The-Lefthander

On Places, geographer Richard Campanella recalls a long hot summer, and sets the BP oil spill into the complex environmental and cultural contexts of America's third coast.

The is the first of two essays on the visual nature of body image.

A video of a talk on design and social innovation at the Feast Conference given by William Drenttel on October 1, 2009.

On Places, James Sanders looks at the current controversy over the proposed Islamic center near Ground Zero in a larger context, noting that New York City has for most of its history "abhorred the very idea of memorials." 

Photo from Teun Voeten's newly reissued book on New York's Tunnel People.

Update on Climate Change Chocolate and other ideas for offsetting carbon. Originally published August 17, 2009.

"Few designers have done more to render typography foundries irrelevant than Victore. The human hand, his hand, is always in evidence." Michael Bierut on James Victore's work.

Essay attacking design awards for stifling innovation

"Lunch with the Critics," a new feature on Design Observer: Mark Lamster and Alexandra Lange travel to midtown to visit the Hotel Pennsylvania, across from Penn Station and Madison Square Garden.

This video of the SELCO innovation team talking about product development is a part of the SELCO case study, the first in a series of case studies on design and social enterprise funded by the Rockefeller Foundation through a grant to the Winterhouse Institute.

This video of Harish Hande is a part of the SELCO case study, the first in a series of case studies on design and social enterprise funded by the Rockefeller Foundation through a grant to the Winterhouse Institute.

Design Observer posted an open call for designers to submit photos of themselves with their canine companions. These are the results...

On the futility of designing the symbol for a controversial religious organization.

Report on the Somali Documentary Project.

On Places, watch The Good, the Bad, and the Empty, the latest video from the Brooklyn-based Center for Urban Pedagogy, which explores the community politics of vacant lots.

A record of where case studies in Design and Social Enterprise series from Yale School of Management have been used or taught.

This case study about SELCO, a solar energy company in India, provides an opportunity to examine the strategy of a business with a social purpose and a heavy reliance on innovative design.

Not many business school case studies have considered the role of design in social innovation or social enterprise management. Yale School of Management, in collaboration with Winterhouse Institute, has created a series focusing on Design and Social Enterprise, funded by the Rockefeller Foundation.

Essay on adapting principles of social entrepreneurship to social design.

A selection of rare dexterity puzzles from the personal collection of Jessica Helfand.