Harp Learning Institute, 424 Kelly Ave, Half Moon Bay, CA 94019, US

The Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford, more commonly known as the d.school, has yet to find a similar school like it in the entire nation. Traditionally, design schools are geared toward the fashion or art industry. At Stanford, "design" is a new approach to education. The Stanford Design program doesn't offer graduate degrees but serves as a cross-section for different disciplines to engage with one another. Oftentimes, classes taken at the d.school, which was established in 2005, serve as an augmentation to an existing degree program like medicine or engineering. The "d.Manifesto" is "All you need to know…on a napkin." Ideas are often scribbled on the nearest two-dimensional surface, oftentimes a napkin scrap. Proving that education doesn't have to be confined within the realms of a tradiational classroom, design students are rarely sitting. Or if they are, they're suspended from a ceiling upside in what vaguely resembles a chair. Buzz words like "extreme affordability," empathy," "prototype," and "design thinking" are trademarks of a school that appears more like an adult fantasy land upon entrance. Where walls should be are whiteboards with indiscernible flowcharts, scribbles and cartoon-ish doodles. Multicolored Post-its, neon highlighters and prototypes made of index cards, popsicle sticks, paper clips and rubberbands are scattered throughout the school's uniquely styled rooms.