Gallery: 27 of the Most Inspiring Designs From 2014
CLEAR FLIGHT SOLUTIONS01robirds11
__[Robotic Birds](http://stag4.wired.com/2014/08/realistic-robo-hawks-designed-to-fly-around-and-terrorize-real-birds/)__ Nico Nijenhuis is building lifelike robo-birds to scare their real-life counterparts away from places like landfills and airports. The trick: Making the autonomous robots move in life-like patterns. So far, these 21st century scarecrows have reduced bird visits to one landfill by 75 percent.
Flic02flic1
__[Flic](http://stag4.wired.com/2014/11/real-world-button-controlling-favorite-apps/)__ In a world where flat, glassy screens rule, it can be hard to remember how awesomely effective an old-school button can be. Flic is a quarter-sized programmable button controls your favorite apps with a push of a finger. It’s a dead simple mode of interaction and more useful than you might think.
MAP03virgin trays
__[Redesigned Virgin Meal Tray](http://stag4.wired.com/2014/06/these-ingenious-new-meal-trays-will-save-virgin-millions-a-year/)__ MAP overhauled Virgin's in-flight eating trays, making them lighter and more compact. It seems like a simple fix, but the little change adds up to millions of dollars saved for Virgin in the coming years.
Lytro04Lytro-Illum-12
__[Lytro Illum](http://stag4.wired.com/2014/04/the-clever-thinking-behind-lytros-gorgeous-new-camera-design/)__ When Lytro launched the How do you introduce new technology to consumers without scaring them away? Lytro decided to merge the old with the new. The light field camera harkens back to more traditional digital cameras, while still being perfectly modern. Attention to ergonomic detail makes it comfortable to work with, even though light field photography requires a totally new shooting stance.
Priesmangood05priestman-goode-10
__[An Airplane With More Bin Space](http://stag4.wired.com/2014/07/an-ingenious-plane-design-that-makes-room-for-your-carry-ons/)__ Too often, your overhead bin has already been claimed by the time you get to your seat. Priestmangood designed a new plane that makes room for one rollerboard carry-on per passenger by changing the module that houses the fasten seatbelt sign, call button and reading light. Instead of one monolithic unit, individual units are installed at each seat. The result: 40 percent more bin space.
Kevin Slavin0620daystranger2
__[20 Day Stranger](http://stag4.wired.com/2014/06/an-anti-whisper-app-designed-to-make-strangers-into-bffs/)__ This poetic little app from MIT is the antithesis to the TMI overload of Facebook.The gist: You and a stranger anonymously share details of your lives ranging from your activities to your wake-up time. The vagueness allows users to construct a narrative about someone they’ll likely never meet. It’s a lovely reminder that we are not, in fact, the center of the universe.
Durr07durr1
__[Durr](http://stag4.wired.com/2014/01/a-vibrating-watch-that-messes-with-your-perception-of-time/)__ When we first wrote about the Durr watch, we described it as a metronome for your day-to-day life. The little disc, which buzzes in five minute intervals, isn’t practical, but it is clever rethinking of the way we perceive time. The best gadgets aren’t always simply useful—they’re the ones that make you view the world differently.
Leeo08night light
__[Leeo Smart Alert Nightlight](http://stag4.wired.com/2014/10/fire-safety-nightlight-smart-home/)__ The Leeo Smart Alert Nightlight is a simple gadget: It won’t vacuum your floor, or start your coffee pot when you wake up in the morning. It’s just a $99 nightlight that lets you know if your house is burning down when you’re not around. Which is to say, it’s a pretty reasonable take on what a connected gadget should be.
Skylar Tibbits09tibbits-07
__[Skylar Tibbits](http://stag4.wired.com/2014/11/skylar-tibbits/ )__ If you want to see the future of material science, visit Skylar Tibbits’ Self-Assembly lab at MIT. The designer is researching how to make programmable materials---think wood and metals that shift shape on command. It’s a revolutionary way to consider how we might make things in the future, or rather, how they might make themselves. As Tibbets puts it: “Computing isn’t- in computers anymore; computing is everything.”
