Speak Up founder, Armin Vit interviews Ethan Bodnar, an 18 year old self-taught designer, blogger, and entrepeneuer about how he discovered design and the impact it’s had on his life:

“After a few minutes of sniffing around I realized why I had never heard of Mr. Bodnar: He has not been around the profession too long… well, in fact, despite being a soon-to-be-published author with strong typographic inclinations, he is not a professional designer yet, not even a graphic design student, nope, he is an 18-year-old high school senior. This preceding sentence is in no way mocking, it’s authentic surprise and enthusiasm, even more so at Ethan’s preternatural conviction to become a graphic designer, which he expresses consistently and adamantly in his blog with joyful eloquence.”

I don’t remember being this talented at 18, much less knowing a thing about typography or the gainful use of Helvetica (flush left) on a grid. Apparently 18 is the new 30.

This Ain’t No Disco is a portfolio of some of the best agency interiors in the world. I used to have this bookmarked somewhere on my browser’s toolbar but it’s been lost for ages.

“Optima is one of the worst pre-computer typefaces ever designed,” says Seymour Chwast.

Steven Heller asks Chwast, Beirut, Lupton, Carter, Helfand and too many other typophiles to name about John McCain’s Optima over at the New York Times.