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Designers

Watercolor paintings like this were used to produce the dark, dystopian worlds of cyberpunk anime

What Does the Architecture of Anime Look Like?

A new exhibit brings together the creative design behind some of the most iconic cyberpunk anime films

The White House's

How a Groundbreaking Interior Designer Helped Jackie O. Change the White House

Sister Parish is credited with creating American country style, a recognizable and quirky mix of old and new

An earthship seems to rise out of the high plains at the foot of the mountains near Taos, New Mexico.

These Otherworldly “Earthships” Offer Visitors Unusual, Off-the-Grid Accommodations

Spend the night in an art house built from garbage

It looks a bit like a blimp–unsurprising, since Fuller meant it to fly.

Buckminster Fuller Was Good at Ideas, Terrible at Car Design

Fuller held more than 30 patents during his life, but many of his ideas didn’t make it off the page–or not for long

Les choses de Paul Poiret (Paul Poiret's Things), 1911

Esperanza Spalding: Jazz Musician, Grammy Award Winner and Now Museum Curator

The title of her latest album “D + Evolution” is also the theme of a new exhibition at the Smithsonian’s Cooper Hewitt

In his 1910 rendering of the Winslow House, Wright seems to mimic Ando Hiroshige’s use of vegetation as a frame.

Frank Lloyd Wright Credited Japan for His All-American Aesthetic

The famed architect was inspired by drawings and works from the Asian nation

Bjarke Ingels

Bjarke Ingels Makes the Impossible Concrete

The star architect is mapping out a new daring plan for the Smithsonian

By 1948, when this photo montage was made, Times Square was a riot of lights and special effects. Many of these lighted signs were the work of Douglas Leigh.

Times Square’s Glitzy Look was One Man’s Bright Idea

Douglas Leigh’s ability to imagine new kinds of advertising shaped the signs of the city

Muse with Violin Screen (detail), 1930. Rose Iron Works, Inc. (American, Cleveland, est. 1904). Paul Fehér (Hungarian, 1898–1990), designer. Wrought iron, brass; silver and gold plating

The Innovative Spirit fy17

How Jazz, Flappers, European Émigrés, Booze and Cigarettes Transformed Design

A new Cooper-Hewitt exhibition explores the Jazz Age as a catalyst in popular style

A Minnesota Home Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright Is For Sale, Original Furniture And All

Everything from the floor color to the light fixtures is as the architect designed it

Mesh billboards on the Moroccan mountainside will soon be joined by numerous others—a planned 31 in all—to create the world’s largest fog collection facility.

The Innovative Spirit fy17

This Device Collects Water From the Clouds

CloudFisher does exactly as its name implies—drawing water down from the sky

Ada Lovelace, “The world’s first computer programmer.” In the mid 1800s, she predicted that machines would compose music and forward scientific progress, based on her experiences programming Charles Babbage’s “Analytical Engine,” to calculate Bernoulli numbers.

Art Meets Science

These Bold Illustrations Celebrate the Incredible Contributions of Women in Science

A designer’s touch brings the achievements and faces of female pioneers to a wider audience

The World of Radio (detail) by Arthur Gordon Smith

The Romance and Promise of 20th-Century Radio Is Captured in This Mural

At the Cooper Hewitt, a rare opportunity to view “The World of Radio” with its masterful vignettes celebrating the Modern age

A Silk Road Wine Trail Karas Monument at the entrance of Rind Village in Vayots Dzor, Armenia.

Armenia

Can Ancient Techniques Make Modern Wine Better?

A new generation of wineries are going to painstaking lengths to acquire hundreds of historic clay karases

Cars are a liability and expensive to maintain for most Americans. The Future Cycles team builds human-powered vehicles that combine the efficiency of a bicycle or moped with the weather protection and carrying capacity of a car.

The Innovative Spirit fy17

These Locally Grown Design Ideas Were Created by the People for the People

A Cooper Hewitt exhibition spotlights the innovative and sustainable designs generated by those in search of solutions

Students of design at the Berlin Weissensee School of Art have prototyped a new device that tracks gestures in an amputated limb and translates them to computer commands.

This Digital Prosthesis Could Help Amputees Control Computers

Designers are developing a new device that tracks gestures in an amputated limb and translates them to computer commands, like scroll and click

How Trump Tower Takes the Skyscraper Debate to New Heights

The future of urban development takes on a new twist when the president lives among the clouds

The EcoHelmet is a foldable, recyclable helmet constructed of paper with a water-resistant coating.

The Innovative Spirit fy17

This Folded Paper Fans Out Into a Full-Size Bike Helmet

The EcoHelmet, this year’s James Dyson Award winner, could be used by bike shares across the world

Produced by Wedgwood, the Theodore Roosevelt service was patented on June 16, 1903, to its designer Armand Léger of Fenton, England (Pat. No. D36,363).

The Innovative Spirit fy17

Did You Know That the Designs On Some White House China Are Patented?

Two, possibly three, of the 19 china services that have been made for 17 U.S. presidents are covered by design patents

A rendering of the 10-ton block of ice.

Cool Finds

Watch a 10-Ton Ice Cube Melt on a Seattle Square

It’s a different kind of block party

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