As the curtain parted on moooi’s 2022 exhibit, the audience was treated to a multi-sensory performance unlike any other: four synchronized robot scent diffusers telling a story through dance. As the robots—called Piro—swayed and dipped to the beats of a custom-designed soundscape, it was easy to forget the performers were made by a team of industrial designers and engineers in San Francisco.

The work expressed a future vision for what it means to humanize technology. Rather than design technology to make our lives more efficient, what if instead we designed technology to make life more beautiful?

For twenty years, moooi has seduced the world with bold, imaginative design. The firm, named after the Dutch word for beautiful, made its name by designing furniture and home goods that appeal to an interest in pushing the edges of form as much as function. Moooi came to IDEO looking to create an exhibit for the largest furniture fair in the world that might provoke the audience to imagine a world where design’s primary function was to inspire joy.

“Defy Gravity”: one of several experiential “worlds” moooi created for the 2022 Salone del Mobile. Each room had its own scent, soundscape, color, and digital experience.

Our process started by going wide. We presented 20 potential conceptual designs to the team, one of which moooi founder Marcel Wanders lovingly referred to as the “farting pet,” a robot scent diffuser that could walk around the home.

A scented smoke ring lingers in the air after Piro’s final crescendo.

From there, a team of IDEO designers enlisted the support of Catie Cuan, a choreographer who specializes in human-robot interaction, and Dutch sound design firm KLOAQ, to refine the concept into a four-minute performance piece.

Piro learned to mimic balletic human gestures.

The final result was technically involved: four robots moved independently, controlled by custom electronics and software designed to mimic the movements and grace of ballerinas. But in the performance itself, the complex mechanics disappeared, allowing the audience to experience not just what technology can do, but how it can make us feel.

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What happens when a designer and a classically-trained choreographer collaborate? Attendees of Salone del Mobile.Milano, the largest furniture fair in the world, got to see for themselves.

To build a climate-resilient future, we need an all-hands-on-deck approach across industries and organizations, as well as the leadership and collaboration of frontline communities themselves. 

To that end, IDEO and CSAA Insurance Group worked together to unite nine partner organizations, including Aon and the Environmental Defense Fund, to launch an open call for solutions to help communities prevent, prepare for, and recover from climate-related disasters. The goal of the Challenge was to surface actionable and scalable ideas that experiment with new technologies, models, and partnerships, then provide innovators with the support and funding they need to get their ideas off the ground and into the hands of frontline communities.

IDEO set these entrepreneurs up for success throughout the submission process, holding one-on-one conversations with participants, sharing constructive feedback on potential solutions, and developing their ideas and skill sets. The team also hosted workshop and panel sessions to grow community bonds and provide expertise on critical topics, including assessing climate risk and storytelling for impact. Hundreds of ideas came in from around the world, ranging from harnessing the power of AI, to building resilient infrastructures, to democratizing access to climate data, and more.

Once all of the ideas were in, a cohort of judges with a wide diversity of work and lived experience screened for concepts that were relevant, impactful, novel, community-informed, and equitable. At the end of the Challenge, the team chose 13 winning concepts with high potential for impact and partnerships, including Reef Rocket, which seeks to fabricate natural biocement reefs that reduce coastal flooding and erosion, and BurnBot, which is working to prevent wildfires by conducting controlled burns at scale.  

For these winning entrepreneurs, the end of the Challenge is just the beginning. Now, they are equipped with critical early funding, as well as a cohort of climate entrepreneurs, along with mentorship from IDEO, CSAA, and the other organizations. It’s a big step forward as they introduce new forms of equitable and transparent data, promote the voices of BIPOC communities, and bring to market new technologies that will protect and support frontline communities through this ongoing crisis. 

Read the Challenge Impact Report to learn more.

In the US alone, climate-related disasters cause $120 billion in damages annually. That figure is five times greater than 50 years ago, and projections are $2 trillion by the end of the century.

Nearly 90% of counties in the US declared a natural disaster over the last decade.

418

submissions

13

winners

$1M

in prizes

Every year, the NSF provides around 30 teams with up to $750,000 and a year’s worth of coaching, training, and collaboration to develop solutions for research areas like sustainable ocean use or combating fake news. Over the course of nine months, the teams learn how to uncover insights about human needs and design durable solutions for end users. But many of the scientists and experts in the program felt stretched by the idea of putting the needs of end users in the mix with their scientific testing—something few of them have been trained to do in their previous work.

