When Todd Willing was 15, he entered a high school work experience program at Fords Australian Design Studio. His father owned a garage, and hed always been around cars. I had a loose understanding of what went into them because of that exposure, and I always had a creative bent I guess, says Willing. I would be drawing cars most of the time, to the frustration of my teachers. The experience is still so vivid in Willings mind: the plane ride to Melbourne, the energy and feel of a space devoted to creativity, the culture and environment of a creative team. That was it for me, he says. I wasnt going to be doing anything else.Now, 22 years later and still at Ford (though this time in Michigan), Willing is Head of Design, leading the design practice for Ford and Lincoln brand vehicles worldwide. Having been the chief exterior designer on the 2017 Ford GT and leading teams responsible for the F-150, Ranger, Bronco, Explorer, Expedition, and more, Willing has been a key part of shaping Ford vehicles around the world. And while his role is fairly big-picture, Willing says he feels a deep responsibility that ties back to his industrial design education: to create something new or improve on something, making peoples lives and experiences better. Willing says so much of that work is creative and connected with various disciplines across the design studio.Turns out, to prepare for that kind of work, Willing still somehow manages to hang around cars. When he isnt working, he races vintage race cars. When youre in a race car, your safety depends on 101% concentration. It pushes everything else aside. Right after that, I feel freer to be creative.As designers we make thousands of decisions on behalf of our customers . . . we need to be armed with deep insights. In our case, its motor vehicles and services. It should be done to make lives better in some waywith thoughtful design, desirability, and being straightforward. Thats really important. We have research groups that help us do that. We have ethnographic research, where we spend time with customers. You need to take that and apply a lot of care and attention to get it right. To solve for unmet needs. In many cases, its doing this before our customers or users even realize they are working around something, or that problem exists to solve. Thats where the real magic happens for me.Im part of a bigger industrial systemmarket trends, legislation; these are constraints to pure creativity. Sometimes that might seem limiting, but also its an opportunity to innovate with purpose. You have something very specific to solve and there are obstacles in the way that forces innovation in a lot of cases.Sometimes when I need to clear my mind, I race vintage cars. Thats super helpful when I want to be creative. I did go karting as a kid, and later on, once I could afford to, I got back into racing cars. I have a few now and its definitely therapy for me.The 2017 Ford GT [Photo: Ford]I like things to be optimized. When things have a clear purpose, you can go deep into that purpose and make sure that the product delivers on that. Its not enough to be visually appealing. If you look at our industry, theres been a heavy bias toward styling and that chemical reaction people have in their brain when they see something thats appealing. Thats critical, but doing it with more meaning and purpose and delivering on the function is critical to me. My personal philosophy, I like to edit things to the point where theres nothing extraneous without function. It allows you to put more content or money into the things that mean something.I surround myself with creative talent as much as I can. This role requires me to be available for different aspects of the business. I make sure I build in the right amount of time to have conversations around creativity, and be with the creative team. I find it helpful to have some specific creative reviews where there is no hierarchy. The person with the most knowledge or the best idea holds the floor, and we park our stripes at the door. Being face-to-face with the team, and giving attention to the designers with the least experiencethey are the ones faced with the challenges of design the most, too. Its a catalyst for fresh and interesting design.I believe good design plays a prominent and positive role in daily life. It should talk to you.Good design should telegraph purpose, capability, proper use, and of course be highly attractive to those whom it is intended to serve. I encourage our teams to avoid false adornment. Having a clear and differentiated mission at the start of a project is a big enabler for success. When we were creating the latest generation of Ford GT, the ambition to race and win at Le Mans was the mission. Using this as a guide for decisions, if a proposed design element had a negative impact on the performance, then it wasnt allowed on the car.Automotive design is part of a complicated ecosystem. The investment required for new products is very high, and the product cycles are much longer than most industries. This means that creating products that are meaningful and have longevity are important. There are many factors that influence our approach: different market trends, global politics, legislation, etc. Although on the surface constraints can seem limiting, they often drive innovation. Affordability is becoming ever more critical in the face of new competition and economic factors. This comes back to my point about the criticality of making the right choices on behalf of prospective customers. Our CEO talks about there being no space at Ford for Vanilla Cars. This means that everything needs to have a clear purpose that is attractive and useful to our customers. Our products should be focused and be the best at what they do.Ideas, until they are proven, can be fragile. But, its important to make sure we draw them out even if they are not obvious home runs. Making sure the ideas have time to breathe a little bit . . . usually that leads to a spark that has potential and it will invariably inspire the rest of the team to grow off of that initial idea. If the inspiration in the team is low, look at what you have and try to flesh it out. Then usually that inspires something in others.I have a motto for my team: Design is not an attribute. There is always a trade to be hada way of spending moneywhat choices you make along the way. Its an intentional product creation that marries purpose, function, and desirabilitynot necessarily in that order, but it needs to consider all of those things. I am frustrated when I hear design being referred to as the darling department. If we turn up around that motto, that perception disappears.

"2025 will be a year where mid-tier and indie studios thrive".

Relive the joys of the 70s and 80s with this 300-game, full-size home arcade machine.

