Hosted by the Industrial Designers Society of America, this interesting site highlights some of the most influential people and groundbreaking products in this field. Titled 100 Years of Design, the site has content that spans the 20th century and "is a monthly installment of excerpts from a proposed book" along the same lines. Fifteen famous designers are profiled, along with over 50 products....

Originally a project between KALW public radio and the American Institute of Architects in San Francisco, 99% Invisible is a brainy online radio program that investigates all the design mysteries that are hidden just below the surface of the everyday world. For instance, how did inflatable men end up flopping around in front of car lots? Or where did the fortune cookie come from? Or who invented...

This web exhibition features more than thirty objects dating from the 16th to the 20th centuries, selected from the permanent collection of the Cooper-Hewitt Museum by Fernando and Humberto Campana, founders of Est'dio Campana in Sao Paulo, Brazil (an international furniture design studio). Objects in the show include book illustrations, jewelry, furniture, and wallpaper designs, on a theme...

The Design Museum in London "concentrates on temporary exhibitions that cover the range of its interests, from graphic design and furniture to fashion, industrial design and architecture." On their site the museum provides several web versions of current exhibitions which include a few views of the works in each show. For example, click on Sustainable Futures to see five pioneering designs, such...

This archived version of the exhibit: "Multiple Choice: From Sample to Product" provides a PDF of a press release along with information about the content and context of the exhibit. The exhibition traced the process that takes samples to final products in a variety of contexts, ranging from home furnishings to architectural ornament to textile design. Highlights of the exhibition included an...

The Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum is closed for renovation until 2014. Until then, visit this website to "Discover a different object from the Museum's collection every day of the week!" Items range from a 1938 catalog of linoleum and cork flooring, The Armstrong Pattern Book, to scratch and sniff wallpaper designed by Michael Angelo and produced by Flavor Paper in 2007. Information...

Arguably one of the most influential schools of design in the 20th century, the Bauhaus movement began in 1919 with its dramatic manifesto penned by Walter Gropius, who stated, "The ultimate aim of all creative activity is a building!" Keeping the legacy of this powerful ideology alive is the Bauhaus-Archiv Museum of Design, founded in 1960, and housed in a building designed by Walter Gropius in...

Presaging the movements of political ecology, "smart growth", sustainable development and other trends of the past three decades, R. Buckminster Fuller remains one of the most misunderstood Renaissance individuals of the 20the century. Today, Mr. Fuller is most well known for inventing the geodesic dome, which he hoped would become a model for low-cost housing across the world. Over his life, Mr....