"Skincare in the Game" by July Winters | 2NDFL Context Windows | D-Crit MA Class of 2026

Who is skincare designed for? 

July Winters ‘26 (@itsbyjuly) investigates ‘big skincare’ as a social determinant of beauty, considering how, and when, Black women are included in the narrative.

In July’s work she studies contemporary Black-owned skincare brands as change makers and places where Black women can design for themselves. 

Join us for rapid-fire thesis presentations, sharp dispatches, and the launch of 2NDFL Issue Two—celebrating the D-Crit Class of 2026.

The program will explore the shifting contours of design, culture, and society—followed by a reception and publication launch in the lobby.

Featured presentations:

- Mo Alabi, "Flyers, Stickers and Storefronts: the transient monuments of New York City’s immigrant communities"

- Tash Nikol, "Speaking in Iron: The Hidden Language of New Orleans"

- Vlad Ilkevich, "Peak B2B: The Latte Art of War, Normalizing Palantir, and Davos as Anti-Venice"

- Deborah Adams Doering, "Dreaming the Manifest-O: Outside Meets Inside at Kassel’s documenta"

- July Winters, "Skincare in the Game"

Including remarks by Molly Heintz and Alex de Looz. MC-ed by Amanda Ramos.

Doors: 5:00 pm

Program: 5:30 pm

Reception: 7:00 pm

About 2NDFL

2NDFL is our publication—and also the floor where D-Crit happens: second thoughts, second opinions, second drafts. It’s the space between boots-on-the-ground reporting and rigorous research, where ideas travel up from the street and down from the clouds—toward clarity, consequence, and context.

"This spring I co-taught our Research & Writing IV class, “Publishing and the Public,” with faculty member Nicolas Kemper, who is also the publisher of the New York Review of Architecture (NYRA), D-Crit’s publication in residence. Watching the NYRA team in action offers a real-world window into producing design writing, complementing the more theoretical conversations students may be having next door in the seminar room. While politely eavesdropping on NYRA staff in the open studio, students may learn, for instance, that editors and publishers care a lot about “audience,” a.k.a. readers. Who are they? What are they interested in? How can we engage them? At D-Crit, when our emerging writers are ready to share their own research and analysis, we also ask them to think about a prospective reader. What will the reader gain from spending time with your work? Can you, the writer, make them care about the topic at hand? Are you being clear? As faculty member Steve Heller notes, “All writing should open the door.” In the following pages, we are proud to share the writing of Class of 2026, excerpts from their thesis articles that have been carefully selected and edited with you, a reader of 2NDFL, in mind. We hope that you enjoy this wonderfully eclectic group of stories, united here by the lens of design."

—Molly Heintz, Program Chair