I realized quite late in Assassins Creed Shadows that being this version of a shinobi is hard but it was precisely the precision the game demanded that made it all the more rewarding.With Shadows, the Assassins Creed franchise has achieved both its most impressive stealth and assassination mechanics. At its best, Shadows evokes games like Arkanes Dishonored series, mixing emergent action with an artful blend of skills and scenarios. While not nearly at the level of sophistication as those games, I nevertheless had moments that left me breathless from what I could achieve. These put me more in the space of immersive simulated assassination games than the most recent, chest-thumping Assassins Creed games.Heres an example. In Ubisofts open-world third-person action game, I was faced with a group of about 10 men in a dark cave, all of whom turned out to be targets Id been hunting for ages. They were all part of one group, who Id been carefully taking down individually one leading me to the next. Now, after tracking one, it turned out he and his remaining colleagues had decided to hold a meeting. Together. With their guards. I hadnt planned this, but now I either had to leave or use this opportunity to finish the job in one lethal swoop.Importantly, my character, the shinobi Naoe, was not without her own tricks to balance the overwhelming odds. First, she wasnt alone. In Shadows, you organically recruit allies throughout your massive revenge quest. You can summon them at a moments notice to assist you in any scenario: from a barefisted fighter monk to a giggling, creepy teenage poisoner. Having upgraded my poisoner, her poison bomb put three enemies to sleep immediately. Her upgrades also meant anyone who came to investigate fell under the same spell. I began by summoning said poisoner to take out several of the targets and guards.Second, Naoe herself has skills that verge on magical, such as slowing down time while moving at normal speed again, reminiscent of Dishonored or Arkanes other big hitter, Deathloop. Using this skill immediately after my poisoner allowed me to throw several deadly kunai at guards heads and move closer to the actual targets for a slick close-up double assassination.All of this happened within less than 20 seconds. And voila! All the targets and their guards were down.Image: UbisoftNever had I felt more like an assassin in Assassins Creed. It surprised me, given that I have been playing the franchise since the first game. But this moment made me realize that I had never had to be this clever before in these games, or had access to such a variety of complementary skills, tools, and abilities. Even the more recent trilogy of reboots Origins, Odyssey, and Valhalla did not feature such variety and complementary actions. While the lovable goofball protagonists of those games develop god-like abilities, most were centered around combat rather than stealth. The last expansion of Valhalla, for example, literally saw you play a god, Odin, battling through the Norse realms to save his son, Baldur.Now, with Shadows, Ubisoft has managed to balance both action and stealth, allowing you to play as the shinobi Naoe and the lethal mountain samurai Yasuke. Its Naoes stealth, in particular, that has left me impressed. Shadows creates multiple scenarios that require planning for your shinobi. While Naoe moves like dark silk on a night wind and can instantly assassinate multiple targets, she can die quickly. Yet, she will often face large set pieces with upward of 2030 enemies patrolling an area.RelatedThe game places huge rewards in, for example, giant, heavily guarded castles. Walking in the front gate is almost never an option. But Naoe can climb overhanging trees, find cracks in walls, and swim in via aqueducts. Once inside, she can use eagle vision to see through walls and tag enemies. Shadows removes the flying companion from the previous three games, which acted like a military drone to provide air reconnaissance.Now, its entirely within the limited confines of Naoes vision but thats not necessarily limiting. If used properly, Naoe can never be surprised and can plan the order of assassination such that no one ever realizes she has infiltrated. For example, if one guard is patrolling, it could be easier to take him out, rather than his colleagues who are stationed, since he may spot you moving.Image: UbisoftThe size of these places turns this into a murdery puzzle. If I take Guard A out, I have access to Guards B and C. However, Guard D is watching Guard A, etc. Without realizing it, you have to create an assassination Rube Goldberg machine, taking one out, then another, timing it and using different abilities, recruits, and so on. It takes some time to get through these giant castles, but youre rewarded with some of the best weapons and armor in the game. And if youre caught, you are hunted for a while, making traversal a hazard. In previous entries, stealth was largely optional and functional but unremarkable. There was also no real penalty for being spotted that those godlike protagonists couldnt easily silence.Similarly, the other playable character, the samurai Yasuke, requires careful consideration, despite being a moving mountain. He doesnt have eagle vision. He is made for loud lethality; even his instant assassinations sever heads and limbs. This creates its own thoughtful play since you need to carefully move and work your way through these large set pieces, ideally without drawing attention.Yasukes advantage is that he can use a huge bow to take enemies out instantly from a distance unlike Naoe, who has to be close. This speaks to the give-and-take theme central to the games mechanics. But Yasuke can more easily and quickly end alerts, making his style of murder puzzle less clean but easier to recover from should things go awry.I did not expect Shadows to place so much work and thought into its assassinations, which is obviously amusing given the name of the franchise. Having played this series since its inception, I was struck by the emphasis on clean, thoughtful assassinations not only within scripted contexts, but in the open world itself.After years of trending toward bombastic action, Shadows points toward a future where Assassins Creed continues to live up to its name and hopefully creates scenarios to make players feel like the titular leads, rather than god-like warriors.See More:

