ON THE LINE
On attention, design, and life online
I started LINEAR as a place to collect projects, explore my own taste, and write about things I found interesting. I wanted more from design media — something beyond listicles, celebrity interviews, and the sameness of substance that so often defines the space. I figured the best way to find it was to start paying closer attention myself and to share those observations into the void. Over time, that practice turned into a community of similarly architecturally curious people wanting something deeper.
Being online is tiring. We’re constantly saving things for later — bookmarking, archiving, collecting — all in a rush to not miss anything. Images circulate endlessly, buildings flatten into backdrops, and context thins out. In the scramble to save everything, we lose the space to slow down, be intentional, and make the kinds of connections that help us actually understand the spaces and places we’re drawn to.
LINEAR exists inside that tension between depth and velocity as a way to move through the internet with a bit more intention, and to invite that curiosity into the real world.
For me, and I suspect for many of you, design isn’t something to consume passively. It’s a practice of noticing something, holding onto it, and returning when it matters. Not saving everything, but saving the right things. Over time, those moments of attention start to connect, shaping how you travel, what you value, and how you design your own life.
The hard part is that most platforms aren’t really built for this. And as a creator, finding that balance hasn’t always been easy.
The internet rewards volume and immediacy, but I’ve found myself enjoying the work more as LINEAR has slowed down. Essays feel more satisfying than roundups. Featuring fewer projects has made the conversations richer. The guides we’re working on feel less like quick hits and more like a lens into how we see the world. Lately, that sensibility has extended beyond publishing into one-on-one conversations, the trips we’ve planned with Concierge members, and the small events we’ve hosted. There’s a shared willingness to slow down and look more carefully.
Don’t get me wrong, I still love beautiful spaces, and I’m not immune to a good doomscroll through my Explore page. But I want more than surface-level admiration. I want to understand why things are designed the way they are, and how they reflect the place, the people, and the moment they belong to.
You can build a huge audience without that kind of depth. Plenty of people do. It just doesn’t feel especially interesting to me (or particularly meaningful). Over time, LINEAR has found its voice by resisting that pull — what’s become clear is that the work we want to do next takes time, focus, and collaboration.
All of this is to say: we’re introducing a paid tier.
Paid makes it possible to invest in deeper writing and reporting, to publish guides that go beyond lists, and to build experiences in the real world — dinners, walks, tours, open houses, and gatherings that extend LINEAR beyond the screen.
LINEAR will always have a free layer. Paid subscribers support our deeper work and new experiments, and get access to our member layer: member-only Staylists and Guides, perks and preferred rates when booking stays through Concierge, members-only conversations like virtual AMAs, and early access to IRL events.
This is an invitation to be part of what comes next: a slower, more thoughtful design publication that feels a little more human, a little more alive.
There’s something here, and I’m excited to keep building it with all 2,000+ of you.
—Justin