Delivered in Beta

This video provides a wonderful commentary on working collaboratively and releasing our ideas/concepts/and prototypes to the people who need them before they are perfect– because they never are. Working in this way reminds me immediately of the innovative work produced by International Design Clinic.  Created by groups of students and professionals, projects executed by the [...]

Moving Windmills: The William Kamkwamba Story

If you are ever stuck thinking that you don’t have the tools or resources to be innovative, think again!   At the age of 14, Malawian William Kamkwamba Malawan created a functioning wind turbine after merely seeing an image of one!  Inspired by the dream of providing his family with electricity and a water pump, William’s [...]

Looking Back, Moving Forward

The end of a year, almost the end of a decade.  Eliza and I have been somewhat M.I.A. the past month, due to burgeoning to-do lists and holiday mayhem,  but boy have we got grand plans for 2010!  We are looking to give our little blog a nice facelift sometime in the first part of [...]

Ross Lovegrove

Ross Lovegrove is sui generis in the world of designers.  His idiosyncratic approach to product design is organically breathtaking– fluid in appearance, and revolutionary in composition.  He describes himself as “an evolutionary biologist, more than a designer.”  This quote coming from one of the few sources I could find information on this incredible innovator, in [...]

The Indoor Mini-Garden

I live in an apartment without any yard to speak of (the crawling vines on my building’s fence don’t really count), so there isn’t a place where I can grow my own yummy, organic veggies, even though I want to!  Neither do I possess the green thumb needed to sustain a living plant. Needless to [...]

Fun Can Change the World

My heart swells a little each time I watch the above videos from the Fun Theory.  Simple, yet well produced, each of the Fun Theory projects realizes great success.  Their theory has been proven: “that something as simple as fun is the easiest way to change people’s behavior for the better. Be it for yourself, [...]

Treehugger’s Wishlist

I fully intend to post my own green wish list, but in the meantime, Treehugger’s “2009 Gift Guide: Have a Slow Holiday” is a great head start!  With 12 categories and over 100 gifts you can pinpoint every person on your list with a meaningful green gift!  A few of my favorites on the list: [...]

TED- “ideas worth spreading”

Lately, I’ve been completely hooked on watching TED videos.  A good TED clip can give me everything I’m looking for when I have a few moments of free time… information, happiness, tears, confusion, awe, amazement, empathy, and more than anything, inspiration. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, the three elements which were the founding premise [...]

The ‘Thank You’ Project

The optimist in us would like to find something positive in every day.  But as we all know, some days our inner optimist is quite challenged with this task. We’re busy!  We’re working hard!  And sometimes we simply forget to be grateful for the opportunities that create this stress and the goodness that eventually follows. [...]

Turn The Radio On

Trying to find alternative sources for news can be difficult, with airwaves and print dominated by major publications such as CNN, The New York Times, and The BBC.  The trouble I find with mainstream media is that sometimes it’s difficult to figure out what exactly is going on in the world, and why… better yet, [...]

“Indexed”- Visual Ideas

The best way I can describe Indexed is:  Visual ideas for the pictorial thinker. Take something as basic as a Venn diagram, add a dash of wit and heft of cleverness, and you’ve got yourself a remarkably fun way to look at just about anything. I was recently turned on to Indexed by a dear [...]

Green Lab Design Studio

What sets Los Angeles-based Green Lab Design Studio apart from a multitude of other event agencies?  Is it:   A.  The utilization of organic chefs and healthy edibles for food service,  B.  Building an event space using energy efficient and recycled elements in construction, or  C.  Employing certified organic cleaning supplies in the cleanup of [...]

Blog Action Day!

Are you celebrating?!  Have you joined?  Today is Blog Action Day and we here at Innovate are partaking in the festivities (kind of).  Blog Action Day was founded in 2007 by Collis & Cyan Ta’eed.  The concept behind the ‘event’ is to have bloggers commit to dedicating one day of their blog to recognize an [...]

Masdar, City of the Future

What two things come to mind when you hear the name United Arab Emirates?  Oil and Money. It’s well known that the UAE, a country smaller than the state of Virginia, have both of these commodities in spades.  The UAE is also one of the biggest producers of green house gas emissions in the world, [...]

The 3/50 Project

Their concept is simple and the numbers that back up their cause are staggering.  The 3/50 project is an organization focused on saving the wonderful mom-and-pop stores throughout the country.  I often see small stores that I appreciated close their doors and comfort myself by thinking, ‘Well, I can’t keep them all in business on [...]