To make that process feel more achievable, the teams built out prototypes and received guidance on refining and pitching their ideas along the way. IDEO joined the project as an innovation partner, facilitating hands-on workshops and creating “Science TV” episodes that could help the program reach a broader audience, deepening its impact now and in the future.

To help grantees get vulnerable, and evolve their ways of working, IDEO sent grantees to improv training  so that they could learn to build off each other. The team also took them to magic shows and on ghost tours in downtown San Francisco to learn the value of compelling storytelling in their work. The fun was part of the plan—gelling as a team and building relationships meant participants could make mistakes in front of one another. Being wrong doesn’t come naturally to academics, but it’s a key part of the design process, and a crucial part of solving complex problems .

Each year, a select group of teams move onto the next phase of the “coop-etition,” receiving up to $5 million in additional funding. And all of the participants leave with valuable new skills they can use to break out of their own silos and create human-centered, ground-breaking solutions for the rest of their careers.

When the NSF launched the Convergence Accelerator and made the radical move of bringing together teams from different disciplines, these academics, scientists, and industry partners didn’t have a shared language to move their ideas forward, and needed a structured approach to coming up with new solutions.

164

trained research teams

$200M

in federal support granted to AI-driven innovation, quantum technology, food security, sustainable materials, opportunities for people with disabilities, and more

IDEO and The Earthshot Prize built a nine-month Fellowship program and a five-day, in-person retreat to give Finalists the best shot at reaching the Prize’s ultimate goal: to scale the solutions that will repair our planet this decade.

To build out the new Fellowship, IDEO took a deep dive with the previous year’s Finalists to uncover where they needed critical support. This research revealed that the Finalists needed more ways to leverage the Earthshot platform, connect with potential partners to help scale their ideas, and build community with each other. The IDEO team then used those insights to create a set of recommendations The Earthshot Prize team could implement to create a more supportive and structured experience. Ideas they took forward included assigning a designated “Leap Advisor” who could provide guidance and assistance for each Finalist, as well as an advisor from the Prize’s Global Alliance Network who could partner on specific growth initiatives, like scaling product design, or policy change. 

Next up: the design of the retreat itself. Together, IDEO and the Earthshot team had three goals for the cohort’s week together in Windsor: focus on new forms of leadership and movement building, spur action through storytelling, and foster community.

The team developed the curriculum with leaders from Google X and Speed & Scale, alongside startups like UPSIDE Foods. They designed moments to build community, like paired walks and a chocolate-making workshop where Finalists could get to know each other away from the noise of meetings. 

Photographers captured the event to create assets for Finalists to use when pitching their ideas, and Finalists honed their storytelling skills. But what most remember is the magical moments of coming together as a cohort of next generation climate leaders who will help each other make an impact on the problems facing our planet, long after The Earthshot Prize has concluded.

The problems facing our planet are enormous, spanning industries, borders, currencies, and regulatory environments. Meaningful solutions will require leaders who can work across those lines.

30

climate solutions accelerated in first two years

In one sentence, who are you?

Someone who isn’t ever too embarrassed or ashamed to try.

What do you do? How did you learn to do it?

I make work that’s hard to explain to Lyft drivers. The long explanation of how I learned it would be based on a class I took at Cooper Union, my inability to work for others, and a creative yet rough upbringing. The short version is this: Six years ago during a creative drought, I took a few workshops, and basic weaving was one of them. I walked away from it regretful and uninspired. In an effort to salvage the money I spent on the class, I started a project with my new skill set. I broke all the rules I had learned and created my own, and that’s when everything fell into place.

3 favorite possessions?

My dogs, Truffle, Stitch, and Sunday.

What does a typical work session look like?

On average, when I’m not under a heavy deadline, I put in about eight hours of studio time. I enjoy working alone, and often in silence.

How do you get over creative block?

I focus on improving my personal life. Usually that’s where I'll find the source of the block.

How do you see the world in 2078?

I’m no longer going to four different supermarkets to get my groceries because I’m dead. In all seriousness, I would like to think that in 2078, a former foster kid will become or already have been elected president of the United States.

What’s your number one bucket list item?

