To rebrand educators for the 21st century, Studio 360 selected Hyperakt, a New York design firm that’s done projects for UNICEF and GOOD magazine, among others. At a recent brainstorming session, former public school teacher Jenna Shapiro summed up the concern of her colleagues ...

For our next redesign project, Studio 360 is giving schoolteachers a makeover. Turns out a lot of teachers hate the treacly, old-fashioned visual imagery that gets dumped on them (ABCs, 123s, chalkboards, rulers, apples). One teacher told us she calls this iconography "apple crapple." ...

Five years ago on the show we redesigned Christmas. The whole holiday. We hired the graphic designer Michael Beirut, of the firm Pentagram, to come up with a fresh, 21st century concept that could be used — and loved — universally. Since then we've done all kinds of redesigns of symbols and holidays ...

What should Studio 360 redesign next?  Tell us!

All this month the Federal Reserve Bank in Richmond, Virginia, will honor Gay Pride Month by flying the rainbow on its flagpole just below Old Glory. And, not surprisingly, they’ve received a lot of angry responses. The rainbow flag has been a symbol of...

Slideshow: Worldstudio redesigns the gay flag

Last month, Studio 360 announced plans to redesign the board game Monopoly. Capitalism and real estate have changed a lot since the Monopoly was first sold by Parker Brothers in the 1930s, and we decided the game needed a major overhaul. We collected dozens of inspired suggestions from listeners, and delivered them to...

Studio 360 is redesigning Monopoly, and to help us decide what to toss and what to keep, we’ve gotten advice from an all-star team.  The former investment banker William Cohan suggested we let players leverage their holdings and create a bank with vested interests, but former ...

Since the board game Monopoly first came out in the 1930s, capitalism and tycooning have changed a lot. Someone who knows that better than most is former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, who now hosts a public affairs program on CNN. Spitzer told Kurt Andersen his first lesson ...

The Scottie dog has all the fun. Along with the battleship, the race car, and the top hat, it’s always part of the in-crowd of Monopoly game pieces. Consistently among the first to be selected, the Scottie dog confidently strolls down Boardwalk and turns heads as it passes Go in ...

We're assembling a top-notch team of advisers for our Monopoly redesign. This week Kurt Andersen called finance expert William Cohan to find out how to make the rules of the game more representative of capitalism in the 21st century. Cohan is a former investment banker and the author of Money and Power: How Goldman Sachs Came to Rule the World ...

Bonus Track: Kurt Andersen's full conversation with William Cohan

Later this year, Hasbro will unveil a partly-electronic version of one of the classic board games.  But Studio 360 thinks Monopoly needs more of a makeover to bring it into the 21st century.  Game designer Brenda Brathwaite says Monopoly is practically designed to be boring: it’s "literally just about waiting for people to run out of money...

Slideshow: Monopoly Through the Years

Across the land listeners answered our call to rethink these American symbols. Pop music critic Will Hermes suggests replacements for the national anthem. Kate Bingaman-Burt enlists her design students to take part in our Uncle Sam Redesign Challenge. And design writer Alissa Walker picks a winner.

The professional graphic designers at the Austin-based firm, Under Consideration, take a stab at rebranding Valentine's Day. The husband-and-wife team, Armin Vit and Bryony Gomez-Palacio, tell Kurt about their ideas: a new valentine icon, better colors, and a transformed Cupid.

Studio 360 challenged listeners to design a valentine that reflects modern romance. Over 100 were submitted, and Elizabeth Gilbert judged the entries. Gilbert's runner-up celebrates the domestic bliss of "taco night," and the winner showcases an inventive use of bacon.

Slideshow: See the winner, runners-up, and all the entries

Our redesign of Valentine's Day moves full steam ahead. We hear from the husband-wife team who run the Austin design firm, Under Consideration. Armin Vit and Bryony Gomez-Palacio work to upgrade this fraught holiday. Studio 360 commissioned them, but they consider ...

The Studio 360 Valentine Redesign Challenge! The Hearts. The Chocolates. The Roses. The everything Red. It's all so predictable. And nauseating. Design writer Alissa Walker tells Kurt what it will take to redesign the holiday.

The rainbow flag was designed in 1978 for a gay parade in San Francisco and over the last 30 years it has become the global symbol for gay pride. If the flag were designed in 2009, how would it look? Mark Randall of the design firm Worldstudio accepted the challenge, and he and his team came up ...

Dozens of listeners submitted ideas to Studio 360's Flickr page for the gay flag redesign challenge. And fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi picks his favorite.

The rainbow flag was designed in 1978, at the dawn of the gay pride movement. How would it look if it were designed in 2009? In this Studio 360 design project, design firm Worldstudio took on the challenge. This weekend, Kurt Andersen will talk with the firm's principal, Mark Randall, about ...

The rainbow flag was designed in 1978. But how would it be different if it were designed in 2009? Design firm Worldstudio brainstorms ideas and we introduce our celebrity judge, fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi. Join the discussion and submit your new flag designs on our Flickr page.

June is Gay Pride month, and rainbow flags will fly over pride events nationwide. But isn't the rainbow a little too... 1978? We’ve commissioned a 21st-century gay flag makeover. Submit your redesign to our Flickr page, and we'll present the best ideas online and on air later this month.