Emily Pilloton gave up making the world a safer, saner place for fashion, and instead moved into an Airstream to make the world a better place. Pilloton, and her life and business partner Matthew Miller recently hit the road in an Airstream trailer. They’re enjoying the trip, but mostly they’re spreading the word that good design can change the world. The couple is hoping the 7,000-mile trip to 35 high schools and colleges in 15 states in 75 days will do just that.

Their goal is simple: To spread the word that good design can change the world. It’s a combination traveling exhibition, book tour, lecture series, creative recruiting tour. Once they return to California, and then move to North Carolina however – they plan to continue to make the Airstream “home.”

“We’re living in it, working out of it and traveling in it,” Pilloton said. “We spend a lot of time in the Airstream.”

The Airstream was really the impetus for the book tour that sparked the round the country in an RV idea.  
“I finished the book (Design Revolution) and the publisher was asking me what I wanted to do about a book tour. Matt and I were joking around about it and he said maybe we should take it on the road, put everything in the Airstream and tour schools with it. It started out as a joke but then it seemed like a really, really good idea – so here we are.”

She and Miller hope the combination book tour, design lecture, and hands on opportunity to experience useful design will inspire students. They’d like to see students and teachers at all levels think about things they can create and problems they can solve with good design. She’s not pushing “better toasters,”

“People have a lot of stuff,” she said. “But there’s more to design that stuff that just looks great sitting on a table. It should have a purpose. It should make life better in some way and not be design just for design’s sake.”

One of those designs, which doesn’t just look good, but actually does good is the “Hippo Roller.” It’s an affordable plastic barrel that can be pushed along the ground with a roller. It’s not really anything to put on your holiday wish list unless you’re a woman in South Africa and you want a way to transport water from remote sources back to your village efficiently, and less painfully than carrying a jar on your head or shoulders. Or, you’re a camper in a very rural or remote area and want a way to move 40 gallons of water from a water source back to your site over rough, uneven ground.

Pilloton demonstrated the hippo by wheeling one around the stage during an appearance on Steven Colbert’s “The Colbert Report” on Comedy Central.

It’s not the only gizmo and gadget Pilloton and Miller have to show. They’ve filled the vintage Airstream they’re towing behind a pickup with 40 more gadgets and cool things that can make the world a bit more livable. All of the items on display have been taken from Pilloton’s book, “Design Revolution: 100 Products That Empower People” (Metropolis Books, 2009.)  The book has more than 100 objects, including safer baby bottles, a high-tech waterless washing machine, low-cost prosthetics for landmine victims, Braille-based Lego-style building blocks for blind children, and even do-it-yourself soccer balls.