Back in January, we passed on news of the sparkling new pay-per-use public toilet, the first of its kind in New York City, in Pentagram's backyard—that is, Madison Square Park. The self-cleaning Jetsonian marvel, which features Paula Scher's endlessly versatile identity for the park and which we lovingly referred to as Pentagram's "intern toilet," is a hit!

According to The New York Times, the seven-month-old, newsstand-sized, "high-end outhouse...has proved to be a popular attraction, with about five people each hour popping in a quarter to use it during its hours of operation, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m." (But how does the City employee tasked with emptying the coffers resist the urge to "reinvest" those quarters at the nearby Shake Shack?)

Constructed by Spanish firm Cemusa, the toilet is the first of 20 slated for New York. And while the pioneering Madison Square Park version is a success with most people, one architect was befuddled by its workings. According to the Times, "Jayson Durango, 27, a regular user of Starbucks and Quiznos bathrooms when he is on the go, said he was confused by the array of buttons inside the toilet—one to flush, one for emergencies, another to open the door."

Design is everywhere. Increasingly, it's becoming accessible to everyone. UnBeige will examine the social and cultural impact of design, without getting too highbrow about it.

I am not a designer myself, but I've worked with designers for years and years, and know well how integral good design is to creating a good experience for an audience. That audience might be reading a web site, looking at a magazine, walking into a retail establishment, or buying a Metrocard in a subway station - wherever they are design is a critical component to their emotional reaction, to their ability to parse information and to how memorable their experience is overall.

The goal of UnBeige.com is to expose the process of design to a broader audience. We'll have interviews with prominent designers, industry gossip & rumors, crits of newly unveiled projects, magazine roundups and, of course, links to interesting design information elsewhere on the web. As with any good blog, a lot of the stuff we post will come from our readers. Email your suggestions to jen AT unbeige DOT com.