By Julia Cosgrove  September 17th, 2009 10:12 am  |  Comments (1)

I have a soft spot for people who think outside the box. Emily Pilloton is one such person. She wants designers to make practical tools that help the world. As the founder and executive director of Project H Design, a humanitarian non-profit with nine chapters around the world, Emily was recently awarded a $15,000 Adobe Foundation grant to support work on her new book Design Revolution: 100 Products That Empower People. Project H tackles such social and environmental issues as access to water, global health, and education—all on a manageable, local scale. One of Emily’s first projects involved redesigning the hippo roller, an innovative water transport system, which she then delivered to a community in Kgautswane, South Africa. For another initiative, she and her colleagues installed a “math playground” at the Kutamba School for AIDS Orphans in Uganda (shown here). Check out Emily and her many projects in this inspiring, short video from Adobe.

Photo courtesy of Project H Design.