COOL HUNTING®

In this video we sit down with third-generation design impresario Alberto Alessi to talk about the emotional side of industrial design at the Plaza Hotel in NYC. The CEO (he's helmed Alessi for 39 years) shares his perspective on design objects, playing a whistle from one of his first collaborations to prove his point.

For this season's video documenting Sao Paulo Fashion Week's summer shows, we narrow our sights on the the bikini. With help from a few fashion types?editors, models, designers and others?we take a look at the most quintessentially Brazilian wardrobe staple.

Nice Collective was started by self-described "nice guys" Joe Haller and Ian Hannula shortly after the two met at a club in San Francisco in 1995. Inspired by music, art, technology, performance, reptiles and spiders, science, military experience and the "alternative" scene, the two set out to create experiences for themselves and their friends. Clothing quickly materialized as a core component of that desire, and since their first collection in 1997 Nice Collective has earned its place in the hearts and closets of those who make style their own. Its military and masculine influences combine with true innovation in cut, fabrication and material, aged ever-so-nicely. We caught up with Joe and Ian at the launch event for their Spring 2009 collection, "Voix de Ville," their first New York show. We experienced the "Time Machine" Fall 2009 show, also in New York, and capped it off with a visit to their San Francisco compound?where their home, office, studio and showroom inconspicuously house some of the freshest, unique and most exciting things being created today.

In this video, Friends of the Highline co-founder Robert Hammond tells the story of how he helped reinvent a gritty elevated railway into what is NYC's most celebrated public space since Central Park. He shares images and animations of what the park, due to open in June, will look like at a talk for our recent 99 Percent Conference and shares how he feels after a decade at work at the brink of its debut.

For our second video documenting our recent 99 Percent Conference, we check in with Google Creative Labs Creative Director Ji Lee to find out how personal and professional work relate. We get a taste of his famed Bubble Project and what makes one of the most subversive minds in the corporate world tick.

At our recent conference, The 99 Percent, Scott Thomas took the stage to talk about what it was like to design Obama's digital campaign on the fly. This video culls the highlights from his presentation and catches up with him afterward to find out more about his theories on simplicity and his plans for working in politics in the future.

Grafica Fidalga, a printing press in Sao Paulo, Brazil, makes posters on a 1929 German letterpress using hand-carved wooden letters. In this video, we visit the trio of friends who make up Grafica Fidalga to watch them make a poster we commissioned for our 99 Percent conference.

Baggu's ingenious design makes for the most functional and stylish eco-bag out there?an example of how one small, well-executed idea might just change the world. In this video, co-founder Emily Sugihara fills us in on the design process and shows us some of the more unusual uses for a Baggu.

Cool Hunting's recent retail experiment took the form of a weekend-long concept store at Brooklyn's popular Winter Market. This video gets a few words on it from local designer Kiel Mead, who helped hand-pick the inventory of independently-produced goods and created the attention-grabbing installation.

Covering buildings throughout Sao Paulo, pixacao is a style of graffiti native to Brazil and known for its simple, angular lines. In this episode of Cool Hunting Video, we tour the city streets with Joao Wainer, photographer and co-director of a documentary on the subject, who fills us in on the culture and history.

Bringing an old world style of butchering to an up-and-coming Williamsburg block, Marlow and Daughters is part of a growing group of Brooklyn epicureans who are doing their part to take food production back to the basics. In this episode of our video series, we visit with butcher Tom Mylan to learn about the whole-animal philosophy, what sets his technique apart and his preferred cut of meat.

Bringing a dose of modern irreverence to old world decor, Flavor Paper screenprints wallpaper by hand in their New Orleans studio. This episode of our video series visits with owner Jon Sherman and tours the factory to learn about how they do it.

In this Capsule Video, we visit NYC's latest subway installation by the artist-twins Doug and Mike Starn. The duo explains the rhizomatic tree-subway connection of the site-specific work and the process of printing their imagery onto the tiles.

This episode of Cool Hunting Video surveys the fashion and people at Sao Paulo Fasion Week's Winter 2009 shows. With commentary from designers and writers, as well as plenty of runway looks and peeks backstage, it's a snapshot of what's happening in Brazilian fashion now.

Starting with a converted bakery in St. Roch, one of New Orleans' most neglected neighborhoods, KK Projects reimagines buildings ravaged by time and Katrina as site-specific artworks, one at a time. This video tours several of the sites and checks in with founder Kirsha Kaechele to learn about her experiences integrating art into one of the roughest ghettos of the city and what it's like to actually live in a gallery.