Design my own home/studio on 20+ acres of land.

Who are you creative crushin’ on lately?

My current crushes are Natalie Herrera, Linda Lopez, Ellen Van Dusen, Mimi O Chun, Rami Kim, Dina Satti, and the ladies of Egg Collective.

A few years ago, while taking weaving classes in Brooklyn, I stumbled upon Mimi Jung's textile works and was transfixed by their sculptural nature and Mimi's painterly ability. She was accomplishing something with fibers that I had been struggling—and failing—to capture on canvas for years. I've been following her prolific pursuits ever since, and draw on them often for inspiration, so I jumped at the opportunity to get to know Mimi for our Creative Crushes series. Her latest and greatest works continue to push the boundaries of what we know is possible in fiber arts, and it turns out, she's not just a fantastic artist, but a pretty amazing woman too.

Before you ever see a movie or watch a TV show, it’s likely that a title screen from a trailer or poster art has gotten you there. As a UX designer, the art of the film title has always inspired me and shaped the way I think about branding and design. Here are the title creators (and one typographer) who have inspired me:

1. Saul Bass

Saul Bass is among the pioneers of title design. In 1955, his title sequence for Preminger’s The Man with the Golden Arm made him famous. He then went on to design for Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, and Martin Scorsese. His work showed that the first minutes of a film are of great importance. When played right at the beginning, titles serve as an overture, foreshadowing part of the story, mood, or theme. It’s a dramatic device that puts the audience in the world of the movie before they even start watching it.

Opening title sequences by Saul Bass.

Bass put it this way: “I saw the title as a way of conditioning the audience, so that when the film actually began, viewers would already have an emotional resonance with it.” It's helpful advice for anyone designing a title page, presentation, or home screen. With those elements, title designers prepare audiences for what they're about to see. “Try to reach for a simple, visual phrase that tells you what the picture is all about and evokes the essence of the story,” he said.

Opening title sequences by Pablo Ferro.

2. Pablo Ferro

One of Bass’s fellow title designers was Cuban-born Pablo Ferro, who has designed title sequences for more than 100 films. He taught himself animation from a book by Preston Blair, who worked at Walt Disney productions.

Title designers like Ferro put a lot into setting the right tone, time period, and scene for the story you’re about to see—and it all starts with font. Whether it’s custom or off the shelf, font conveys a certain character and builds the brand for a movie or show. Ferro loved hand-lettering and designed many of his own fonts. When Kubrick asked him to design the title sequence for Dr. Strangelove, Ferro chose to use a tall, thin lettering that he had scribbled in one of his notebooks so that it wouldn't obscure or distract from the underlying footage.

3. Maurice Binder

Having designed title sequences for 14 James Bond films, Maurice Binder created a signature style that used silhouettes and bold typefaces to evoke espionage and intrigue. In the opening sequence for Agent 007 against Dr. No, Binder established the famous gun barrel sequence, initiating the pop era of graphic design. Binder's work is a great example of how consistency of style and typeface help build a strong brand.

4. Ed Benguiat

Does the font EF Windsor Light Condensed look familiar? Maybe set in white on a black background, accompanied by some jazz music? Yup, it’s the signature opening for Woody Allen movies. Allen happened to have a conversation with typographer Ed Benguiat in a diner in New Jersey one morning, and Benguiat recommended he use the Windsor typeface for its warmth and friendliness. Allen loved it and used it for almost all of his titles from then on. Though Benguiat isn't technically a title designer, his fonts have been an influence on many.

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5. Imaginary Forces

Typographer Ed Benguiat plays a role in our final example, too. Michelle Dougherty—of acclaimed design firm Imaginary Forces—ended up choosing his self titled font, Benguiat, as the primary typeface for the Netflix series Stranger Things. She chose it for its strong 80s appeal and ties to paperback novels from that era.

Then there was the matter of animating the logotype and adding sound and music to bring it to life. The Stranger Things title sequence shows how powerful and expressive type in motion can be. Flickering lights that imitate the optical process, morphing serifs, and the admittedly intense score convey that eerie feeling of mystery. The title sequence for Stranger Things was so well received, a couple of title generators and copycats popped up on the internet to imitate its style.

Opening sequence of Stranger Things designed by Michelle Dougherty with the Benguiat typeface.

To view a great selection of classic and contemporary title sequences head over to The Art of the Title.

