CROSS-POLLINATION
It’s no longer a given that designers build their careers around a single label—say, architect or graphic designer—so it’s only natural to take a closer look at the places where the disciplines bleed together. From March 28–May 11, designer Elena Manferdini will explore the relationship between architecture and fashion in Merletti (in Italian, the plural for lace). This SCI-Arc (Southern California Institute of Architecture) exhibit in Los Angeles draws on Manferdini’s experiences as the principal of Atelier Manferdini, where she’s worked with clients ranging from Nike and Fiatto Alessi. She harnesses computer-aided design to create exotic forms infashion, architecture and object design. www.sciarc.edu

SHOE FETISH
Flattering the feet of everyone from Nicole Kidman and Kirsten Dunst to Angelina Jolie, Chris­tian Louboutin’s red-soled shoes are no strangers to the red carpet. But now the elegant lines of this designer’s distinctly feminine creations have reached another milestone: They’ll be featured in the first museum exhibition to focus on Louboutin’s career. Sole Desire: The Shoes of Christian Louboutin runs March 13–April 19 at The Museum at FIT (Fashion Institute of Technology) in New York City. Graduate students in the school’s fashion and textile-studies programs have cho­sen dozens of exquisite shoes for the show, ranging from feather-adorned silk crepe pumps to metal-studded black leather boots. www.fitnyc.edu/museum

BUILD-A-BUG
Bug Labs is sort of like Build-a-Bear Workshop for tech-savvy adults ... only you don’t have to brave the mall and thread your way through knots of screaming toddlers to create the gadget of your dreams. The company offers handheld components that snap together like Lego bricks. You buy a “base” then add on extras—ranging from GPS and digital camera to LCD screen—to build exactly the device you want. “When it comes to hackability, the Bug is the exact opposite of the iPhone,” says Jeremy Toeman, the company’s vice presi­dent of marketing. “It’s completely open source. We’re going to make hardware hacking completely accessible to every programmer on Earth.” The core device does some things on its own, but programmers will be able to expand its functions in almost any direction imag­inable, and then share or sell their handiwork with others. Users can create anything from a mobile blogging station to a home security system ... maybe even a high-tech bear. www.buglabs.net

DESIGNING A DIFFERENCE
For all the talk about design’s ability to change the world, too many commentators trot out work from the usual suspects when the topic turns to socially conscious design. Luckily, the web provides a broader (and perhaps more democratic) survey of designers’ efforts to effect positive change. Osocio—a reincarnation of a Dutch blog called Houtlust—chronicles the latest social advertising and nonprofit campaigns from around the globe. “We have no political agenda,” says Marc van Gurp, the blog’s founder and a designer in the Netherlands. “We just want to be a reference in nonprofit visual communication.” The blog’s seven far-flung authors take you beyond the work populating the pages of the latest annuals. These design-minded profession­als work in locales ranging from the United States to the Philippines, and they show­case an impressive, heart­string-tugging new project almost every day. You might stumble across a series of Chinese public-service com­mercials about HIV/AIDS or an elegant Greenpeace Israel poster on global warm­ing. Osocio is an education in both regional design styles and making a difference. http://osocio.org/

DESIGN ALL-STARS
Think of Debbie Millman as the design world’s Tom Brady: She always moves the ball forward. In addition to being a managing partner at Sterling Brands, she advances the national design conversation by hosting the online talk show De­sign Matters and writing for the popular design blog Speak Up. Now she’s set her sights on getting inside the minds of design luminaries like Stefan Sagmeister, Milton Glaser, Paula Scher, Jessica Helfand and Chip Kidd. In How to Think Like a Great Graphic Designer (Allworth Press, $24.95), Millman lets 21 noted creatives speak for themselves. The book introduces each designer with a short personal biography, then moves into classic question-and-answer format. Reading about these designers’ struggles and philosophies in their own words makes How to Think feel like a series of one-on-one, all-star mentoring sessions. Plus, the book serves as a powerful reminder that even the most famous graphic designers struggle with tight deadlines, difficult clients and burnout. www.allworth.com

