Ellen Lupton

Fractions How does a critic design textiles? With a typewriter, of course! Bernard Rudofsky was one of design’s great polymath thinkers. The exhibitions he organized in mid-century New York provoked designers to look at the world in new ways. Trained as an architect in his native Moravia (present day Austria), he was not licensed to practice architecture in the United States. He went on to have an enormously influential career as a curator, writer, critic, exhibition designer, and even fashion designer. Bernard Rudofsky, New York, Schiffer Prints, typewriters, GRiD
Light Years Michael Bierut, Nicole Trice, Tobias Frere-Jones, Josef Müller-Brockmann, Ed Ruscha, Pentagram, Architectural League of New York, film, graphic design, poster
Corporate Calico: Angelo Testa’s Fabric for IBM When IBM premiered its boxy, geometric logotype in 1956, designed by Paul Rand, the idea of a coordinated corporate identity system was just taking off. Indeed, Rand’s logo design set the mark for a new standard of graphic communication in business. A corporate identity was intended to be more than a logo, however: it was conceived as a broader program encompassing signage, letterheads, packaging, publications, and more. IBM, Angelo Testa, branding, logos, Paul Rand, William Golden, CBS
Alvin Lustig’s Incantation Although his career was tragically short, Alvin Lustig was among America’s most influential mid-century graphic designers. Textiles like Incantation (1947) reflect a rich multidisciplinary practice that encompassed furniture, graphics, architecture, and animation. After studying design and printing at Los Angeles Junior College, Lustig started creating geometric patterns in the medium of letterpress in the early 1930s. Alvin Lustig, Laverne Originals, Paul Klee, Joan Miro, Elaine Lustig Cohen, textiles
A Poster by Michiel Schuurman Every summer, hundreds of thousands of visitors travel by ferry to Governors Island, a former Coast Guard outpost that has become one of New York City’s most popular public parks. In summer 2012, Cooper-Hewitt was proud to host our exhibition, Graphic Design: Now In Production, on Governors Island, and I was proud to be among the organizing curators. Michiel Schuurman, Graphic Design: Now in Production, posters, graphic design, 21st century
Abacus Among the most influential books in the history of American graphic design is Paul Rand’s Thoughts on Design, published in 1947. Covering the jacket of this ground-breaking manifesto of modernist theory and practice is a series of oblong dots arranged in uneven rows, rendered in translucent shades of gray. The image is based on a photogram, made by exposing a wood-and-wire abacus to a sheet of photographic paper. At once abstract and recognizable, the photogram is a direct imprint of a physical object. textiles, graphic design, abacus, Paul Rand, photogram, L. Anton Maix
New Digital Type: Restraint One of the pieces featured in Cooper-Hewitt’s “Digital Typography” installation is a booklet published by Fox River paper company in 2006, showcasing the masterful lettering designs of Marian Bantjes, a designer living off the coast of Vancouver. digital, type, typography, font, recent acquisitions, digital typography, installation, graphic design, type design, post-modern, gail davidson, curator, Ellen Lupton, contemporary, typefaces, Marian Bantjes, Restraint, sinuous, Modular
"Green" Exhibition Design Most people go to exhibitions to look at the objects. Eggheads go to read the labels. Design geeks (and museum professionals like myself) want to study the installation itself. Design for a LIving World, Exhibition, design, Pentagram, sustainable, practices, images, Ami Vitale, photojournalist, aluminum, panels, reflection, light, biodegradable, direct-to-substrate-dye-sublimation, printing, embed, durable, scratch-resistant, recyclable, shingles, Jeremy Hoffman, graphic designer, models, montages, expense, comparison, materials, reduction, Open, scaffolds, informal, techniques, FSC, certified, Medite II, fiberboard, recovered, formaldehyde-free, resin, Chul R KIm
Feeding Desire Goes to Delaware Just in time for the marathon eating season to begin, Cooper-Hewitt’s exhibition Feeding Desire: Design and the Tools of the Table is open at the Winterthur, a fantastic museum of decorative arts located in Delaware’s Brandywine Valley. Feeding Desire, Exhibition, tableware, Winterthur, Brandywine Valley, Delaware, collection, Study Day, sarah coffin, curator, special events
Slideshow: Celebrating Design at the White House On Monday, July 14, Mrs. Laura Bush hosted the winners and finalists of the 2008 National Design Awards at a brunch reception at the White House. National Design Awards, nda, 2008, winners, finalists, reception, White House, Washington, DC, First Lady, Laura Bush, presentation, national seal, Charles Harrison, lifetime achievement, Sears, principals, Olin Partnership, landscape design, gala