Title sequences in the header image by Maurice Binder (Barbarella), Imaginary Forces (Vinyl, Stranger Things, Mad Men), R/GA (Seven), Digital Kitchen (Trueblood, Narcos, Dexter), and Nexus Productions (Catch Me If You Can).

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Great movie titles permanently burn into our brains. Everyone can identify a James Bond film by its graphic overlays of babes and guns. And who could ever forget Star Wars’ opening crawl, how it scrolls back into space as John Williams' famous theme—da, dee dee da, dee dee da—echoes through the theater.

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My coworkers recently called me out on a thoughtless act I'd been doing for months without even noticing. Not long ago, I upgraded my phone to a certain unnamed model whose designers decided to remove the headphone jack—meaning you either need Bluetooth headphones or an adapter. As a music nerd who is overly particular about the headphones I use, I wasn't ready to give up my trusty corded earbuds. But I also know that I'll inevitably lose said adapter, because I lose anything that isn't attached to my everyday carry. The catch? Everyday at work, I listen to music from my laptop, which uses a traditional headphone jack. I guess, subconsciously, I found a solution to avoid losing the adapter that was there all along: When I'm not using it, I clip the adapter into the rubber piece that's attached to the the earbuds to keep their cords together. I'm going on six months without needing to buy a new adapter. #Success.

Human-centered design requires us to observe human behavior with beginner's eyes, so that we can spot the innate ways people interact with the world around them. We call these intuitive and unconscious reactions Thoughtless Acts, and IDEO designers collect photos of them to inspire their work.

So I decided to pursue my own absurd hobby that would combine my twin passions for beer brewing and fictional cartography into what I hope is the ultimate beer drinking experience. Or at least the most ridiculous. I call it Bean Brew.

We talk a lot about the user journey at IDEO. It’s a way to break down how a person experiences important moments when interacting with a product or service. While bottling my first few batches several years back, I obsessed over the taste of the beer and the bottle's label design—two key moments in the beer drinker's user journey. But then I realized that there are so many other moments that I was leaving out of the design process.

So I asked myself: Could I contextualize the combined drinking experiences of each person who received a bottle of Bean Brew? Could I turn that into a map? And could I deliver that map back to Bean Brew drinkers months later in the form of a delightful silkscreen poster? That became my design challenge.

So what have I learned from my side gig?

1. Quantitative data inspires design

Bean Brew has taught me a lot about how to integrate quantitative survey data into a cohesive storytelling experience (something we’re trying to do more and more of at IDEO these days). I start with questions like these, which I include as part of a survey wrapped around the bottle’s neck:

• What are your three favorite board games?
• Complete the following sentence: If I were on a ship for 1 year, my ideal job position would be ________.

I then transform the responses I get from people who received a particular batch of Bean Brew into a poster that looks something like this.

2. There's more to design than what meets the eye

Sometimes, as you go through the design process, you realize the thing you think you're designing (a bottle of beer) isn’t what you're actually designing (a beer drinking experience). This is true for most of the projects I’ve worked on at IDEO, and for Bean Brew, too.

3. Side gigs = side skills

Finally, I’ve learned a bunch of tangible skills throughout the process of making Bean Brew: Arc GIS (cartography software), best practices for glue adhesion (getting elaborate labels to stick to bottles), and how to use the power of analog experience to blow away anything an iPhone can do. I’m confident that I’ll be applying at least some of these skills to an upcoming IDEO project.

Bean Brew is my attempt to bring as much joy and delight to my hobbies as possible, and in doing so, I find that I’m more more creative and productive as part of my day job. And so much happier.

I am not training for any marathons. Just an expedition to Antarctica. In a submarine. With beer.

Years ago, I was working at a law firm in Boston. Many of my colleagues had the same hobby—training for the Boston Marathon in the middle of the frigid New England winter. This was what they did for “fun.” I was so amazed that these people with such unhappy day jobs would choose what seemed like such an unhappy hobby to fill their nights and weekends. Many years and two careers later, I moved to San Francisco to take a job as a designer at IDEO. In my first months here, I remember being struck by all of the wonderful and absurd hobbies that my new colleagues had. It was a delightful and inspiring contrast to my dark days in Boston.

I help organizations cut through complexity by shaping how they show up, through brand strategy, identity, and storytelling.