The Razer Blade 16 is designed to be the gaming-focused alternative to the MacBook Pro, and Im always here for that. I love a gaming laptop that still looks and feels like a somewhat normal laptop, and the new Blade returns to a thinner and lighter chassis design after the last-gen got a bit chunky. The top-end configuration also adopts the new flagship Nvidia RTX 5090 laptop GPU and an even heftier price of $4,499.99 ($200 more than the 4090 model).Ive spent some time with the new Razer Blade 16, but my first review unit had noticeable hardware issues and was replaced by Nvidia, which provided the Blades for RTX 5090 testing. Ive only had the replacement unit for a few days, and while it doesnt exhibit any of the same performance issues or buzzy speakers, its had a couple of random bluescreens of its own. Im in troubleshooting talks with Razer, but while thats ongoing, Im still testing this laptop and sizing up my feelings about it. Consider this me posting through it a little glimpse into my internal dialog. (Youre welcome. But also, Im sorry?)Unlike a MacBook Pro, the Blade 16s black is actually black. Like a MacBook Pro, its quite the fingerprint magnet (but it cleans up well).I love most of the hardware on the new Blade most. Its 16-inch, 2560 x 1600 OLED display with a 240Hz refresh rate remains a lovely panel to work and play on, just like its predecessor. And the keyboard and trackpad are overall very good. My biggest gripe with the keyboard is the new column of macro keys on the right, which often causes me to mute the microphone when I mean to hit the right arrow. Its yet another problem that could have been avoided by using the standard inverted-T arrow key arrangement thats easier to find by feel. Are Windows laptop makers ever going to learn?The thinner and lighter chassis is a welcome change (it shaves off a whole 7mm and 0.8 pounds), though I need to do more thermal testing to see if its as good at cooling as the last model. Theres also Razers Laptop Cooling Pad, which can give the Blade 16s GPU and CPU up to 25W more power each. I have it here, so Ill see if HyperBoost is worth the added noise and extra $150. I also wonder whether thicker gaming laptops might eke out more juice from the RTX 5090.The new Razer Blade 16 (right) is noticeably thinner than the last-gen 4090 model (left).The keyboard deck is slightly deeper on the new model (right).The new Blade 16 thankfully maintains the same plethora of ports.I know were only talking a difference in thickness of just 7mm, but you definitely feel it.As Ive already written, the RTX 5090 GPU in the Blade 16 is a fine upgrade if you enjoy DLSS and frame generation. Im going to continue testing it, including more gaming while on battery power. Nvidias made some big claims about how powerful yet power-efficient the 50-series laptop cards are, and in my early testing, the 5090 is about 20 percent more efficient than the 4090, so Im intrigued. But Im skeptical, because when Im not gaming, the Blade 16 struggles to get through a basic work day on battery, even while using productivity apps like Slack, Chrome, and Google Docs on the integrated graphics. Its AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 Strix Point CPU can easily stretch beyond eight hours of work in other gaming laptops, like the 2024 Asus ROG Zephyrus G16, but I cant get five and a half hours with the Blade, despite enabling Advanced Optimus and triple-checking the graphics settings in Nvidia Control Panel, Windows Settings, and Synapse. (Maybe theres something misconfigured somewhere, so Ill continue testing this too.)This laptop is supposed to be great for productivity, creative apps, and gaming. It costs four-and-a-half thousand dollars. Part of me really likes what it has to offer, and Im downright impressed with how cool it can run under load, but another part of me thinks the price is outlandish if things are randomly crashing under light loads and you have to charge multiple times a day. For that money, you can buy a $2,000 MacBook Pro that can handle creative workflows and last well over a whole day (if you dont mind MacOS, of course). And youd have another $2,500 to spend on a respectable gaming laptop, or even a more powerful desktop.Green-illuminated lid logo aside, the Blades continue to look sleek and fit in anywhere.However, Ill concede that having one device to do it all is a slick proposition. I keep coming back to how nice this laptop looks and feels. And boy does it make games look pretty and run them smoothly, either on its brilliant OLED or on an external 4K monitor. It is, after all, meant for games.I can still see myself loving the Blade 16. But well have to see in the full review, after a whole bunch more testing thats hopefully (fingers crossed) devoid of any further technical hangups.What do you think? Does any laptop actually make sense for nearly five grand? Let me know in the comments, and if theres anything in particular youd like to see tested on the Blade 16 for the full review.Photography by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The VergeSee More:

This interview contains spoilers for The Last of Us Season 1 on HBO (and the games, of course).The was Joel right? debate has been ongoing since the first game debuted all the way back in 2013. Did he do the right thing when he saved Ellies life, even if that act meant a cure for the cordyceps infection that had devastated humanity might never be found? The question was then later rekindled after the finale of HBOs The Last of Us Season 1, fueled further by the differences in Joels character in the series and the shift from spores to tendrils.That was two years ago, and still the debate among fans rages on. So with Season 2 debuting on April 13, we took it upon ourselves to go straight to the source. I sat down with creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann, as well as series stars Bella Ramsey (Ellie), Gabriel Luna (Tommy), Kaitlin Dever (Abby), Isabela Merced (Dina), and Young Mazino (Jesse) to get their take on whether or not Joel made the right decision in the hospital on that fateful day. Because, you know, what better way to start your day than a debate about a life-saving murder-spree? (Our interview was at 9 in the morning.) PlayWe have different opinions about this, Druckmann immediately offers, followed by a jovial laugh and a we do, we do, from Mazin.But upon further discussion, it turns out that the pairs opinions arent terribly far from each other after all.I believe Joel was right, Druckmann admits. If I were in Joel's position, I hope I would be able to do what he did to save my daughter.That's so interesting, because I think that if I were in Joel's position, I probably would have done what he did, Mazin adds. But I'd like to think that I wouldn't. That's the interesting push and pull of the morality of it. And that's why the ending of the first game is so provocative and so wonderful. It just doesn't let you off the hook as a player.Most of the cast, however, are more non-commital on the subject. After a moment, Ramsey, Merced and Dever all chime in with different versions of its complicated. Merced, however, takes it a step further, mentioning that she thinks this season explores that. The word that of course is doing a lot of heavy lifting, considering just how complicated this conversation is.The Last of Us Season 2 Cast: Who's New and Coming Back to the HBO Show?Luna stands with his proverbial brother Pedro in the same way Tommy stood with Joel. Im biased, he says. I'm his brother and I understand and you can't see the scope of the whole world. You can only see your world, and Ellie