Erin Feher

For Emily Pilloton, early success in the design world didn’t mean unveiling a $20,000 sofa or landing an architecture commission for the newest museum. Instead of falling in line as a disciple of high design, Pilloton has utilized her degrees in product design and architecture toward more humanitarian ends, from creating low-cost play structures that help schoolchildren in the Dominican Republic learn basic math, to working with homeless women in Los Angeles to design purses that open into hammocks.

When Amanda Adams dreamed of being an archaeologist, she pictured something more Indiana Jones than library-locked academic. So when she saw the results of her year-long digs being transcribed into esoteric tomes that were bound to gather dust on college library shelves, she decided to start her own company with the aim of sharing her historical discoveries with a wider audience.

Rupa Marya leads something of a double life; when she’s not tending to patients as a resident physician at UCSF, she’s selling out local clubs and touring the world with her band Rupa & the April Fishes. The Fishes have a busy summer planned: After an American and European tour, they return home to release their sophomore album, Este Mundo, in October. If their debut effort, last year’s Extraordinary Rendition, with its Gypsy-Latin-Euro grooves, is any indication, we have lots to look forward to.

This city's known for food, obviously, but we've got some top notch restaurant architecture going on as well. Five San Francisco restaurants made California Home + Design's 10 Best Restaurant Designs in California list. Hats off to the designers of Conduit, Farina, Gitane, Spruce and Spork.

Here's their list:

1. Conduit in San Francisco Designed by (Stanley Saitowitz)

2. Katsuya in Glendale (Designed by Starck Network/DesignARC)