Co.Design

Carry your kid’s diapers, but make it fashion with this fanny pack

Colugo just released a fanny pack-diaper bag combo, and it’s actually very useful.

This magic fabric ensures you’re never too hot and never too cold

The new material is made of two synthetic materials that combine with carbon nanotubes to regulate your temperature all the time.

Here’s how teens edit their selfies for social media likes

A famed photographer asked teenagers to edit their own portraits for social media. The twist? The subjects like their unaltered “before” shots better.

The Favourite is an Oscar-nominated design masterpiece

The production designer behind the film, Fiona Crombie, talks about making a period piece without caring too much about the period.

The war against Amazon was a war for cities–and cities won

“When communities come together, even a Goliath like Amazon realized you can’t win. You can’t push around 8 million Davids.”

These ultra-strong bags were made from truck tarps and soda bottles

“Ivanka Vacuuming” is art for our time

Artist Jennifer Rubell’s provocative installation features an Ivanka Trump look-alike vacuuming bread crumbs off a pink carpet. The real Ivanka Trump is not pleased.

Check out the new TWA Hotel’s gloriously retro rooms

Lego is betting on the wrong future

Lego’s first foray into AR relies on some of the worst clichés of mobile gaming.

We’re all being manipulated by A/B testing all the time

The web is being reshaped by the ubiquitous practice–and it’s a serious ethical problem.

Ikea’s killer dressers and America’s hidden recall crisis

Ikea has recalled tens of millions of products, many of them related to children. So why are kids still dying? And why can’t the government do anything about it?

Ford’s smart bed could save you from bed hogs, bad sleep, and possibly divorce

A bed to avoid divorce is the best bed.

The future of AI art goes up for auction at Sotheby’s for $50,000

Mario Klingemann’s “Memories of Passersby I” generates portraits using neural networks. But that’s not what makes it art.

Leave it to Virgil Abloh to make reusable water bottles fashionable

Evian wants to become a fully circular company by 2025, and luxury water bottles–designed by Abloh, its new “creative director for sustainable design”–may be one way to get there.

Mastercard just launched a sonic logo. Here’s what it sounds like

With the voice shopping industry set to reach $40 billion by 2022, major companies are investing not just in how their brands look, but how they sound.

Rediscovering Patrick Kelly, the designer who made blackface his brand

Patrick Kelly’s contributions to fashion history aren’t well known, but his work is more relevant than ever. 

The freshest writer on design was born 200 years ago

5 lessons every designer can learn from the great 19th-century critic John Ruskin.

The world’s longest 3D-printed bridge was inspired by ancient engineering

In the year 605, Li Chun completed China’s oldest bridge. It’s still in use today–and it’s inspiring engineers to invent new ways of building.

7 problems with Trump’s “American AI” Initiative

The president has a plan for AI in America. I spoke to four researchers about what it gets right–or wrong.