Working at the intersection of brand and business, I bring an editorial eye and a bias toward making—turning ideas into tangible experiences that people can understand, trust, and believe in.

My work spans government, healthcare, financial services, media, and consumer goods, from launching Gen Z-focused ventures to building innovation labs and reimagining legacy brands. I relish moments of ambiguity and enjoy translating across teams, perspectives, and priorities to move ideas forward.

I started my career in editorial and digital design, shaping cross-platform experiences and identity systems in publishing and agency environments. That foundation still shapes how I work today: I’m detail-oriented, collaborative, and overreliant on the Oxford comma. I hold a BFA in Visual Communication from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

For 25 years, I've asked the same question: Who does this design exclude—and what are we going to do about it?

My work spans human-centered strategy, inclusive design, and qualitative research, with clients ranging from Microsoft, Google, and Verizon to the National Science Foundation, and San Francisco Unified School District.

Before IDEO, I taught elementary school in East Palo Alto and spent a decade doing design work with social service organizations—where I learned firsthand what it costs people when systems are built without them in mind.

I am currently writing User Error, a nonfiction book about digital access and the design decisions behind it. I live in Oakland, California.

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My expertise spans brand, communication, and product design across tech, education, the arts, and social impact.

I believe great work demands both high-level vision and obsessive attention to detail, and only happens through collaboration.

I bring an inclusive, hands-on approach and a deep understanding of business, which enables me to consistently deliver excellence while always asking why.

Before joining IDEO, I worked at the brand firms Pentagram and VSA Partners. I began my career as a designer, leading teams at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Milwaukee Art Museum. I hold an MFA in graphic design from Maryland Institute College of Art and a BFA in communication design from the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design, and have taught at some of the best design schools in the US.

I am responsible for IDEO’s long-term success in China and working with clients to use design as a tool to enable growth. Specifically, I have helped Chinese companies design holistic brand solutions through the development of their products, communication, services, and innovation teams, and I have helped multinationals expand their presence and influence in China.

I advise global leaders on developing China-led innovation and capabilities.

In over 15 years in IDEO Shanghai, I have worked on projects that use design to elevate the quality of the experience of healthcare products and services, streamline processes that increase productivity, create spaces and programs that promote and enable inclusive communities, and build next generation mobility solutions that are planet-positive.

Before joining IDEO, I worked at Philips Electronics and the Electrolux Group in Italy, the Netherlands, and Singapore on a number of breakthrough commercial products. I am a member of the Young President Organization in Shanghai.

Most AI products today are built for work—a space with clear problems and established systems. One founder noticed a gap: personal life is messier, harder to systematize, and mostly left behind by the AI boom. So she built Cue, a personal AI that lives inside iMessage and group chats, to go where the other tools haven't.

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In this episode, Becca Carroll, IDEO's Chief Strategy Officer, talks with Sida Li, co-founder and CEO of Shared Context Lab, about staying anchored to a human need while the technology around her keeps changing shape, why she treats her business model with the same rigor she'd bring to a product, and what it feels like to build a company at this particular, disorienting moment in AI.

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The conversation also gets into how Sida makes design decisions: the language Cue uses to describe itself, the tradeoffs behind building inside iMessage instead of a new app, and a real story about a business idea that didn’t pan out.

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This is the second in a two-part series profiling founders from IDEO's Startups-in-Residence program. The first conversation is with Johannes Seemann, founder of Sooner, on designing GenAI for the emotional side of money.

Most personal financial tools are built to run the numbers and optimize towards a budget. While that works for some, most people experience money as a lived relationship that does not neatly fit into a spreadsheet. Johannes Seemann and Becca Carroll discuss why money is emotional before it is mathematical, and what a human-centered approach to building a generative AI financial product looks like in practice.

Mina Seetharaman talks with Scott Shigeoka, author of Seek and Head of Curiosity Cultivation at the Eames Institute, about what distinguishes genuinely curious leadership from performative curiosity, how power dynamics shape curiosity, and why practicing curiosity can restore energy rather than drain it.

Mina Seetharaman talks with David Epstein, author of Inside the Box and Range, about why total freedom often produces average work, how leaders can design useful limits on purpose, and what organizations such as General Magic and Pixar reveal about the relationship between boundaries and creativity.