🛸 The Orbit Dispatch - Issue #16

A scan of culture in motion—where brand strategy, internet nostalgia, and digital randomness collide.

Apr 1 • The Orbit

10

6

March 2026

I went to Gamescom LAN without being a gamer. Everyone noticed.

Speedruns, sleeping strangers, and one brief moment of competence at a table football tournament.

Mar 26 • The Orbit and Paula Smiri

5

3

Frutiger Aero: A Guide to the Internet's Most Optimistic Aesthetic

Bubbles, goldfish, glowing orbs and dewy meadows — Frutiger Aero was the design language that promised a bright future.

Mar 18 • The Orbit and Sarah Ylm

31

5

13

🛸 The Orbit Dispatch: Issue #15

From McDonald's "product" gaffes to the end of a 46-year Hello Kitty era. Diving into the uncanny valley of corporate sincerity and digital archeology.

Mar 4 • The Orbit, Marta Litson, and Sarah Ylm

7

7

6

February 2026

Proof We Didn’t Hallucinate the Gobbledok

You’ve probably never heard of it and, if you have, you may not even remember, but it existed - The Gobbledok. Hailing from so far back in the past…

Feb 27 • The Orbit and Kris Litson

9

8

A Love Letter to Plastic Junk: Nintendo’s weirdest Inventions

Why the loud, clunky gadgets of the 80s reveal what we've lost in the age of frictionless tech.

Feb 15 • The Orbit and Sarah Ylm

20

5

🛸 The Orbit Dispatch: Issue #14

A quick tour through design drama, unhinged products, nostalgia-fueled aesthetics, and the internet’s latest creative detours.

Feb 2 • The Orbit, Marta Litson, and Sarah Ylm

12

5

9

January 2026

🧵 The Short, Weird History of Fake Futures

Why we keep imagining tomorrow wrong—and why it always looks the same.

Jan 21 • The Orbit and Marta Litson

8

3

5

BYTE Magazine Covers and a Gentler Way to Imagine the Future

What Robert Tinney’s paintings reveal about early computer culture and what we lost when tech stopped being illustrated.

Jan 14 • The Orbit and Sarah Ylm

23

5

12

Notes From the Friction Era

The Orbit Almanac 2026

Jan 7 • Marta Litson and The Orbit

18

1

9

🛸 The Orbit Dispatch: Issue #13

The rise of the Human Watermark, the legacy of the Nintendo Power Glove, platform absurdities, AI overload, and iconic design misfires.

Jan 2 • The Orbit

9

9

December 2025

🧵 The Accidental Invention of the Slinky

How a Falling Spring Became a Toy Store Legend

Dec 25, 2025 • The Orbit and Marta Litson

12

2

4