Design : Featured Stories

Articles on food, startups, local celebs, design and solutions for urban blight were among readers' favorites in 2011. Take a look to see what stories made the cut.

Bmore Media's new Managing Editor shares her opinion of the city's most controversial work of art.

What is design? It's a simple enough question with a far-from-simple set of answers. Answers that a dedicated group of volunteers are working hard to find for Baltimore at D:center, one of the city's most interesting grassroots organizations.

To be an "art collector" likely seems, to most, an abstraction. Rarefied air, reserved for captains of industry and cashed-out entrepreneurs. Fells Point's TAG Galleries is changing that. By offering high-quality reproductions of contemporary works of art, brothers Ian and Cory Woods are forging a new market. Bmore's Staci Wolfson visited TAG to learn more.

"That's ridiculous. You could teach that stuff." With these words of encouragement from a friend, entrepreneur and metalsmith Megan Auman was off. Rather than go to business school, she created a business school (of sorts). Today, Auman's success continues to grow and she stands as a sterling example of the value of a DIY spirit.

Like many cities, Baltimore is in the midst of trying to reconfigure last century's educational system so that it may better meet the coming century's needs. Progress, in all likelihood, will arrive not in a single moment where we declare the problems "fixed," but rather in increments. Take for example the Baltimore Design School, a new effort to provide design-focused education within the broader context of Baltimore City schools. Follow us behind the scenes to learn more.