How do you lift up the middle class in a developing country?

That was the challenge facing Peruvian entrepreneur Carlos Rodriguez-Pastor, who hired IDEO to build an entire network of schools powered by a progressive new learning model. IDEO’s mandate: to redesign Innova’s entire K–12 learning experience, from the curriculum to the teacher training to the school buildings, with an eye toward expansion and a goal to provide international-quality education at an affordable price—about $100 a month.

Innova Schools is a part of Intercorp, a family of 35 businesses that span everything from banks to retail stores and added schools to its portfolio. In 2010, the company had five existing schools but realized that its existing model could not grow. The shortage of well-trained, high-quality teachers in Peru, combined with rising land costs, meant the schools would need to radically change course to succeed.

To learn about scalable school models around the world, IDEO researchers visited inspirational schools and learning programs, and looked to analogous systems like retail, hospitality, and health care to understand their approaches to scale. Throughout the project, they collaborated with teachers, students, and the Innova Schools team in co-designing the work itself.

Together, Innova Schools and IDEO developed the curriculum, teaching strategies, buildings, operational plans, and underlying financial model to run the network of schools.

"I was blown away by Innova Schools," said Salman Khan, founder of Khan Academy. "It's inspiring to see such an affordable school deliver a quality of education that would rival schools in the richest countries."

The new Innova Schools combine teacher-led, project-based learning in small groups with self-directed time using digital learning tools. Teachers monitor students’ work online and offer personalized guidance. Parents can view their children’s progress online as well.

Dynamic learning environments include community spaces, media labs, rooftop study areas, amphitheaters, and cafés that are optimized for flexibility: furniture on wheels, movable walls, and efficient uses of space to allow for different modes of learning.

An online Teacher Resource Center includes a database of more than 18,000 custom lesson plans based on a progressive new teaching approach. The center helps teachers learn their craft and gives them a chance to connect across the network.

The business model of Innova Schools was developed at the same time as the school experience. Designers leveraged the economies of scale that come from building a network of schools and centralized tools, such as data systems that allow all the schools to learn together.

The project has allowed Innova to open more schools at an affordable cost to families, ultimately giving more of Peru’s youth the chance to compete in the global economy. This comprehensive approach to system design ranks as one of Latin America’s most ambitious privately funded educational projects, and is on track to become the largest private school network in the region. To date, Innova has opened 63 schools in Peru that are serving more than 50,000 students.

A good system design doesn’t end with strategy. The work on Innova Schools also had a huge influence on the company, according to Rodriguez-Pastor. Through the creation of new roles and an aligned set of values, Innova’s central office has become a much more nimble and creative organization. They’re constantly scanning the world for inspiration in how to best educate their students, while building out the new innovations. They realize that design thinking can become an integrated part of their daily management of this growing network of schools.

Western Digital, the leading provider of external digital-storage solutions and a pioneer in the field, and IDEO collaborated on a number of products that produced reliable, secure, high-performance hard drives for personal and professional use and have won numerous design awards.

The projects include:

• MyBook external hard drive: IDEO and Western collaborated to find a new design language for their external hard drive MyBook. In just six months, MyBook became the number-one hard drive in the Americas, and grew US market share by more than 50 percent.
• MyBook II: Looking to regain MyBook’s original number-one position in the hard drive market, IDEO and Western came together again to refresh the original design, finding ways to further differentiate the product and the brand, and winning a 2008 Spark Bronze Award.
• MyPassport: Western and IDEO designed the 320GB, ultra-portable USB-powered hard drive that appeals to the mobile user, which won both the 2008 IDEA Bronze Award from IDSA and BusinessWeek, and the 2009 iF Award.
• MyBook and MyPassport 3.0: Again, IDEO and Western collaborated on bringing the popular MyBook external hard drive to the next level in the hardware, the software, and the packaging. IDEO also created in-store merchandising, the graphics and information featured on product packaging (and the “out-of-box experience”).

The city of San Francisco wanted to help its people become better prepared in case of emergency. While no one feels totally prepared for a natural disaster, people who are most connected within a local network fare better in an emergency.

So the San Francisco Department of Emergency Management (SF DEM) and IDEO teamed up to create SF72, a revolutionary platform that helps to reach people where they are. In times of emergency, the city will need citizens to be self-supporting for 72 hours (or longer) before local services or outside help kicks in. With that in mind, IDEO developed an accessible platform to help people prepare for those 72 hours in simple ways that fit into their daily lives.

