These are the 397 most inspiring, innovative designs of 2018

Winner

Relay: Assistive Furniture Robots

School of Visual Arts

See Credits

Nour Malaeb, Chancey Fleet (thesis advisor)

Finalist

Gravity

Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design

See Credits

Arvind Sanjeev - Interaction Design student; Ruben van der Vleuten - Advisor

Grit: Resistance Training Shoes

Honorable Mention

Timeline of the Far Future

New York University

See Credits

Joohyun Park(Project Lead), Dongphil Yoo

Emoto AI Sidekick

Gautam Bose created custom servo motor driver software for robot control and animation; Lucas Ochoa modeled, fabricated and created the custom hardware; Marisa Lu did web development for communication between devices and animation for the phone face

Feeling VR and AR using electrical muscle stimulation

Hasso Plattner Institute

See Credits

Pedro Lopes and Patrick Baudisch

iN: Cognitive Patient Care Assistant

Inspiren

See Credits

Michael Wang -Founder/CEO, Inspiren Paul Coyne - Co-Founder/President, Inspiren Vin Cocito - Co-Founder/COO, Inspiren Jeff Morelli - Co-Founder/VP of Technology Implementation, Inspiren Marcel Botha - Design Lead/CEO, 10XBeta Berk IIhan - Industrial Design, 10XBeta Christina Sicoli - Industrial Design, 10XBeta Ellen Crane - Industrial Design, 10XBeta Simon Ellison- Industrial Design, 10XBeta Andy MacDonald - Technical Director, Normative Anthony Bennett - Lead Developer, Normative Scott Wright - Senior Developer, Normative Lane Buie - VP Client Services, Normative Laura Shaw - User Experience Designer, Normative Devon Williamson - Graphic Designer, Normative Heather Thomas - Growth Director, Normative Ahmed Elhusseiny - Product Design Lead, AESuper Lab Ryan Melony - Video Director, medialuv.com

LumiWatch

Carnegie Mellon University, ASU Tech

See Credits

Robert Xiao, Teng Cao, Ning Guo, Jun Zhuo, Yang Zhang and Chris Harrison

NextBillion.org

See Credits

Naitik Mehta (CEO, Co-founder), Siddhant Mehta (Designer, Co-founder), Kartik Sawhney (Co-founder), Bijan Mawji (Co-founder), Francesca Varney (Engineer), Manji Pal (Operations Volunteer)

shapeShift

Stanford University

See Credits

Alexa F. Siu, Eric J. Gonzalez, Shenli Yuan, Jason B. Ginsberg, Sean Follmer

WIM--Interactive stroke therapy

Umeå Institute of Design

See Credits

Jenny Holmsten and Thomas Helmer

Elevate

Carleton University

See Credits

Rob Shudra - Industrial Designer

Loree

MOMENT

See Credits

Thomas Carroll — Intern at Moment, Student at VCU Brandcenter ‘18 Blue Cuevas — Intern at Moment, Student at IIT ‘18 Chantal Jahchan — Intern at Moment, Student at Washington University in St. Louis ‘18 Jason Kim — Intern at Moment, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute ‘17 Rodrigo Miguel — Senior Designer at Moment Jacob Pastrovich — Director of Marketing at Moment John Devanney — Managing Director at Moment

Nastybot

VCU Brandcenter

See Credits

Berfin Ayhan - concept and experience design

Orai: A.I. Speech Coach

Orai

See Credits

Danish Dhamani - cofounder, CEO; Paritosh Gupta - cofounder, CTO; Aasim Sani - Product manager

Pour Reception

Malmö University

See Credits

Simone Marie Okholm Hansen, Student of MSc. in Interaction Design at Malmö University; Victor Permild, Student of MSc. in Interaction Design at Malmö University; Tore Knudsen, Student of MSc. in Interaction Design at Malmö University

Tangible Formations

University of Stuttgart

See Credits

ITECH Master Thesis, Kyriaki Goti and Shir Katz Institute for Computational Design and Construction(ICD), Institute of Building Structures and Structural Design (ITKE),University of Stuttgart Supervisors:Prof. Achim Menges, Prof.Jan Knippers Tutors: Ehsan Baharlou, Lauren Vasey

See past winners: 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012

All Stories In Innovation By Design

Co.Design

Design will kill marketing, says Ikea’s former design chief

Marcus Engman is leaving Ikea to run a consultancy that convinces companies to spend their marketing budget on what matters: design.