is his world. And so I mean, I can't personally fault him as Tommy and maybe not even as Gabe, so I don't know. The musings between the cast were pretty consistent, with everyone agreeing that there is no simple answer to the question. Mazino, who plays Jesse, did dive in a bit further though. I feel like he was on autopilot, Mazino says of Joels slaughtering the people in the hospital while saving Ellie. I think he was kind of just he blacked out and it was just all hazy until he came to.Mazinos answer here is probably the fairest shake of them all. Can you say, definitively, that if a loved one was going to die and the best answer you were provided in the moment was that it only might save the world, your loved one wasnt given the opportunity for consent and the surgery was happening immediately, that you wouldnt have done the same? I cant. And its that back and forth of what you hope you would do versus what you would probably do that makes the story of Joel and Ellie compelling. People get to the end of The Last of Us [the game] and there is that question, what would you do? What should you do if faced with the opportunity to save the world, if you sacrifice your child. That goes back to Abraham and Isaac. It's so profound. The notion of sacrifice to save the world, Mazin says.The familiarity only makes it harder. It's a difference between, OK, if I had to kill a random person to save who knows how many lives, in the abstract, you would say, well, yeah, that makes sense, of course, Druckmann adds. But now, remove it from being a random person and it's your kid. Now the answer is very different. That differentiation takes the conversation from the traditional Trolley Problem should you sacrifice one person to save a group of people and makes it a deeper, even more complicated ethical question. It's like death begets death begets death and I think that's just a perfect example. And yeah, it's his world. Who cares about the world if your world isn't there? Mazino asks.Yeah, he saved his world, just not the world, finishes Ramsey.Now that youve had time to sit with the question in the time between the Season 1 finale and now, what do you think? Was Joel right?

Amazons Big Spring Sale is in full swing, bringing a boatload of savings on just about anything you could need or want. From gaming gear and TVs to books and cleaning essentials, youll see the biggest savings of 2025 so far. However, in addition to slashing prices, Amazon does something a little sneaky by slipping in clickable digital coupons on a range of items. These deals can be easy to miss, and if you dont check the tiny box before checkout, you could miss out on major discounts. To make life a little easier, weve sorted through all the top coupon deals and listed our favorites below with the final price after all the possible savings. If you want to go rogue and scroll through the seemingly endless offers yourself, Amazon has a page dedicated to coupon deals. Just dont forget to click the box to score the money off. Clip the coupon to save $3.76Ultimate Spider-Man by Jonathan Hickman Vol. 1Clip the coupon for $40 off Govee Smart Recessed Lighting 6 InchGet $15 off by clipping the couponAnker 633 Magnetic Battery$25 clickable coupon for savingsThe Skyrim Library - Volumes I, II & III (Box Set)Clip a 50% off coupon and 10% off promoINIU Portable ChargerSave with a clickable $3.12 couponTop Gun: Maverick [4K UHD]Clip the $20 off couponInnoView Portable Monitor,Clip the $20 couponEnginStar 300W Solar Generator Clip the 20% off coupon to save bigSacrack 500W USB C Multi Port Charging Station HubSave $30 with a clickable couponMOOKA H13 True HEPA Air PurifierClip the $60 couponroborock Q5 Pro Robot Vacuum and Mop ComboSave $60 with a clickable couponNexiGo PJ40 (Gen 3) ProjectorYou can add to your book collection, as the three-volume Skyrim Library collection is over 50% off with a clipped Amazon coupon, or you can grab the Ultimate Spider-Man by Jonathan Hickman Vol. 1 for only $7.50. Prefer to watch your entertainment? Top Gun: Maverick also has a clickable coupon, so you can enjoy all the extras that arent available when youre streaming the box-office smash. Turn your camping trip this summer into more of glamping experience with the 50% off EnginStar 300W Solar Generator. Plug the discounted NexiGo PJ40 (Gen 3) Projector into the portable generator, and youll enjoy a full-on movie marathon deep in the woods. If youd rather stay home in the AC, this low-cost air purifier will bring the fresh air feeling inside, while the roborock Q5 Pro Robot Vacuum and Mop Combo ensures your floors remain spotless with minimal effort.Clearly, there are a whole lot of different product categories with awesome coupons at the moment, and these 12 picks are only scratching the surface of all the clickable savings that could be had. What Are Amazon Coupons? Amazon coupons are digital discounts that appear just below the price of a product. Its a way for sellers to incentivize potential customers. Just like physical coupons that youd use in a retail store, you must clip, or in this case, click, the coupon to enjoy the savings. You can use these coupons that offer specific dollar amounts or percentages off on top of already discounted products. Best of all, you usually dont need to be a Prime Member to enjoy the additional deal. However, typically more savings come with Prime membership, especially during Amazons Big Spring Sale.How Do I Use Amazon Coupons? Using Amazon coupons is as simple as clicking a little box just below the price before adding the item to your cart. Amazon notes these deals by highlighting the coupon in orange just before the clickable box. The actual savings are listed in green writing next to the box. If you skip selecting the coupon before adding it to your cart. Amazon provides another opportunity to apply it in your cart before checking out. In the cart, a Clip & Save button is available to press to easily apply the discount to the product. However, only when you checkout, will you see the final savings with the coupon. Shop More Amazon Big Spring Sale DealsSunrise on the Reaping (A Hunger Games Novel) (The Hunger Games)Clip the 50% Off CouponINIU 10,000mAh USB Power BankNon-Current Subscribers Only3 Months of Audible Premium Plus for $0.99 Per MonthClip $3.12 Off CouponTop Gun: Maverick [4K UHD]Lowest Price EverUltimate Spider-Man by Jonathan Hickman Vol. 1Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol.1 (PS5)Exclusive Prime priceOrzly Carry Case designed for Playstation PortalOnyx Storm (Deluxe Limited Edition) (The Empyrean, 3)NERF Elite 2.0 Commander RD-6 Dart BlasterULTIMATE INVASIONAmazon Fire TV Stick HD (newest model)Back to the Future: The Ultimate Trilogy - Blu-ray + DigitalSoundcore by Anker P20i True Wireless EarbudsBatman: HushFantastic Beasts 3-Film Collection (Blu-ray)WatchmenBlink Mini 2 (Newest Model)Danielle is a Tech freelance writer based in Los Angeles who spends her free time creating videos and geeking out over music history.