The SF72 website helps people with five important tasks: Get connected, gather supplies, watch stories, make a plan, and have access to an updated Google map. SF72’s content is hyperlocal, but IDEO and SF DEM also created an open-source toolkit for cities worldwide. From San Jose to Denver, other locales are using the simple toolkit to create a City72 platform of their own. Most recently, the city of Oakland collaborated with Code for America to develop its own platform. The City72 Toolkit enables SF72’s ethos of social connection for resilience to scale and grow—city by city.

Team Rubicon, formed in 2010 as a response to the devastating earthquake in Haiti, is made up of former military veterans who swoop into help in times of disaster. The organization started with six vets in the US who were eager to transfer their battlefield readiness in to frontline relief efforts, and has grown to more than 28,000 volunteers across the world.

To explore its growing global effort and to shape the future of the organization’s venture, Team Rubicon approached IDEO for help. After an 11-week collaboration with government, military, and veteran groups, a vision for Team Rubicon Global emerged. Inspired by sources as diverse as TED and The Hell’s Angels, the three-tier model consisted of an anchor network to share best practices across the organization and two supporting platforms designed to help countries with varying capacity and needs.

Team Rubicon Global coordinated its first deployment in April 2015, when a quake struck Nepal, sending US and UK teams to double down on the rescue effort. According to Vince Moffit, Team Rubicon USA Incident Commander, that incident alone validated the network effect of IDEO’s work. “We couldn’t have done this without Team Rubicon UK,” he said.

And for the veterans who are part of Team Rubicon, the shared desire to serve—applying skills ideally suited for disaster response—creates a renewed sense of purpose, community, and leadership that helps reintegration to civilian life.

But this afternoon, we're not here to talk about all things Frenchie, we’re here to talk about the “c-word”—cancer—but, also, comics and catharsis. See, in a few weeks, Laura is having surgery to repair her tear ducts, collateral damage from aggressive thyroid cancer treatment four years ago, when she was in her early 30s. The cartoons she drew during that nerve-wracking time are just like her: quirky, brave, weirdly hilarious, and unapologetically honest. They’re the equivalent of indie-rock visual therapy.

Wearing her trademark black-and-white French sailor shirt and vintage cat-eye glasses, Laura takes a few quick, surreptitious puffs off her e-cigarette and we start chatting.

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IDEO: What were you like as a child? Did you always make art?

Laura Park: My family moved around a lot as a child. My mom immigrated from Korea to Southern California and raised my brother and me by herself. I always drew as a kid. As the perpetual new kid, I wasn’t very popular, but the fact that I could draw meant I had some value. I’d sell kids greeting cards or drawings of their moms for Mother’s Day. I hung out at the food court at the mall where my mom worked and drew portraits of strangers. I’d go up to them, show them my drawing, and try to sell them to them. It was my side hustle. I was a very under-supervised, under-parented child. I had a lot of freedom. I eventually got a scholarship to the Art Institute of Chicago and fell into the illustration/comic book community here.

What was your first big break?

I was working as an illustrator for educational software company when I started doing drawings for indie record label Asthmatic Kitty Records on the side.

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I also drew magazine ads for Sufjan Stevens’ 2005 Illinois record, plus did some t-shirts and posters for his record label and illustrated an issue of Vice magazine. My other big break was illustrating two big book series for author James Patterson—Middle School and I Funny. They were #1 New York Times Bestsellers. I illustrated two a year until last year. They gave me enough money to do other projects and gave my mom something to brag about.

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You mainly do autobiographical comics, why is that?

They’re how I process information. They’re my second stomach, how I “Rumpelstiltskin” my depression and sickness. I draw about things that cause me both extreme stress and extreme joy because both are distortions of time. I’m either locked in an anxiety-ridden hellscape or I’m celebrating the awesomeness of my dog.

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In high school, I loved the Riot Grrrl movement and made my own zines because I didn’t see myself reflected in other comics. It’s a very powerful thing to make your own media and not wait for others to validate your experience.

I love it when other weirdos say to me, “I recognize myself in your comics!” Everyone thinks they’re singular and alone. It’s comforting to know that’s not true.

