New York

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

Sea of Mystery


This design for a stained glass window of a mermaid beneath the sea was commissioned by Associated Artists (the decorating firm of Louis Comfort Tiffany, Candace Wheeler, with (at times) Samuel Colman and Lockwood de Forest) for the Manhattan home of Wells Fargo President Ashbel H.
Elihu Vedder, Louis Comfort Tiffany, Candace Wheeler, Samuel Colman, Lockwood de Forest, Associated Artists, New York, stained glass, drawing

Good Vibrations


Stare into the electric blue shades of this woman’s sunglasses and what do you see?  Even if you know what you are looking for, the blue letterforms come together to form coherent words only with sustained visual focus.  If you were to advertise a concert that you wanted people to come to, would you make it this difficult for your audience to find out about it?  Or could it be that the designer had something else in mind?
Victor Moscoso, San Francisco, The Chambers Brothers, Josef Albers, Herbert Matter, Yale University, Cooper Union, color theory, New York, poster, lithography, Neon Rose, Wes Wilson, Stanley Mouse, Rick Griffin, typography, graphic design

Collegiate Banners, Textile Design


There is no evidence that Tommi Parzinger’s textile design of collegiate banners was ever produced. Nevertheless, the brightly-colored red, blue, yellow and green flags speak to both the designer’s aesthetic and the time period. Throughout the postwar 1950s, as Parzinger’s career in New York took off, a wave of college spirit swept the United States.
textile design, 20th century, Tommi Parzinger, New York

A Deskey Table


Cooper-Hewitt is fortunate to have the archive of renowned American modernist designer, Donald Deskey, as well as a number of Deskey objects, in its collection. A versatile practitioner in many design disciplines—exhibition and interior design, furniture, lighting, and packaging—Deskey was also a pioneer in the field of industrial design.
Donald Deskey, Ypsilanti Reed Furniture Company, Edward Durell Stone, Richard H. Mandel House, Marcel Breuer, Bedford Hills, New York, Radio City Music Hall, Exposition internationale des arts décoratifs et industriels modernes, Art Deco, International Style, modernism

Studios & Workshops Today


craftsmanship, New York, crafts, artisans, ceramics

Craftsmen Preview the 'Sixties: Second Annual Exhibition of Artist-Craftsmen of New York, Inc.


craftsmanship, New York, crafts, artisans

Current Craft Perspectives: Third Annual Exhibition of Artist-Craftsmen of New York, Inc.


craftsmanship, New York, crafts, artisans

Bill's Design Talks: Pentagram


Michael Bierut and Yve Ludwig of Pentagram talk about designing the catalog for the National Design Triennial: Why Design Now?
Michael Bierut, yve ludwig, Pentagram, graphic, triennial exhibit, New York, sustainable, Why Design Now, environment, Chuck Kim, Matilda McQuaid, Bill Moggridge, bills design talks, talk, long, public program

Cooper-Hewitt: Cities for People


For more than forty years Jan Gehl has helped to transform urban environments around the world based on his research into the ways people actually use—or could use—the spaces where they live and work. In this revolutionary book, Cities for People, Gehl presents his latest work creating (or recreating) cityscapes on a human scale. He clearly explains the methods and tools he uses to reconfigure unworkable cityscapes into the landscapes he believes they should be: cities for people.  
smithsonian, cooper-hewitt, National, design, museum, Jan Gehl, cities, Urbanism, Denmark, New York, talk, long, public program

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