This article contains Death of a Unicorn spoilers.You know what? We really must put more stock in art history. This is a moral truth that should be repeated. It also, perhaps, is a thought that flashed through the mind of Odell Leopold (Richard E. Grant) right before a unicorns horn also smashed into that soft, squishy gray matter. It might have similarly been in the back recesses of Belinda Leopolds (Ta Leoni) head while another unicorn opened her belly.They were both warned earlier in their movie by art history student Ridley Kintner (Jenna Ortega) that ancient masterworks tell us of the dangers posed by horned mythical creatures. She even had JPEGs of the fancy medieval tapestries to prove it, with scenes of death by unicorn disembowelment and all. But they refused to listen.Its a comical sight befitting a movie purposely infused with Jurassic Park imagery as rich elites attempt and fail to control the natural world. Yet its not only a gag. In fact, Death of a Unicorn writer-director Alex Scharfman extensively studied unicorn mythology and folklore, telling us previously in a Den of Geek cover story that he went back to Roman historians and the Old Testament Bible while researching the film. He also intensely examined those unicorn tapestries you see in the movie. Aye, theyre real and currently reside in the Met Cloisters in New York City. So we recently decided to sit down again with Scharfman to discuss how deeply these Hunt of the Unicorn tapestries informed his film.I grew up around New York in the suburbs and went on field trips to the Cloisters Museum where those are held and maintained, Scharfman recalls in our latest interview about the film and these Gothic wonders. They must have been buried in my unconscious, because at some point I forgot about them but then when researching the movie, I came upon them again and I was like oh right, those things!These tapestries, which were made by an unknown artist at the turn of the 16th century, and then resided in an aristocratic Parisian home until nearly being destroyed in the French Revolution, became a North Star for everything in Death of a Unicorn. Ortega even previously told us they were a cheat sheet for understanding their movie. So join us below as we unpack each of the seven tableaus composing the Unicorn Tapestries while Scharfman explains how they influenced and shaped his man-eating unicorn creature feature.A24 / Met CloistersThe Hunters Enter the WoodsAn interesting thing to note is that while the Cloisters and many art historians place these tapestries in a generally recognized sequenceand it is the sequence we are using in this articleno one is exactly certain about the official order of things.Theres not like on the back of them a number one or a number two, Scharfman explains, so people have put them in an order that seems to make sense. And I totally agree that this makes sense as the first one, but one thing that I thought was fun with the movie is theyre not necessarily in the right order.Still most agree this is the first composition since it distinctly lacks either a unicorn or a king and/or lord. Instead it is just dogs and kingsmen approaching a formidable wilderness.One thing thats nice about this tapestry specifically is theres just so much foliage and just this overwhelming sense of nature, says Scharfman. That is something people write about with the Unicorn Tapestries a lot: this sense of the way nature is depicted. Yet it is the humans in this specific tapestry that inspire so much of the bent of Death of a Unicorn, the movie about a CEO, or feudal lord, who summons a prospective servant, Paul Rudds Elliot Kintner, to court.I think its telling that [the Lord] is not in this one, Scharfman says. He sent out his minions to go get him this thing that he wants in the woods and to bring it back for him. So I totally think when you start digging into the tapestries, and more broadly most medieval unicorn mythology and lore, you end up with something that really presents itself as a class commentary in that way.Join our mailing listGet the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox!The writer-director notes that he also modeled one of his shots of Grant leading Rudd and other characters into the wilderness while hunting a unicorn specifically after this tapestry.A24 / Met CloistersThe Unicorn Purifies WaterThe next tableau sets the scene of a unicorn purifying the water in an enchanted fountain hidden deep within the wood. The implication is that the unicorns horn, and perhaps blood, has restorative magical powers, which some scholars perceive as an allusion to Christ. The myth about a unicorns body having healing properties long predates the tapestries and was already a key element in Scharfmans vision for the developing movie when he rediscovered these tapestries. But this image had other significant influences on the film.Its a funny thing, Scharfman chuckles, I dont know why theres this fountain in the woods. The unicorn is not purifying a stream, its purifying water from a fountain thats pouring out. It is an odd sight, but one the director sought to recreate by placing a near replica of this fountain in the Leopold estate: In the courtyard of the house, theres a fountain that is exactly like that one. We modeled it pretty much as close as we could possibly get to it and that is where the unicorn is discovered by most of the characters.Furthermore, this tapestry inspired even the name of the films villains.Says Scharfman, Among the other animals that are drinking from the water in this tapestry, there are a couple lions, and the Leopold family is of course the antagonists, the pharmaceutical family in the movie. As the director acknowledges, the name Leopold is an allusion to Leo the lion in astrology. The Leopolds company sigil is also a lion.In a lot of unicorn mythology, lions and unicorns were enemies, Scharfman adds. But here theyre kind of allies, or at least the unicorn seems to be happy to let them drink from the water the unicorn has purified. Its a departure from the myths, as well as where Death of a Unicorn goes next.A24 / Met CloistersThe Unicorn Crosses a StreamIn this scene, the kingsmen fall upon the poor unicorn and begin their attack