Fast Company highlights synthetic biology work by IDEO designers Will Carey and Adam Reineck. The article explains how they are working with scientists at UCSF on a concept that would use E. coli bacteria to form objects when exposed to light. To read more, visit FastCompany.com.

By James Moed

James Moed’s “Retail Banks Turning to Design,” is included in the Sept.-Oct. issue of Banking Today, a publication of the Hong Kong Institute of Bankers. In this three-page spread, James writes about rethinking retail banking from the customers’ point of view and how international banks are recognizing good design as a critical element to their retail banking products and services.

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As part of its “Brightest Ideas” issue, Time Out Chicago’s Jake Malooley visits IDEO’s West Loop location to learn about how we collaborated on the future of pharmacy with Walgreens, State Farm’s Next Door learning lab and more. Read the full story here.

The Oregon Manifest Bicycle Challenge, a bicycle design competition which challenged the nation’s top bike builders, wrapped up this past weekend in Portland, Oregon. Reviews of IDEO’s bicycle, the Faraday, created with Rock Lobster cycles can be found on CNET and BikePortland.org, along with a journal of its build over the past eight months on Core77.

Read more about the Faraday here and cast your vote at OregonManifest.com/collaborations.

IDEO.org announced its initial projects and fellowship class. Read more about what IDEO.org will be working on and the team members on Design Observer, Core77, Public Interest Design, and MediaBistro’s Unbeige.

Tim Brown, Fred Dust, and David Kelley are part of Fast Company‘s annual Masters of Design issue. Check out these three links to see where they fit in the 2011 edition.

IDEO’s Brendan Boyle and Joe Wilcox talk about the importance of play, and how to build a culture that encourages prototyping and experimentation.

Tim is interviewed for the Fixes series, which asks CEOs, academics, and other creative thinkers for one idea that might help the economy. Tim talks about apprenticeship and the way it helps facilitate tacit learning. Hear the interview and read the transcript here.

IDEO communications designer Elle Luna speaks at The Designer Fund’s Designer Fair about the humanity of brands. To read more about the talk, visit FastCompany.com.

An expat living in Singapore writes about his experience at the Ministry of Manpower’s Employment Pass Services Center, which IDEO helped redesign.

By Heather Emerson and Ashlea Powell

In a 5-page feature, IDEO designers Heather Emerson and Ashlea Powell show why service providers who recognize our growing desire to navigate our own experiences are on their way to greater customer satisfaction.

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Pascal Soboll talks about how banks can differentiate themselves through innovation. In German language in Geldinstitute in June 2011.

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U.S. news show First Business News covers the IDEO Chicago office’s LEED updates. Watch the segment here.

Core77 takes a look at the IDEO Labs post on the exquisite corpse experiment. See the post here, and go to Labs to see what happens when you combine Flickr tags, RSVP responses, and the elements of a never-ending story.

Page Kreativmagazin talks about IDEO’s work with the Spanish bank BBVA and their ATM interface in the New York Museum of Modern Art’s Talk to Me exhibit. In German language.