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Sure, our food supply has been poisoned by large corporations, and we're hooked on sugary drinks that make us sick. Can design help? Maybe—or we can just stay in our lane and design more stuff for you to buy! Shiny shiny! Here are the food, drink and kitchen-related designs that jumped out at us in 2024.Möbino, by Metaform Architects, is a beautiful espresso cup made by combining digital fabrication with handwork. When bad UX is the point: This no-handle coffee mug, by British design col

Each year, over 100 million bicycles are produced worldwide, versus 94 million automobiles. The modern buyer includes urban residents seeking environmentally-friendly transport and exercise, as well as those in developing nations seeking a reliable and affordable means of transport. Bike ownership surged during the pandemic—some estimates have it at 25% growth in 2020 alone—and sales will only grow. So it's not surprising that we saw a ton of bike-related designs this year.We'll start off with the precursor to the bicycle: The running machine, a/k/a the Draisine, developed by German inventor Karl Drais in 1816.

Everyone's talking about the future, AI, blah blah blah. But this year we saw plenty of cool design solutions from earlier decades and centuries.Early mass production: In ancient China they developed Dragon Kilns, which run up hills. The fires at the bottom send heat throughout the entirety of the structure, enabling mass firings. In Japan, these Inuyarai bamboo slats protect businesses from dog pee and rain splatter. An old-school construction trick, used everywhere from the

Two pandemic-inspired trends that have lasted through 2024: Somewhat paradoxically, people are spending more time at home, as well as spending a lot of time outdoors. Here are the innovations we saw this year aimed at both of those environments.To meet a German client's needs, Polish architecture firm KWK Promes developed this privacy fencing that appears at the push of a button.In Austria, Germany, Italy

For every schlocky consumerist invention spammed into our inboxes this year, we did see some true innovations. Objects and systems intended to improve society and businesses, created by clever designers, engineers and inventors. Here's what jumped out at us in 2024:Vertical farm pioneer Plenty says "We can grow an entire soccer field worth of produce in the size of a goal." For pop-up event spaces and exhibitions, this Expandable Touchdown Trailer can move its own wheels out of the way, then lower itself to the ground.

Here's what we looked at this week:Modernism vs. nature: Bjarke Ingels Group designs the Softshell, a tent-like structure for glamping. An explosion of VR simulators, by FuninVR.Xreal's AR Glasses are a fraction of the price of Apple's Vision Pro.

This Lemmo One, by industrial design and mobility firm Springtime, is an "E+bike." It's so named because it's an ordinary bike until you slap the removable battery onto it.

This Cardyhedron object is a fascinating solution, to a problem you'd think no one has. (And you'd be wrong—at press time, at least 4,272 people had this problem.)The "problem" is that you're trying to play Dungeons & Dragons during an earthquake, or on the International Space Station, or on a rollercoaster; whatever the case is, you're not able to roll dice on a flat, stable surface. The credit-card-sized Cardyhedron takes the place of a full set of gaming dice—D4, D6, D8, D10, D12, D20—using spinning wheels held in place with tiny ball bearings. So you can generate random numbers in any setting.

Midcentury Italian lighting designer Angelo Lelii created this Polifemo lamp in 1956. The unusual design features a stem interrupted by a sort of brass eyeball with a plastic diffuser. The eyeball illuminates and can be pivoted.

Swiss company Ensven has developed this Modular Bed Rocker. It's a series of pads, one of them with a motor in it, that can rock beds from side to side. To install it, you simply place your bed's existing legs atop the pads. The company claims the rocking motion can help people, particularly those with insomnia, dementia, cerebral palsy and other neurological conditions, more easily fall asleep. Users can select between different