as it attempts to flee across a stream. The image sets the stage for the bigger carnage to come later, but right down to the costumes of the hunters, beginning with the gent attending to the dog in the bottom left corner, this image helped inform the look of many ofcostume designer Andrea Fleschs creations for the film.Theres certainly lots of little textures and details like Will Poulters bathing suits, Scharfman comments. Theres these really great stripes, vertical stripes on one of the characters pants, and that was certainly an influence that we took for Will. Costume-wise, Paul wears blue throughout the movie, Jenna wears red throughout the movie. Theyre kind of moving towards each other [which gives you purple] the Leopold family, which is played by Richard, Ta, and Will, they wear a lot of gold. Gold, white, black, thats their palette, and when you look at the characters in these tapestries, theyre wearing red, blue, gold, and then theres a lot of green in the background.Even the scientists lab coats in the film are made to mimic the high collars of late Middle Ages fashion.A24 / Met CloistersThe Unicorn Defends HimselfNow we get into the images that really start to influence the strange, bemused tone of Death of a Unicorn. And we are not referring to the orange tree high above the action of this scene or the red-roofed castle far off in the background. Both of those informed the look and garden of the Leopold estate, which the director is quick to point out to us. But it is the violent carnage and death in the foreground of this tapestry that immediately catches the eye.This was one of the first bits of unicorn violence that I had seen in any artwork, Scharfman remembers. When you look in this tapestry, when you go up close and you see it, its stabbing this dog in the intestines. Its a hunting dog, so I think its self-defense. But when you go very close or if you got a high enough resolution version of it, it is very gory with the level of detail in this wound that its inflicting on the dog.He continues, Beyond that its also kicking with its hind legs, which when you go back into historical accounts of unicorns, there is a lot of violence described and theres a lot of very violent imagery that you can find. They were not these passive creatures. They really were not afraid to bite and kick and use their horn to gore people.Scharfman admits that ripping out a characters intestines like he depicted happening to poor Belinda was his own flourish, but there are accounts of them using their teeth to bite people, so it felt like it wasnt that big of a jump.A24 / Met CloistersThe Unicorn Surrenders to a MaidenPerhaps the most influential tapestry on all of Death of a Unicorn, The Unicorn Surrenders to a Maiden is as important for what it doesnt show as for what it does.Jenna wears a red hoodie throughout the movie, which has a very unusual shape, notes Scharfman. This actually is very much inspired by what the maiden is wearing in this, with these very kind of wide sleeves. And that was a hoodie we found from a Japanese designer that they made in gray and other colors, but we asked them to make it custom for us in red. It had this really interesting cloak kind of shape to it.After discovering this tapestry, it became quite indicative of how Scharfman imagined the Ridley character within the film: It got me thinking, Well, what is a pure hearted maiden in 2025? And I started thinking its probably a Gen-Z leftist whos protesting on a campus somewhere right now. Someone with very strong morals and ideals.However, more than just the idea of having a pure-hearted maiden, this tapestrys incompleteness created space for Scharfman to fill in his own grisly details.When you look at it in real life, its about a third the size of the other ones, the director points out. Thats because it was tremendously damaged. It was recovered after the French Revolution, so it is believed to have been damaged during the revolution, perhaps. It was used on top of a sack of potatoes to keep them warm in the winter time, and so they got totally tattered.What is left of the tapestry is actually torn into two pieces, and it is missing crucial information like the maiden it is named after.If you look in the bottom right corner of this tapestry, just under the unicorn, you can see a womans hand, says Scharfman. So the maiden that the unicorn is actually surrendering to is not in the tapestry, which is very confusing. This is another maiden who happens to be like a handmaiden working with the maiden who is the bait. And I thought about putting that into the movie, but I was like that is so confusing to try and teach peoplethat there is a maiden in the tapestry, but thats not the maiden its surrendering to. Its surrendering to an off-screen maiden that well never see.Nonetheless, the actual maidens absence gave Scharfman the creative liberty to suggest there is a fuller, more complete lost tapestry introduced in the film that includes so much of the monster movie mayhem that was to come.We had these brilliant artists do this incredible artwork to take the figures of the tapestries and the style of the tapestries, and infuse it with scenes from our movie, he explains. So we expanded this tapestry into this lost tapestry that includes a lot of the kills and a lot of the fun elements of the horror language that we employ in the movie, but to put it in this medieval context.It also allowed Scharfman to reconfigure the way the tapestries are meant to be interpreted. Whereas the following two tapestries are perceived by many historians to be the end of the story, in Scharfmans film the actual ending is this tapestry with the maiden and unicorn resting after all the death and carnage had been carried out.A24 / Met CloistersThe Hunters Return to the Castle / The Unicorn Rests in a GardenThe last two actual tapestries tell an interesting if aloof conclusion to their tale: first the unicorn appears to be deceased, presumably killed by the hunters after the maiden beguiled the mythical creature long enough for them to get closeand then the creature appears to be resurrected and curiously happy in captivity.Of the former tableaus influences, the Lady of the Manors golden gown informed Leonis