FLYING HIGH
Dario Antonioni considers himself an artist first and a designer second. Perhaps that’s why the founder of design lab Orange22 always carves out time for self-initiated projects. His latest experiments resulted in the sleek, limited-edition furniture line Carbon22. The new pieces take carbon fiber—a material more readily associated with the aircraft industry—and apply it to stools, tables, desks and task chairs. Besides lending the line a bold look, Antonioni’s material of choice provides strength without heft. “The Carbon22 desk mea­sures 3 by 7 feet, but it doesn’t weigh more than 5 pounds,” Antonioni says. “You can pick it up by hand, but it’s incredibly strong.” The line’s $20,000–$120,000 price tags may limit the buyer pool, but the effort has already turned heads at Sony—the electronics giant has tapped Orange22 for a project inspired by the Carbon22 line. www.orange22.com

STUDY ABROAD
Milan may host the famous furniture fair, but it’s Torino, Italy, that earned the impressive title World De­sign Capital—a crown jointly bestowed by the Interna­tional Council of Graphic Design Associations (ICOGRADA) and the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design. During its 2008 reign, Torino will host a conference on sustainable design, Changing the Change, from July 10–12. The one-time event focuses on international design research and how this knowledge can transform all the profession’s disciplines into environmental leaders. “I think that today design research is too important to be left to the academics alone,” says Ezio Manzini, conference scientific coordinator. “We see a new wave of design research that is emerging from industries and professional design agencies.” www.changingthechange.org

MAIL-ORDER INSPIRATION
For more than a decade, Clark Whitting­ton’s Art-o-mat machines have made buy­ing original art as easy as snagging a candy bar in the company break room. These retrofitted cigarette vending machines dispense every­thing from small oil paintings to pewter castings of crackers for $5–$7 at roughly 90 locations world­wide. Now your ability to buy isn’t limited by where you live. Whittington’s new Art-o-carton brings the collecting experience to the doorstep of anyone with $99.99 to spare. Each Art-o-carton arrives packed with 10 original works by 10 different artists, a selection the Art-o-mat team hand-tailors based on each buyer’s responses to a brief questionnaire. This customized grab-bag approach means you never quite know what you’re getting—an alternative with an intentional contrast to run-of-the-mill consumerism. “Art is so subjective, and contemporary retail is so dumbed down,” Whittington says. “With Art-o-carton, we try not to give away too much information.” www.shopartomat.com/carton.html

HIGH-DEF NAPKINS
Jay Jaber came up with the concept for NapAds while sitting at a bar writing down business ideas on a napkin. “I realized the napkin was blank,” he says. “It was just a plain white space waiting to be printed on.” Now his company gives marketers the chance to reach coveted 18- to 34-year-olds in one of their natural environments: bars and nightclubs. Unsuspecting revelers in New York or Washington, D.C., might receive what Jaber calls a high-definition napkin—featuring full-color, photo realistic imagery—along with their cocktails. From there, real-world so­cial networking takes over with those pint-sized (and pint-friendly) napkins standing by to fill any lull in the conversation.

So far, clients ranging from Finlandia Vodka to American Express and The CW network have tapped into NapAds bar networks. In addition to catching young people when they’re likely to be feeling good, NapAds offer advertisers the opportunity to personalize country.

The message for any given target audience. A company can choose to have its ads grace napkins at sports bars to reach young men, or assign NapAds to create a custom bar network anywhere in the country. www.napads.com

NAME THAT TYPE
The name—P22 Music Text Composition Generator—sounds a little buttoned-up and technical. But belying the apparent formality, this is an application a bit like Gui­tar Hero for type lovers. The folks at P22 type foundry made it sim­ple: You tap out a few words on the keyboard, then choose an instru­ment and tempo. The site converts your message into sheet music and plays back the tune. There’s even an Open Type font in the works that functions like a dingbat font, with each letter corresponding to a note on the C major scale. Maybe it’s time to get your garage band back together. http://p22.com/musicfont/