Can you tell me what happened when you were diagnosed with cancer?

It was 2012 and I was 32 and uninsured at the time. I lived for six months with a big lump on my neck. I avoided it. I knew it was bad when my doctor didn’t make me wait after getting the results back. It was thyroid cancer and it had spread to lymph nodes in my neck. I had a nine-hour surgery to take everything out, but the tumor had grown around my vocal nerve. The next day in hospital room, I woke up with a paralyzed vocal nerve. I went from someone who was always very loud, to someone who didn’t have a voice. It was very weird. I had to drink radioactive iodine as part of my therapy, which is nasty and why I’m having surgery to repair my tear ducts.

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Comics are how I process information. They’re my second stomach, how I 'Rumpelstiltskin' my depression and sickness.

I processed my cancer in terms of narrative. I asked, Who is my character? What is her arc? I did a better job of telling the story of my cancer in my comics than I did telling people in person. What really resonated with my fans was how expensive my medical bills are. They were hundreds of thousands of dollars and destroyed my savings.

Enough of this depressing cancer stuff! What are some things you’re excited about?

I just won an Emmy for some storyboarding work on the Cartoon Network miniseries Over the Garden Wall! I have the certificate on my fridge. I also just signed a contract to do a graphic novel adaptation of immigrant stories for StoryCorps and have a collection of early work and new stories for Drawn & Quarterly that's forthcoming. My biggest accomplishment, though, was figuring out a way to have Walt appear in as a cameo character in Over the Garden Wall. I’m pretty proud of that.

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*Post script: A few weeks after our interview, Laura did, indeed, have surgery to repair her tear ducts. She’s recovering well and, of course, fearlessly documenting the entire process along the way.

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A ridiculously photogenic French bulldog is why I'm sitting across from Laura Park, a humbly prolific Chicago cartoonist, in a trendy Wicker Park cafe one grey November Sunday. I started stalking Walter Wallet on social media a couple years ago. Turns out, his owner was pretty cool, too. Laura's the author and main character of the darkly funny comic series, Do Not Disturb My Waking Dream, among many, many, many other noteworthy, cool things that she hates to talk about. Lucky for me, soon we—and our dogs—were friends in real life.

For the better part of my career, I had been conditioned to believe that employees are either adding value to an organization by working in immediate service of its bottom line, or they are not, and should subsequently be disciplined. I was terrified I was in the latter camp. Over time, though, I began to take more deliberate notice of how my IDEO colleagues spent their “white space” time between projects.

My friend, Dave hacked an Android tablet into the housing of a 1980s GRiD laptop to celebrate the life of IDEO cofounder Bill Moggridge. Three IDEO Chicago colleagues made an LED-powered, floating cloud installation that communicates current weather conditions by changing color. And a pair of engineers created an automated, Arduino-powered, steampunk-themed shandy machine to keep colleagues hydrated during summer parties on the Chicago studio's roof deck.

With my Pavlovian conditioning coming undone, I dove head first into the fray. During a few hours of project downtime, a teammate and I outfitted an old Mac Classic with an iPad for its screen. Was I reprimanded for using company equipment for a side project during work hours? Quite the opposite. I was told to post an image of our creation to the IDEO Instagram account.

Since then, I have experimented with pumpkin carving via laser cutter; flown toy cars from rooftop ramps into frothy mugs of beer; teamed up with a friend to explore and film fluid dynamics studies using a syringe and typewriter ink; 'printed' Nyan Cat out of yarn via a hacked, decades-old electronic knitting machine; and twice stencil-graffitied IDEO’s San Francisco headquarters—once with moss and once with superhydrophobic solution.

So, why do we create these things? Because even before we’re designers, we’re makers. And taking a few moments away from our day-to-day work for unorthodox and inspiring creations often fulfills our need to make. When we bring this energy back to our teammates, we work better together, and we do better work.

Creating stuff makes us happy. And doing it together makes us better designers. This is why we make.

There is little more terrifying than having non-billable time at work. The first few weeks of my employment at IDEO were a nervous time for me. I was intermittently assisting a few project teams, but it would be an excruciating few weeks before I was staffed full time to a client project.