cream colored suits in the movie. Scharfman also points to the shape of the unicorns corpse as it lies draped over a horse in the center of the scene. When the unicorn is killed [and taken to] the house in our movie, it has a similar pose where its kind of draped out the window of a car, says the director. In which case, perhaps historians interpretations of the tapestries sequence is wrong, and this is the real first tapestry, which like Death of a Unicorn sets the stage for all the carnage that is to follow?Either way, its the generally accepted final image of the story which inspires at least the oblique motivation of the films greediest Leopold, Will Poulters nepobaby Shepherd. The unicorn in captivity, that is the vision that Will Poulters character is going after, Scharfman says. This idea that we can own this thing and possess it forever, and it will be ours within these confines. Yet there are multiple ways of reading the actual tapestry.Adds the director, Whats funny about it is when you look at it, it has a very thin chain on it. It seems like it could break out of this, but its not. So there are questions about the symbolic meaning there. Is it there by choice? Is it there being held as captive? Who knows? But that is his vision of the future if [Shep] can possess them and contain them. Then he will have a limitless supply of unicorns.Given the tone and tenor of Death of a Unicorn, we might suggest the creatures contentment is nothing more than medieval propaganda for how they actually handle confinement. Whatever the case might be, the film ends with the beasts running free and even attacking the police vehicle that Elliot and Ridley are being driven away in. However, Scharfman doesnt think his films heroes are in too much danger.I think theyre there to try and help Jenna and Pauls characters, Scharfman muses of his unicorns, but I also think they dont really understand how cars work or police, or how any of these things actually function, because they exist outside of society. Still, should either Ridley or Elliot perish in the ensuing car crash, its no biggie. Worst case scenario, they can resurrect some people.Much like the tapestries show, when it comes to unicorns, death is more of a temporary inconvenience than a bitter fact of life. And with any luck, Death of a Unicorn might inspire some folks to learn more about the O.G. medieval roots of the pop culture creature.We put a lot of easter eggs from these tapestries into the movie, and I think theres something fun about that, muses the filmmaker. Hopefully it adds a layer of rewatchability and maybe sends some people to the Cloisters to check out the tapestries in person. That would be a nice kind of enchantment.Death of a Unicorn is playing in theaters now.

I recently finished the extension and full renovation of my London apartment and home. Working for oneself is a mixed bag. Its really exciting at first, but then it suffers the cobbler-with-no-shoes effect: The time allocated to work on it kept being deleted from the diary in favor of clients more important than myselfbasically anyone.Designers own houses are almost always the best looking and the ones that magazines scramble to photograph, and I think that is because there are no visual compromises. Otherwise the most successful houses are, in my experience, the ones that have had the most harmonious collaboration between designer and clientand that is a delicate balance of trust, inter-action, and mutual respect and understanding. But for a decorator, doing ones own place can miss the back-and-forth that a client brings; at moments it can feel quite lonely. The only people you have that push and pull with are your own team, and they arent always comfortable contradicting you.On balance I loved it, though. I appreciated the nimble way we could make decisions and pivot from one route to another. As the design evolved, it had the freedom to move swiftly into the next phase and even reverse at will if necessary. On a decorating project, those kinds of moves can require multiple meetings and presentations and a certain amount of persuasion to a nervous or unsure client. The bold moves are harder to get someone onboard with, but when I have succeeded I have always had the most positive result.Budgets are very different when working for oneself as opposed to working for someone elsenot only in scale but in spirit.The things that I did for myself in this apartment that have been the big wins are almost all things that I would have had a tough time persuading someone else to do. Tobacco linen on the walls of my north-facing sitting roomalmost impossible. Painting the windows in Toada perfect shade of sludge greenand then -specialist- painting the trim and paneling below the furniture rail was a high additional expense that came at the end of the project, adding a couple of weeks to an almost always overextended program.The specialist painting, although subtle, is high impact. Its the one thing that reduces my guests pulse rates as they enter the house. They almost always say they feel as if they have arrived in the country.Albert Hadley, like many of us, used his own apartment as a design laboratory. In one of his sitting rooms he lacquered the walls and ceiling the color and glossiness of Hersheys chocolate syrup, a look taken up by Mark Hampton, David Hicks, and Veere Grenney but I imagine at the time never seen before. Just the other day I was looking at a dining room that Veere did with similarly rich wallsthe sort you want to stick your finger in and taste!William Steele / Architectural Digest / Conde NastAlbert Hadleys New York apartment and the glossy chocolate walls he did not need client approval for.It is in their own homes that designers can experiment and do their best work without the pressure of persuading someone else to go along with it. There is so much at stake when you have to cajole a client into doing something expensive and bold that they are unsure of, and walls that are almost black definitely fall into that camp. When I decide to do something daring for myself, I dont worry so much about the outcomeI know I can live with it and I know that I can ultimately change it if I dont like it. I can also push things