The Design Dozen

We Are the World

Some global-thinking designers are really going the distance in the search for sustainable, unusual goods.

MATERIAL CONNEXION: The company houses thousands of materials for designers to browse. Now it's working with the Philippines to develop new prototypes, from shells to bamboo, that are harder to knock off by competing countries like China.

NORTH SOUTH PROJECT: Tourists have always liked to schlep home local crafts. But Canadian designer Patty Johnson wanted to do something different. Partnering with manufacturers in developing countries, she's bringing the best of exotic furniture into your living room. But not too exotic. "We want to make sophisticated hybrids," says Johnson, "with the same quality you'd find here, but the vocabulary of where they came from." Seated below: chairs from Botswana that look stylish enough to be sold at IKEA. They're a takeoff on the American Windsor, with a deep matte finish that gives "the final object the same abstracted quality as African wood sculpture." The light fixtures above are from South America, woven by the Wai Wai people of Guyana, then whimsically left unfinished. (The weavers worked with Johnson over six months to develop the look.) They used rain-forest grass and colored the shades with natural plant dyes. But some of the lights are staying put. The Wai Wais were so pleased with them, they snagged a batch for their village, where a generator provides two hours of electricity every night. For Johnson, the lure is helping a country survive on its own goods. "We're trying to create value-added products that you can export," she says, "so it's not a drain of their natural resources." The collection (from $300 to $2,000)-- including benches, ottomans and cabinets--hits stores this fall. Up next for North South: a textile weaving project in Ethiopia.

Ramin Setoodeh

Bubble Boy Hits the Street Are you fed up with advertising invading every corner of public space? Graphic designer Ji Lee, 34, has just the antidote. His Bubble Project invites passersby to jot comments into thought-bubble stickers--he has put up some 35,000 over the past four years in New York City--and sure enough, the people have spoken. Or written. "Some of it's funny, or political or personal," says Lee, a former adman himself who sees his work as a public service. "People have a platform for self-expression." Want to see for yourself? "Talk Back: The Bubble Project" has just been published in a book.