These are the 397 most inspiring, innovative designs of 2018

Winner

Interface

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David Oakey - Designer exclusive to Interface; Janine Benyus - Biomimicry Institute

OXO Good Grips peeler

Smart Design

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Davin Stowell - Design Director, Tucker Viemeister - Designer, Michael Callahan - Designer

Finalist

111 Navy Chair

Emeco

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Gregg Buchbinder - CEO, Emeco; Magnus Breitling - Head of Product, Emeco

Adobe Tools

Adobe

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Shantanu Narayen, President and Chief Executive Officer

Boxed Water Is Better

Boxed Water

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Ben Gott, Founder of Boxed Water and Daryn Kuipers, CEO of Boxed Water

Grand Park

Rios Clementi Hale Studios

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Mark Rios, Anthony Paradowski, Greg Kochanowski, Sebastian Salvado, Samantha Harris, Jessa Chisari, Mike Cheng, John Fishback, Carolyn Sumida

The FedEx identity

Landor

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Design: Lindon Leader, Bill Chiaravalle, Wally Krantz

Twitter Fail Whale

Yiying Lu (Original Artist) & Global Audiences including: 3D kinetic sculpture by Hilary Talbot from Canberra, Australia () Street Art by @smartcrew in the New York City, NY, United States Lego Whale by Bjarne Tveskovby, an Ex-pro LEGO Space designer from Copenhagen, Denmark Tattoo by @critter from Florida, United State Beer Label Contest held by @TweetHunt_orgz Fail Whale Martini by Shorty Awards

Honorable Mention

798 Arts District

Sasaki

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Michael Grove, Principal Landscape Architect; Dennis Pieprz, Principal Urban Designer; Isabel Zempel, Principal Landscape Architect; Nishant Lall, Urban Designer; Laurent Degryse, Client Advisor; Guy Desmidt, Client Advisor

Crown Fountain

Krueck + Sexton Architects

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Ron Krueck – Co-lead designer Mark Sexton – Co-lead designer Tom Jacobs – Project Architect Halvorson & Kaye – Structural Engineer Environmental Systems Design – MEP Schuler & Shook – Lighting Shen Milsom & Wilke – Technology Crystal Fountains – Fountain Consultant W.E. O’Neil Construction – General Contractor

Fitbit Tracker

NewDealDesign

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Gadi Amit, President and Principal Designer, NewDealDesign Yoshi Hoshino, Master Designer, NewDealDesign Nichole Towler, Laura Bucholtz, Barbara Stettler of NewDealDesign for FitBit Inc.

Freedom Headrest

Humanscale

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Niels Diffrient - Designer

Heartstream Forerunner Defibrillator

IDEO

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Teams from Heartstream and IDEO

How Microsoft uses the cloud to adapt the Office suite

Microsoft

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Microsoft Office Engineering Teams

Lincoln Center

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2x4 team: Michael Rock, Partner, Executive Creative Director Sung Joong Kim, Creative Director Albert Lee, Director, Branding Jeffrey Ludlow, Director, Environments Evan Allen, Senior Design, Environments Jessica Dobkin, Senior Designer, Environments Partners: Diller Scofidio +Renfro, Design Architect Fox and Fowle, Executive Architects Gensler, Executive Architect L’Observatoire, Lighting

NYC

Wolff Olins

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Jordan Crane, Design; Karl Heiselman, Design; Paige Reilly, Account Manager; Mike Abbink, Design; Brian Boylan, Mentor

Square Stand

Ammunition

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Ammunition, Square

USA Today redesign

Wolff Olins

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Lisa Smith — Design Director; Mads Poulsen — Senior Designer; Melissa Scott — Senior Designer; Alvin Aronson — Designer; Jeanette Abbink — Designer; James Kape — Designer; Mike Abbink — Typography; Johnny Selman — Illustrator; Kate Nielsen — Account Manager; Jessica Chalifoux — Account Manager; Sam Wilson — Strategy Director

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.

Can we design neighborhoods to survive wildfires?

This relief agency will stay running during disasters because of its new Tesla microgrid

The fight to stop Amazon’s huge new New York office starts now

An ad agency made Alexa apologize to all the losing Amazon HQ2 cities

Greenpeace unveils a new Oreo flavor: Deforestation

Inspired by the White House, I, too, now have Policy Time and these other Times

Here are some dread-inducing statistics on open plan offices

Lego’s latest set targets stressed adults

The depressingly big business of pollution masks

Wait, is this a date? Horror stories from female investors working with a male founder

9 CEOs share their favorite productivity hacks

He told Bozoma Saint John to work for Uber. “Of course, I hung up on him.”