left and right and fiddle about with it to make it work. When youre doing that for someone else, they can get sidetracked by the room failing if it isnt what they expected in the first iteration, and that runs the risk of coming with either financial implications or loss of faithboth killers of creativity.Budgets are also very different when working for oneself as opposed to working for someone elsenot only in scale but in spirit. Budgets are always an issue no matter how wealthy the client. Everyone needs or wants to set a boundary, so there is that. There are also values associated with money, and part of the journey with a client is working out what they want to spend money on and what they dont. Having to rein things in here and there is almost always good for the end result.I dont regret any of the things I took out of my own budget, except I do wish I had a slightly more high-tech lighting system. The thing I blew my budget on was my four-poster bed, with its 90 yards of fabric, and I am happy to report I am delighted by it every night and again in the morning.This story originally appeared in the April 2025 issue of Elle Decor. SUBSCRIBE

Apple @ Work is exclusively brought to you by Mosyle, the only Apple Unified Platform. Mosyle is the only solution that integrates in a single professional-grade platform all the solutions necessary to seamlessly and automatically deploy, manage & protect Apple devices at work. Over 45,000 organizations trust Mosyle to make millions of Apple devices work-ready with no effort and at an affordable cost.Request your EXTENDED TRIALtoday and understand why Mosyle is everything you need to work with Apple.The iPhone 16e isnt a cheap iPhone like the iPhone SE. Its. While the last version of the iPhone SE felt like an old iPhone with its older design and missing features, the iPhone 16e brings modern functionality at a lower price point. It has a big display, Face ID, USB-C, and a powerful chip. In other words, its the perfect iPhone for businesses buying thousands of iPhones at a time, which is why the $599 price point isnt a huge problem. Compared to the iPhone 16, its a bargain, and its likely to end up being free with a cellular contract.About Apple @ Work:Bradley Chambers managed an enterprise IT network from 2009 to 2021. Through his experience deploying and managing firewalls, switches, a mobile device management system, enterprise grade Wi-Fi, 1000s of Macs, and 1000s of iPads, Bradley will highlight ways in which Apple IT managers deploy Apple devices, build networks to support them, train users, stories from the trenches of IT management, and ways Apple could improve its products for IT departments.Businesses buy in bulk and every dollar mattersSince Apple Silicon has been on the market, Ive said that the MacBook Air should be the default deployment of the Mac. IT and procurment teams should only deploy a Pro when it warrants it. It can add up when procurement teams can save $100 or $200 on-device purchases across 10,000 employees. This is where the iPhone 16e comes into play on the iPhone. From a positioning POV, its the MacBook Air of iPhones.The iPhone 16e provides a lower-cost option without sacrificing core business needs. It supports all of Apples device management features out of the box, making it easy to deploy, secure, and control. For enterprises buying thousands of iPhones, its not about having the best or most powerful iPhone. Its about having an iPhone thats reliable, cost-effective, and long-lasting. The iPhone 16e hits that sweet spot at $599.Perfect for warehouse use and scanner functionalityFrom logistics to retail, the iPhone has become the most common device for scanning barcodes, tracking inventory, and managing orders. The iPhone 16e offers a large, bright display, long battery life, and USB-C, making it a great fit for businesses that need dependable workstation-type devices. When paired with iOS apps for scanning and warehouse management, it becomes a rugged, powerful tool for workers handling inventory or using it as a mobile POS system.If theres one downside, its the lack of MagSafe. I get why Apple left it out, but its the biggest knock against the 16e. Without MagSafe, businesses will have to rely on USB-C charging solutions instead. MagSafe would have been an easy, frictionless way to keep devices powered without manually plugging them in for kiosk-style environments. Id love to see a future version with MagSafe and a Kensington lock-style mechanism for added security.Its not for you, and thats okIf you look at the feature set of the iPhone 16e and think, Id just assume I get the higher-end model, then this iPhone isnt for you. Its not the phone for you but built for business customers. The iPhone 16e isnt flashy, and thats the point. Its not designed for consumers upgrading from an iPhone 15 Proits designed for businesses deploying thousands of devices that need to last.Apples chips are so powerful now that even an entry-level iPhone will run smoothly for 3-4 years. With years worth of iOS updates, strong security, and Apples enterprise management tools, businesses can confidently deploy the 16e without worrying about performance degradation while saving tens of thousands of dollars.One thing to mention as well is that for business customers buying through their cellular carrier, this iPhone will be either free or almost free with a contract. For enterprises, the price is right with the iPhone 16e, and I wouldnt hesitate to deploy 10,000 of them.Apple @ Work is exclusively brought to you by Mosyle, the only Apple Unified Platform. Mosyle is the only solution that integrates in a single professional-grade platform all the solutions necessary to seamlessly and automatically deploy, manage & protect Apple devices at work. Over 45,000 organizations trust Mosyle to make millions of Apple devices work-ready with no effort and at an affordable cost.Request your EXTENDED TRIALtoday and understand why Mosyle is everything you need to work with Apple.Add 9to5Mac to your Google News feed. FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.Youre reading 9to5Mac experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Dont know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel