Objects of Design Metaphor · Liam Zebedee

Objects of Design Metaphor

May 28, 2026

I love this sort of stuff. To me it’s a very creative thing, sort of like a design metaphor.

You have two distinct objects - butterfly and jumper - and then some expression of one in terms of another, which just fits.

Dear AI researchers - please make an eval for this. Why can’t an AI think symbolically in the visual domain? (maybe using something like DreamCoder?)

The one example I can think of why this is interesting - the old Macbook genuinely used to breathe . It had a sleeping indicator LED that faded in and out at a rate similar to the human heartrate. A beautiful design metaphor. Just a little detail that wouldn’t sell anything.

The old Mac’s sleep light, breathing. (unsung.aresluna.org)

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