Urban CDC10chicago sensors
__[Chicago’s Array of Things](http://stag4.wired.com/2014/10/chicagos-new-smart-street-corners-will-act-like-fitbit-city/ )__ As sensors get smaller and smarter, urban dwellers are going to reap the benefit of living in smarter, more responsive cities. Chicago’s Array of Things initiative is a good example of what we’ll likely be seeing more of in the future: Cities gathering ambient data and making it totally open source. What exactly is possible once you know your city’s heartbeat?
Pentagram11OfficeUS-publication-covers
__[Pentagram, Office US](http://stag4.wired.com/2014/06/how-to-design-a-killer-logo-with-just-arial-and-times-new-roman/ )__ Pentagram’s visual identity system for the US pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale is a little badass. Natasha Jen and her team swore off fancy bespoke typefaces, instead choosing system fonts Times New Roman and Arial to anchor the identity. Sure, it was a pragmatic choice, but it was partly an irreverent wink at the eye-rollingly tasteful and precise world of typeface design.
Kano12kano
__[Kano](http://stag4.wired.com/2013/12/for-99-you-can-make-your-own-computer/ )__ Kano isn’t the first hardware kit to peddle the promise of teaching kids to code, but damn if it isn’t the most beautiful. The kit, designed by MAP studio, makes sense of complex concepts like programming languages and constructing hardware. But Kano’s real benefit isn’t just about building skills—it’s about instilling a sense of curiosity in children about the technology they’re constantly surrounded by.
Squarespace13squarespace
__[The New Squarespace](http://stag4.wired.com/2014/10/new-squarespace-ux-dream-eliminates-backend-entirely/)__ In its quest to cater to as many users as possible, Squarespace introduced a killer new UX feature this year: an editing interface that essentially deletes the back end normally found in content management systems. Publishers and small business owners alike are surely grateful to be done with the trial-and-error process it used to take to build a simple website.
Grand Army14grandarmy-uspsretail-14
__[USPS Rebranding](http://stag4.wired.com/2014/08/the-bold-rebranding-of-the-usps-that-could-have-been/)__ Nobody likes the post office. Bad wayfinding is partly to blame, so when design studio Grand Army took on the job of redesigning packaging and signage, they took inspiration from Massimo Vignelli’s designs for the New York City subway. They built a consistent menu that can help post offices reorganize their space with minimal costs.
LinkNYC15nyc1
__[NYC’s High-Tech Pay Phones](http://stag4.wired.com/2014/11/new-york-linknyc-free-internet/)__ By this time next year, New York City is looking to install 400 shiny aluminum pillars dotting its streets. These kiosks will provide free wi-fi and act as a charging station or a place to look up directions. The catch: You have to endure ads in order to use them. It’s an interesting example of how the software ad-based model is seeping into the physical world.
New Deal Design16hand tat
__[New Deal Design’s Hand Wearable](http://stag4.wired.com/2014/10/wearable-gadget-implanted-hand-isnt-freaky-youd-think/)__ The next wave of wearables could be tiny digital tattoos decked out with even tinier sensors, like this one by New Deal Design. Besides opening smart locks on doors, making payments, or tracking basic health data, UnderSkin (meant to be embedded on the hand) could augment our identities by transferring information to other users, or recognizing family and loved ones.
Priestmangoode17london trains
__[London’s New Underground](http://stag4.wired.com/2014/10/design-thinking-behind-londons-4b-driverless-subways/)__ Sometime around 2020, London will get new subway cars designed by British design firm Priestmangoode. The city needs them: its population is booming. Since Priestmangoode can’t change the tunnels or the platforms, it’s redesigning the cars and car doors to allow for swifter entry and exit. More flexible trains will also nestle up to the platform---so Londoners won't have to mind the gap much longer.
BIG18BIG manhattan
__[BIG’s Plan To Save NYC](http://stag4.wired.com/2014/06/a-335m-project-to-save-nyc-from-climate-catastrophe/)__ After the wreckage of Hurricane Sandy in 2012, it’s become clear that our coastlines are vulnerable to megastorms. New York City’s solution? A series of sloped landscapes that will wrap around lower Manhattan and both buffer rising tides and provide new neighborhood-centric programs, like parks and pavilions that double as storefronts.
