This wallpaper by Peter Phillips was one of several designed by contemporary artists for the Marburg wallpaper company in the 1970s. Founded in 1845 in Marburg, Germany, the company is one of the oldest wallpaper producers in the country. Beginning in the 1920s, it became known for collaborating with contemporary artists to create papers, though...

Why? Over 1.3 billion people worldwide drink unsafe water. Ripple Effect, a collaboration between the Acumen Fund, IDEO, and Indian and Kenyan water organizations, stimulates innovation among water suppliers. In Indias Thar Desert region, the Jal Bhagirathi Foundation developed a new business model to convince communities to purchase treated water. In the Andhra Pradesh region,...

2009. Editor: Red Sky Advertising Agency. Courtesy of Safaricom. Urban workers traditionally sent money home to their villages by post or courier or delivered it themselves. M-PESA (M stands for mobile, and pesa means “money” in Swahili) allows users—over thirteen million users in three and a half years—to send and receive money securely with a...

A multitude of schools are at the forefront of devising low cost innovations around the world, these are only a few of the examples of initiatives and projects underway. Designmatters at Art Center College of Design develops a multi-component design solution for a mobile clinic in Kenya. A camel-packaging system improves efficiency, refrigeration units are...