Co.Design

Dyson’s latest product is a $550 hair curler

After six years and $31 million in development, Dyson is launching the Airwrap, a device that creates ringlets using a bit of aerospace-inspired physics.

Innovation By Design

Meet Krewe, the eyewear brand that New Orleans (and Beyoncé) built

The five-year-old brand’s founder is focused on giving back to his native New Orleans and putting it on the map of fashion-forward cities.

Innovation By Design

There’s even a Warby Parker of towels now

Weezie wants to shake up a mundane industry with design.

Innovation By Design

What the healthcare industry could learn from Lyft and Airbnb

The sharing economy is built upon service and interaction designs that engender interpersonal trust. Healthcare organizations could learn from it.

Innovation By Design

The future of web design is less, not more

Low-Tech Magazine’s new website is solar-powered, which means it goes offline in cloudy weather.

Innovation By Design

This building’s giant sundial shows how much energy it’s making

It’s one of the most efficient buildings in the country–but its most unique design feature might be the 40-foot-tall installation in the atrium.

Innovation By Design

Dieter Rams wants Silicon Valley to stop

In Gary Hustwit’s highly anticipated new documentary “Rams,” the legendary industrial designer indicts the world he helped create.

Innovation By Design

This long-lost Eames design is being produced for the first time

In the 1940s, radio companies rejected the Eameses’ designs as being “too modern.” Not anymore.

Innovation By Design

Winner

Finalist

Honorable Mention

Design will kill marketing, says Ikea’s former design chief

Marcus Engman is leaving Ikea to run a consultancy that convinces companies to spend their marketing budget on what matters: design.

Dyson’s latest product is a $550 hair curler

After six years and $31 million in development, Dyson is launching the Airwrap, a device that creates ringlets using a bit of aerospace-inspired physics.

Meet Krewe, the eyewear brand that New Orleans (and Beyoncé) built

The five-year-old brand’s founder is focused on giving back to his native New Orleans and putting it on the map of fashion-forward cities.

There’s even a Warby Parker of towels now

Weezie wants to shake up a mundane industry with design.

What the healthcare industry could learn from Lyft and Airbnb

The sharing economy is built upon service and interaction designs that engender interpersonal trust. Healthcare organizations could learn from it.

The future of web design is less, not more

Low-Tech Magazine’s new website is solar-powered, which means it goes offline in cloudy weather.

This building’s giant sundial shows how much energy it’s making

It’s one of the most efficient buildings in the country–but its most unique design feature might be the 40-foot-tall installation in the atrium.

Dieter Rams wants Silicon Valley to stop

In Gary Hustwit’s highly anticipated new documentary “Rams,” the legendary industrial designer indicts the world he helped create.

This long-lost Eames design is being produced for the first time

In the 1940s, radio companies rejected the Eameses’ designs as being “too modern.” Not anymore.

Sick of midcentury modern? Here’s where to buy today’s best design

Skip the spindly leg sofas and knockoff Eames chairs, and try these shopping destinations instead.

Here’s how the footprint of the plant-based Impossible Burger compares to beef

White people cause the most pollution, but people of color suffer the most from it

Sweetgreen is redesigning school lunches to make them more healthy–and more fun

Tavi Gevinson’s impression of Elizabeth Holmes is bloody good

Miller Lite mocked Dilly Dilly this morning with a new ad but Bud Light already has a response–and you can see it here

You have to see this Cheetos-themed mansion, a real thing that actually exists

Dyson’s $600 task lamp is the closest you’ll get to natural light indoors

McDonald’s new HQ makes it look more like a wellness startup

This new startup makes affordable outdoor furniture–out of ocean plastic

5 ways to give yourself more time when it feels like there’s never enough

This is the one simple act that helps me be more creative

Why you need unlike-minded people on your team (and 3 ways to get them)