Dyson19crose
__[Dyson Eye](http://stag4.wired.com/2014/09/dyson-releases-the-eye-a-robot-vacuum-with-a-360-degree-camera/)__ Robotic vacuums are nothing new---iRobot released the Roomba over a decade ago. But James Dyson says he didn’t want to get in the game until his team of robotics engineers could build one that would do the chore as well as its human counterparts. The Eye uses a new optical mapping system that generates a live map of the room to figure out what areas need vacuuming and what’s already clean, making for better battery life.
Pentagram20Web
__[Pentagram, MIT Media Lab](http://stag4.wired.com/2014/10/mit-media-lab-gets-transforming-logo-courtesy-pentagram/ )__ Michael Beirut’s overhaul of the MIT Media Lab’s logo is kind of a juggling act: Simple yet complex, uniform but totally individualistic. The Pentagram partner was able to unify the Media Lab’s disparate research groups by making each group’s logo completely different. It sounds counterintuitive, but Beirut was able to build enough flexibility into the 7x7 grid to make it work.
John Pound21code cartooning
__[John Pound’s Code Artwork](http://stag4.wired.com/2014/08/code-cartooning/)__ John Pound invented the Garbage Pail Kids, but for the past 20 years has been cartooning with code. Pound guides the overall aesthetic of his piece, but the computer program determines details like where the eyes and arms are. He's not the only artist using code to create artwork, but Pound’s pieces feel utterly different from much of the other code-based art we see today.
Ziba22postage stamp
__[A Redesigned Postage Stampr](http://stag4.wired.com/2014/10/bold-vision-future-postage-stamp/)__ Mailing stuff sucks. Which is why Portland design studio Ziba decided to redesign the process, starting with the postage stamp. Signet starts with a unique laser-engraved pattern. The accompanying app allows you to choose where you’re sending your package, and you can your mail as it makes its journey. Even the lightest touch of technology can turn an frustrating chore into a delightful experience.
Svigals + Partners23sandyhook
__[Sandy Hook Redesign](http://stag4.wired.com/2014/11/new-sandy-hook-elementary-school-invisible-security/)__ It’s hard to imagine a gig as sensitive as rebuilding Sandy Hook Elementary, which the city of Newtown, Connecticut, demolished a year after the tragic 2012 school shooting. Local architecture firm Svigals + Partners handled the job with grace, by designing an expansive new floorplan and landscape with hidden security details throughout.
24cooperhewitt
__[Cooper Hewitt Redesign](http://stag4.wired.com/2014/12/innovative-museum-lets-play-role-designer/)__ The country’s definitive design museum closed for renovations for three years. The Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, is finally open again, and its ten inaugural exhibits cover everything from 19th century architectural models to sketchbots that draw visitors’ portraits in a sandbox. Best of all: Massive touch screen tables and an electronic pen make the experience as much about drawing and designing as it is about looking.
National Gallery of Victoria25Kids crayon exhibit
__[Interactive Crayon Exhibit](http://stag4.wired.com/2014/08/kids-can-color-with-their-heads-and-feet-at-this-absurdist-crayon-exhibit/)__ For museums to stay relevant they’ll need to engage the visitors---like Pastello, an interactive gallery from Melbourne’s National Gallery of Victoria’s line up this year that turned the act of drawing with crayons into a full-body exercise. The exhibit was modest, but that's what makes it a stellar example of how museums should think about the visitor experience.
Lakeland26Jet engineer pot
__[The Jet Engineer’s Frying Pan](http://stag4.wired.com/2014/07/a-jet-engineer-designs-a-saucepan-that-heats-up-super-fast/)__ Cast iron stovetop pots don’t seem much like a product ripe for innovation, but this year an Oxford turbomechanics professor proved otherwise: the energy-efficient Flare pot, for Lakeland, uses 30 percent less gas than a traditional model. The fins along the side to encourage quicker, better heating.
MEKANISM FOR IT'S ON US27It's On Us
__[It’s On Us Campaign](http://stag4.wired.com/2014/09/white-houses-smart-branding-campaign-sexual-assault/)__ When the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault launched their new “bystander” campaign this year it hired design firm Mekanism to create a better PSA. Most messaging around sexual assault has involved the idea of a predator and a victim; the new It’s On Us campaign is the first to call for collective responsibility.