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1. Closca Fuga Foldable Helmet, 2. Alphabet Compendium, 3. Crosley Messenger Turntable, 4. Uuni 2s Portable Pizza Oven, 5. Universe2go, 6. Roting 600 Drafting Pencil, 7. Olloclip 4-IN-1 Lens, 8. HAY Tower Block Notepad, 9. Night Notebook, 10. Keep Cup, 11. Appointed Workbook, 12. Alite West Bluff Pack, 13. Sharpie Stainless Steel Permanent Marker

Closca Fuga Foldable Helmet

Helmets are a total necessity, but carrying them around is a pain. The Closca foldable bike helmet solves that problem, collapsing down to half of its size (about 2.4 inches tall), making it possible to hide away in a backpack or purse. The 2015 Red Dot award winner is also certified to global safety standards, so all you have to worry about is picking the right color.

$140

closca.co

Alphabet Compendium: An Illustrated A-Z of Things

Isometric mural illustrator Nigel Sussman has poured the same style he's used to decorate the walls of tech companies like Google and eBay into his first book, Alphabet Compendium. His hyper-detailed drawings cover everything from the aardvarks to the zucchinis.

$29.95

http://alphabetcompendium.com/

Crosley Messenger Turntable

The Crosley Messenger Turntable lets you spin records anytime, anywhere, thanks to its messenger-bag style design. With built-in speakers and a headphone jack, you can share the music, or go it solo.

$90

crosleyradio.com/

Uuni 2s Portable Pizza Oven

Have a pizza lover in your life? This wood-burning oven goes from ambient temp to 932˚F in just ten minutes. Stainless steel construction means it can handle life in the great outdoors, and Uuni's wood pellets are sustainably sourced, so you don't have to feel guilty. They'll even plant a tree for every bag of pellets sold.

$299

uuni.net/

Universe2go: My Personal Planetarium

This star viewer and app combo give you a closer look at the real night sky, not the dome of a planetarium. Take a guided tour of the stars above you—it will illustrate constellations, help you discover planets, and even point out moving objects like comets and satellites.

$99

universe2go.com

Roting 600 Drafting Pencil

This is one serious pencil. The iconic, metal design has a comforting heft to it, and its hexagonal base makes it easier to hold in your hand. Better yet, it won't roll off your table. Choose between .5 or .7 lead.

$37

rotring.com/us

4-IN-1 Lens

Help your loved ones kick up their iPhone photography game with four quick-change lenses (fisheye, wide-angle, macro 10x and 15x) that fit right on top of the iPhone. Panoramas and extreme close ups are made easy with the 4-IN-1 Lens, which is small enough to fit in a pocket. It's a selfie-lovers' dream.

$80

olloclip.com

With the Macro 15x lens on the right. Without on the left.

HAY Tower Block Notepad

A beautiful, ombré tower of notes just waiting to be sketched on. Available in fade coral and fade orange. Drool.

$25.00

store.moma.org/

Night Notebook

Spare, beautiful, and conveniently on sale, this blank Poketo notebook is perfect for capturing your thoughts. And thanks to Smyth Sewn binding, it lies totally flat, making doodling in your notebook easier than ever.

$6

poketo.com

Morning, Day, Evening, and Night Notebooks

Keep Cup

These eco-friendly cups out of Australia are made using waste product from the manufacture of wine corks. Their designs include everything from basic colors to characters from the Star Wars universe. Now you just have to decide between the resistance and the evil empire.

$24

us.keepcup.com

Appointed Workbook

A spare, utilitarian design with a durable cover, this notebook can handle the abuse of every day. Choose between classic navy or white.

$24

appntd.com/

Alite West Bluff Pack

A backpack rugged enough for the outdoors, but designed with commuters in mind, the West Bluff pack has an interior laptop sleeve and a padded back built for comfort. It's perfect for the urban explorer in your life.

$48.99

alitedesigns.com

Stainless Steel Permanent Marker

Add some cred to your brainstorms with this stainless steel Sharpie.

$9.50

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Struggling to find ideas for the designers on your list? Browse our most coveted tools and trinkets, from notebooks to fine nibs to the perfect traveler's mug for your fixie pannier sidebag. Just beware: it's pretty tempting to pick up something for yourself.

