Last December we featured regional designers who create unique, user-friendly art (“Function with Flair,” Allison Joy, December 2014).

Here is a look at what they have been up to this past year.

Movie-going is about magic, and that’s what Barco is trying to create by reimagining the modern movie screen.

According to a recent article, millennials are not frugal when it comes to company cash. Recent research shows that millennials spend more money on business trips than either gen X or baby boomers — on costly expenses ranging from flight upgrades to hotel room service.

Give David Hardie credit. The owner of the building and restaurant that was named Enotria for two decades went “all in,” as he says, on trying to make that spot exciting and a draw to diners.

Sacramento may not be the TV and movie hotspot that places like Austin or Atlanta have become, but on the set of one locally-produced film being made in El Dorado Hills, optimism is high for the greater Sacramento area to develop a burgeoning filmmaking scene.

Wine tasting is often an experience shared only by the taster and pourer. A brewery tasting room, however, needs to facilitate the gregariously social aspects of craft beer, making space for interaction and mingling. Room to brew, room to chat and room to sample flights of beer make for highly dynamic spaces that bring to life the distinct personalities of brewers and their art.

Sacramento State has long been known as a campus rich in cultural diversity. According to the U.S. News & World Report, it is the 15th most diverse campus in the west, while Collegefactual.com ranks it 24th in the nation. Robert Nelsen, Sac State’s new president, says that diversity is precisely why he came to the university.

Where in your local supermarket do you find the curry leaves? How about dumplings filled with red bean paste, or maybe smoked duck. Does your local grocer have fresh menudo, warm tortillas right out of the oven, or miso broth prepared that morning on-site? Independent grocery stores focused on specific ethnic cuisines are thriving in Sacramento, enjoying a boom in customers from beyond their base cultural markets.

Yesterday afternoon I had the pleasure of being one of about 30 “thought leaders” invited to a private performance by the Sacramento Ballet as they proved that, indeed, ballet is back.