“It’s time to move beyond thinking about corporate responsibility toward “corporate consciousness,” says Jeffrey Hollender, co-founder of Seventh Generation and author of The Responsibility Revolution. Read on for his other provocative ideas…

When I set out to write Glimmer, I swore I’d never write about chair or bike design. Of course, I soon broke my own rule. One of the things I discussed was bamboo bikes. Good to see these sustainably-produced vehicles have become a hot trend.

As we move further into the world of DIY design, where it seems everyone is a designer, it’s more and more important to have curators and connectors bringing the best stuff to people’s attention. That’s where DailyGrommet.com comes in.

In the U.S. Patent Office, there is currently a backlog of 1.2 million applications awaiting approval. What’s the point of discussing ways to be more innovative if the last step in the process is a black hole?

In 1991, a Japanese designer/inventor asked a classic stupid question about the bad design of cars’ brake and gas pedals, and found out that nobody wanted to hear his answer—until today.

In HBR's "Conversation" section, I posted a piece today about "The Four Phases of Design Thinking." Suggested to them that they might want to use a term other than "DT" in the headline, because weirdly …

Smart Design’s Tom Dair reports that at the 2010 National Design Awards, Michelle Obama made some great comments about the importance of design and how it’s really all about “people, not things.” Read more…

Check out my recent chat with noted author Ben Cheever on his local literary talk show “About Writing.” The most interesting exchanges happened when we talked about optimism vs. cynicism.

During the Q&A session after a recent Glimmer lecture, I was asked how design differs from invention. Luckily I had an answer. See the embedded video.

A lot of the usual suspects are still out there as trophy architects, but they’ve started to tone down their output and seem to be thinking about the bigger picture. Good urban planning now holds center stage rather than pure spectacle.

It’s an interesting question: Can open innovation help with this mess? Or maybe a better question to ask is, how could it hurt?

Pro bono designers + NYC = a great model for collaborative civic problem-solving around the country in days ahead. Read more about desigNYC.

In his marshmallow-spaghetti building challenge, Tom Wujec of Autodesk sometimes pits MBA students against kindergartners—and guess who wins?

“Engineering,” “design,” “invention”—whatever we call it, we’re talking about teaching people the skills to confront a problem or challenge. Are schools doing a good enough job making sure all kids have these key skills?

I’m giving a presentation on GLIMMER at the Aldrich Museum in Ridgefield, CT, joined by renowned designer Alexander Isley, one of the Glimmerati in my book. Here are the details.

Here are some great quotes about the power of design from Paul Hughes, partner in Lava, a top design agency based in the Netherlands and just named European Design Agency of the Year.