design : Featured Stories

How groups at the University of Minnesota are using design thinking as the creative approach to explore new ways of working and collaborating.

Finalists have been selected for the second annual Creative City Challenge. The winning, interdisciplinary, public-art installation--selected by popular vote this winter--will be open all summer on the Minneapolis Convention Center plaza.

Jessica Harjo, a recent graduate of the University of Minnesota’s Design MA program and a current PhD candidate, has sketched out a novel orthography for the Osage language.

The burgeoning winter-biking scene wouldn’t be possible without the bike designers, entrepreneurs, co-ops, fests, expos, zines, and coffee shops that give the community its innovative edge and vitality.

In the world of handmade guitar gear, Twin Cities inventors are known by guitarists the world over for bringing a range of experience and creativity to products that for decades were mass-produced.

Heather and John McDougall, who are siblings, have designed the bamboo Bogobrush, a "buy one, give one" product that provides toothbrushes to people in need.

Galtier Community School in Saint Paul decided to revolutionize education through design thinking after the American Architectural Foundation’s (AAF) Design for Learning program.

The Makers Coalition is supporting a new generation of industrial sewers and the local makers movement. The coalition brings together 60 businesses, educational institutions, nonprofit organizations, and service providers to fulfill its mission: To bring back industrial sewing skills, which largely disappeared in America decades ago.

Public art has evolved into an essential element of urban placemaking and social engagement. From murals on vacant buidlings to art in laundormats to temporary art installations that invite public participation, we take a look at public art and how it's changing cities.

Three shops that are helping to redefine thrift shopping--turning it into an environmentally conscious, art-and-design focused way of celebrating and honoring the past while meeting today's economic challenges.