The Strangest, Coolest Designs You Didn’t Know Existed

A 45-minute chat with Lisa S. Roberts feels like a riveting seminar on modern design. The author and design expert leans in across the table and speaks in hushed tones when discussing her just-released book, DesignPop.

Product is her passion, and the former architect and TV personality has traveled the world spotting and celebrating great design. Her new hot pink coffee table tome is a summation of that work. Inside the pages, she catalogs 82 landmark pieces that define design today. They span from common items that have seen true innovation (the bagless vacuum and the bladeless fan) to completely new contraptions (the Juicy Salif juicer and Egg Vase) — all having arrived in the last 14 years. They toy with the concepts of shape, fabrication, sustainability, and social-consciousness, among others. We caught up with Lisa and asked how the design scene has changed in the last decade and the one item she could create iterations of forever. If you've ever longed for a primer on design — she's got you.