The meditation techniques below are designed to help you harness creativity by encouraging you to take time to pause and bring a more intentional approach to your work. They’ll help you cultivate a designer’s mind, characterized by:

• An open and curious mindset that can look at challenges from many angles.
• A rigorous and organized methodology for thinking holistically about a problem.
• Clear visual and verbal communication skills to work through and articulate potential solutions.
• A positive and optimistic outlook that can transform problems into solutions.

Here are 3 exercises to try out that should kick start your creativity:

1: Flowing River

If you’re feeling stuck with a problem you’ve been working on, taking a walk around the block or grabbing a breath of fresh air are both useful exercises, because they allow you to leave a problem behind and come back to it with fresh eyes. In that same vein, this first exercise is a highly visual and engaging way to clear some of the noise in your head.

Close your eyes and picture yourself sitting on a large, smooth rock in the middle of a river. It's up to you how big or powerful the river is, just make sure you feel comfortable on the rock you're on, and turn to face directly upstream. Sit there for a moment and start to breathe steadily, adjusting yourself to make sure you’re comfortable. Now look up the river, and whenever a thought enters your head allow it to float down towards you. Recognize what it is, give it a nod if you need to, and let it continue to float past you down the river. As other thoughts, worries, or memories come up, continue to picture them floating by until all you see is a clear-flowing river ahead. Take a deep breath and open your eyes.

2: Cloud of Gold

Sometimes when you feel overwhelmed by your to-do list, the natural tendency is to work harder and longer, and sacrifice things like taking walks, having an enjoyable lunch with a friend, or taking the time to let your mind wander. This exercise is designed to instill a feeling of optimism and positivity throughout your mind and body.

Close your eyes and imagine that a soft, delicate, golden mist is surrounding your head and shoulders. It might be swirling very slowly or just hanging there in space. It’s the most beautiful thing you can think of, and when you take a breath it fills your lungs with a wonderful sensation. Now start to focus on your breathing, taking steady and slow deep breaths. Start by focusing at the very top of your head, and as you inhale, visualize the mist filling that region. When you exhale, picture anything negative or unhealthy leaving that part of your body and being replaced by the gold mist. This might look like some kind of pollution leaving your system, maybe a dark mist that you want to expel and forget about. Once you’re comfortable breathing in the good and breathing out the bad, slowly start to move down from the top of your head, taking a breath or two for each area you recognize. You might want to spend more time on certain areas, like your eyes if they’re tired, your neck if you’re feeling sore, maybe somewhere inside your head if something’s been troubling you. Continue towards your toes until you’ve filled your entire body with the gold mist and can feel it moving through all your veins. Open your eyes and stand up.

3: Clay Mind

Find a ball of clay, or something else you can sculpt with your hands. You want it to be about two inches in diameter.

Think about one thing you are working on at this moment. Now that your mind is clear and healthy, this is a chance to practice deep focus and put some love towards something you might be struggling with. Our brains are intimately connected with our hands, and this exercise takes advantage of the fact that we aren’t often reinforcing that connection.

With your eyes closed, hold the clay in your lap with both hands in front of you. Imagine that the ball of clay represents that challenge or problem you want to focus on. Take a minute to warm up the clay with your hands, not thinking too hard, just move the clay around and allow it to grow into different forms. What are different shapes it can take? Once it has turned into a smooth rounded shape, imagine that it represents everything connected with your chosen challenge, a tiny universe you can mold and explore freely. Continue to roll the shape around in your hands. Now stick your fingers into the center of that world and slowly turn it inside out. What do you see? Allow the inverse world to be worked back into a round shape once again. Next roll it between your palms into a long worm and think about what that represents. Could it be a timeline? An alternate reality? A way of looking at different elements of that world in a more linear way? Now divide your clay in two parts, assigning meaning to each part. Continue to subdivide into small pieces until you’ve exhausted the amount of elements you can assign a meaning or role to. What do you see? Is there anything you haven’t recognized before? Lastly, gather the pieces together and form them into a smooth shape again, and begin to slowly increase the pressure on it until your hands are holding it so tight they can’t move any more. Take a deep breath to allow that world inside you, and as you exhale let it go.

Illustrations by Adam Hilborn.

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We live in a world that values extroversion, production, and a lean approach to business and product development. Companies that embrace those ideals may be effective at pushing an idea out into the world, but might they lose something valuable to the creative process along the way? Like reflection, mindfulness, and a clear head?

Short answer: Yes.

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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.