more comfortable heels. She’s taken the silhouette of a classic stiletto and added a layer of padding inside to provide better arch support and toe cushioning. She’s just relaunched all of her shoes with a slimmer version of the padding to offer the same level of comfort with less bulk. As we head into summer, we’ve been testing out the most comfortable shoes for everything from weddings to company outings. Here are five we love. [Photo: Antonia Saint NY] Antonia Saint NY Vicki DOrsay, $286 This shoe has a 2-inch heel that gives you just enough lift. Its outfitted with an updated padding system called SoftSurround. There is a layer of cushioning within the entire upper, with a special focus on the toes and the back of the heels. There is also a rubberized outsole for better traction. The outer is made of a soft Nappa leather. It’s designed to help you get through a full day without any pain. [Photo: Sézane] Sézane Gloria Sandals, $215 These strappy sandals offer the vintage aesthetic that Sézane is known for, featuring an elegant circle design. They’re versatile, since they can be dressed up or down, looking just as nice with jeans as with more formal summer dresses. With a 2.75-inch heel, they offer height without leaving you with achey legs or calves. [Photo: Margaux] Margaux City Sandal, $375 As their name implies, these shoes are designed for pounding the pavement. They feature a 2.5-inch block heel that is very walkable, and crisscross straps that are placed to make your feet feel supported. The insole features foam padding for cushioning. They come in a wide range of colors to match your outfits. [Photo: Nomasei] Nomasei Baghera, $450 Founded by former shoe designers at Chloe, Nomasei wants to bring comfort to the luxury shoe experience. The brands Baghera sandals are meant to provide all the leg-lengthening effects of a high heel, bu in a much more comfortable silhouette. They feature a 2.3-inch wide block heel, with an insole made of memory foam, lining made of goat leather, and an outsole made of calf leather. [Photo: Rothy’s] Rothys Knot Sandal, $189 If you’re concerned about the environment, Rothy’s is a good option. The brand was first known for its flats, but it has expanded into new silhouettes, including heels. These sandals are made of eight ocean-bound plastic bottles that have been recycled into a knot material. With a 2-inch block heel and a plush footbed, they’re designed to be worn all day. And as a bonus, theyre machine washable, which extends their life.
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E-Commerce
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