📝 Issue #471: 20 Best New Websites, New White House Logo, Facet Image Editor, The State of Design 2021, and more…

Prepare for a range of dynamic communication roles in Northwestern University’s online master’s program in Information Design and Strategy. You’ll build the in-demand skills needed to drive user interactions, like user experience (UX), user interface (UI), and human-computer interaction (HCI). Choose from specializations in content strategy, data science and analytics, and learning design. Learn more. - AD

Every month we publish this roundup of the best websites we’ve seen go live on the web in the previous four weeks. In the first edition for 2021, the sites are a mixed bag of styles, from minimalism to brutalism, but they’re all instilled with a sense of positivism for the year ahead.

Facet is an AI-powered content-aware image editor that runs in your browser. The editor understands how to mask different textures, imports new styles from other sources, and can even apply styles across multiple images so you can edit a whole campaign. There’s a free plan available.

There’s a lot of change in Washington DC right now, with everything from the government’s website, to its international policies getting a refresh. One subtle change is the new White House logo that went live on inauguration day. The refined logomark took 30 revisions to get perfect.

Pika is an open-source, native color picker for macOS. It allows you to compare colors for WCAG compliance, it’s super easy to use, and lists colors in hex, RGB, HSB, or HSL formats. You can even copy and paste colors into other apps. You can fork it on GitHub or download it for free.

Abstract reports on the state of design in 2021. The analysis covers 5 key areas, from the growth of design teams in the next 12 months to the way we measure design, from the biggest challenges designers face today to the next big thing for the design industry to obsess over.

Flat File is a simple addition to your app that allows you to import large datasets from CSV, XLS, or TSV without any of the usual formatting headaches. It’s a huge time-saver for app migrations. Plans start from $2, and there’s a 14-day free trial available.

One of the internet's key benefits is that it levels the playing field, giving the young and tech-savvy access to opportunities previously reserved for the privileged. Henry Wong looks at the boom in investment apps and asks how designers are meeting the demand.

Wikipedia is celebrating 20 years this week by focusing on the profiles of some of the 280,000 people who edit its pages every month. The hashtag #Wikipedia20 is being used to celebrate the milestone, and there are tons of events and a digital swag pack to download.