Gail S. Davidson

Designer (Advertised) Jeans While recent advertising has been overwhelmingly digital, the contemporary graphic designer and former National Design Award winner, Stefan Sagmeister, relishes the opportunity to use his considerable graphic talent and imagination to create posters the traditional way, through photo offset lithography. These posters are deliberately human and personal, in response to the “cold” modernist design of some of his colleagues. In general, Sagmeister searches for ideas that elicit sensual or emotional responses from the viewer. Sagmeister Inc., Stefan Sagmeister, Levi's, Denim, jeans, thread, clothing, graphic design, Los Angeles, San Francisco, advertising, poster, offset lithography
Searching for Perfection Richard Meier’s Getty Center, which sits atop a hill in Santa Monica, is, arguably, the last great building of the 20th century. While some liken the complex to a fortified Tuscan hill town, and Meier himself says that he was thinking of Hadrian’s Villa in Tivoli or the Villa Farnese in Caprarola, it reminds me of another ancient hilltop complex, the Parthenon. Richard Meier, J. Paul Getty Center, Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Hadrian, Tivoli, Villa Farnese, Caprarola, Parthenon, Athens, Le Corbusier, Architecture, San Diego Freeway, stone, GRiD, Getty Research Institute, construction, drawing
Gertrude Stein's Brother Collects Architecture Among the most important 20th-century architectural drawings in Cooper-Hewitt’s collection, this work presents four sketches for a suburban Paris two-family villa, commissioned by the modern art collectors, Michael and Sarah Stein (brother and sister-in-law of Gertrude Stein), and their close friend Gabrielle de Monzie. While De Monzie wasn’t especially interested in architecture, she still paid for Michael Stein’s experimental adventure in an avant-garde home. Villa Stein-de Monzie, Gabrielle de Monzie, Michael Stein, Sarah Stein, Gertrude Stein, Pavilion de l’Esprit Nouveau, 1925 Paris Exposition, Le Corbusier, Architecture, Museum of Modern Art, Calvin S. Hathaway, The Cooper Union Museum for the Arts of Decoration, La Terraces, elevations, drawings, paris
Behind Closed Doors: How Royalty Lived in Nineteenth-Century Paris Hilaire Thierry’s exquisite drawing, Salon in the Restoration Taste, from the early 1820s, is one of more than 70 19th-century European interiors from Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum that are on view at the Musée de la Vie Romantique through January 15, 2013. The exhibition, Intérieurs Romantiques, highlig Hilaire Thierry, 19th century, interiors, France, drawing, Musée de la Vie Romantique, Queen Victoria, Prince Albert, Château de Saint-Cloud, Louis XVIII, Duc and Duchesse de Berry
Object of the Month: Design for Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts This drawing was architect Rafael Viñoly’s presentation concept sketch for Verizon Hall, home of the Philadelphia Orchestra, as it appears from the west. Watercolors are an integral part of Viñoly’s working process, used in the early design stages to formalize his organizing concepts. Following the watercolors, more precise drawings present the actual resolution of the design. Object of the Month, drawing, watercolor, Rafael Viñoly, architect, Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Verizon Hall
Frederic Church Collection featured at the Met's new American wing Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum’s collection of over 2,000 oil sketches and graphite drawings by Frederic Church was mentioned recently in the New York Times in connection with the reopening of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s American Wing. Frederic Church, painter, sketches, oil, drawings, graphite, 19th century, landscape, American, Hudson River School, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Clearview Project Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum has just acquired its first digital font, the Clearview family of typefaces. Featured in Cooper-Hewitt’s 2010 National Design Triennial: Why Design Now? exhibition, Clearview is a beautiful example of design as a form of social activism. font, digital, Clearview, type design, Donald Meeker, James Montalbano, acquisition, highway sign, signage, legibility, readability, visibility, contrast, drivers, seniors
Two Matters of Importance Two articles in the May issue of Dwell magazine have special resonance for Cooper-Hewitt’s followers. The first, “Printed Matter” by Aaron Britt, concerns the life and work of the Swiss-born graphic designer Herbert Matter; the second, “20th-Century Fox” by Leslie Williamson, discusses the collaboration of Eero Saarinen, Alexander Girard, and Dan Kiley on the seminal J. Irwin Miller house in Columbus, IN. Herbert Matter, graphic designer, collaboration, Eero Saarinen, Alexander Girard, textiles, Dan Kiley, Miller house, Dwell
Live Well Collaborative I recently returned from Cincinnati, where I gave a talk on the early career of Donald Deskey, whose archive is held at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. I was asked to speak by the University of Cincinnati and by Deskey Associates, headquartered in Cincinnati, in conjunction with their joint installation on Donald Deskey’s design career. Donald Deskey, Industrial Designer, packaging design, archive, Cincinnati, Live Well collaborative, project, initiative, case study, hospital gown
Typography: Digital Fonts Have you ever considered how many fonts there are in the font menu on your computer? typography, digital, fonts, graphic design, choice, advertising, technology, variety, variations, installation, recent acquisitions, digital typography