Designers

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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

It’s a different kind of block party

Kayak may be the best way to explore the climate change memorial of the future.

What Will the Memorials of the Future Look Like?

From underwater trees to mechanical parrots, the memorials of tomorrow don’t look much like the ones that exist today

Designing Classrooms For the 21st Century

By being a "Pinterest for teachers," room2learn provides ideas for improving classroom layout and functionality

This shopping bag was designed by the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union and handed out to shoppers in front of department stores around New York in 1964.

Fuel Your Design Obsession With 200,000 Newly Digitized Artifacts

Explore 30 centuries of design at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum without leaving your computer

Participants in "The Leading Strand" project share their prototypes with each other.

Here's What Happens When Neuroscientists and Designers Team Up to Explain Scientific Research

A new interdisciplinary project results in a moving sculpture, an animated piece, a song that evolves and more

Residents of Makoko look on its floating school at night in December. Today, the school is nothing more than an empty, broken platform.

This Floating School Was a Design Nerd’s Dream

…until it sank

Imagine a meta-memorial of the National Parks that projects high-definition video and recordings in metro stations, examining the role of wilderness in times of social inequality and ecological change.

What Will Future Monuments in the Nation's Capital Look Like?

Changing times and tastes leave little room for monolithic marble on the Mall

Architects Reimagine Detroit

A new exhibition in Venice showcases how 12 teams would reinvent four sites in Detroit badly in need of facelifts

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