1. "Humankind: The Annual Report"
For several years now I have wanted to document a year's worth of events, statistics, little known facts, scientific discoveries, wars, sporting events, etc etc etc - and put them into a hefty tome "annual report style". Placing the sublime next to the ridiculous, the comic with the tragic, the statistical documentation next to poetic writing - complete with a letter from the Chairman, compelling photographs, pie graphs, diagrams, proxy votes and 'shareholder' information. I believe it would be an interesting design commentary on the state of our world.

2. Buildings that Grow
Sure sure, sustainable or green design is all the rave these days - and many buildings are incorporating elements that 'grow' like grass roofs and the like. But here I am talking about a building made out of actual growing trees, designed to conform and change as the trees actually grow over the years. A sort of a wacky tree house... Surely someone has already tried something like this?

3. Graduate Design Degrees that Pay
My colleague Frank McClung thought this one up for a celebrity designer or studio or perhaps even a highly progressive design school to utilize... Offer a program where the students attend for free, but the bulk of their 'studies' entail design work for real paying clients. The revenue the talented students generate pays their tuition and maybe even room and board. The program is of course directed by a brilliant Creative Director to be sure clients remain happy and returning. There would also be an element of personal/explorative work during the course...

4. The Designer's Cookbook
An idea I got sometime ago based on things a chef was telling me: basically no recipe is 'original' - that is, it is all contigent on learning and using from those who have gone before in cooking throughout the history of the world. I find it fascinating how every celebrity chef (and many noncelebs) are more than happy to share their secret recipes with the world. Not so with designers - no we have many copyright and intellectual property laws to protect our 'original ideas' (like the 'Faster™' I saw on a Comcast commercial the other day; I mean come on!). So to fight this, why not publish my own book of design solutions purely for other designers to imitate, modify, mimic, edit etc? Wouldn't that be stimulating? I think so...

5. Good Newspaper
Not all that much of a design idea, but just to make a news source that reports on MOSTLY good news stories. Stories of hope, love, forgiveness, humor and so on. What sorts of effects would it have on us and our outlook of the world? Would it really make us dopey naïve and ridiculously optimistic buffoons? I am not so sure...