This holiday greeting was designed by Evan Roth, winner of the 2012 National Design Award for Interaction Design, for Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum
Float. Designed by Snarkitecture, 2012. Volume Gallery. As a curator focused on contemporary design, one of the things I seek out is trends. At this year’s Design Miami/, opening December 5th, one of many trends I’m already spotting is the unexpected. Designers are challenging our eye, whether through their material choices, forms, or program, confounding...
This perspective tour de force dazzles the eye with the complexities of its illusionistic architecture. The story behind the work is equally compelling. When the magnificent Church of Saint Ignatius Loyola was constructed in Rome during the late 16th-century Counter Reformation, the newly founded Jesuit order was trying to solicit the faithful to their cause. They believed that...
“Cavagnole!” This is something we might hear today if this 18th-century game still being played. Cavagnole, a pre-modern version of bingo, was much more than just an ordinary board game—its aesthetic appeal reflected the culture, beauty, and art forms revered in the height of its popularity. As an extremely simple yet intricately-built set piece, this...
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....
This catalog and sample book, circa 1930, contains needle and sewing items manufactured by The Dominion Steel and Coal Corporation (DOSCO), a Canadian coal mining and steel manufacturing company. Included are more than 50 steel sewing, crocheting, and knitting needles and safety pins. Some are even in their original packaging. Brief captions, images, illustrations, and item numbers...
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...
I love the fact that this Tiffany lamp was purchased by the Carnegies, and that Cooper-Hewitt is located in their former house—a Fifth Avenue mansion completed in 1902. Old photos of the interiors of the Carnegie mansion show that the Carnegies were avid enthusiasts of Tiffany glass lamps, which appear in almost every room. It...
The German wallpaper company Rasch, founded in 1897, produced the original Bauhaus wallpapers in 1929. For their 1992 Zeitwande collection, Rasch commissioned eleven different designs from nine internationally-recognized designers, including Memphis Group designers Ettore Sottsass, Nathalie du Pasquier, and Alessandro Mendini, and Czech architect and designer, Bořek Šipek. Šipek contributed Zed (Czech for wall) to Rasch’s...
From the Object of the Day archives, the history of a Donald Deskey end table, an important example of the American modernist's tubular metal furniture.
Dorothy Draper is one of the best-known and most-loved decorators of the 20th century. With no formal design training, Draper decorated her own homes and those of her friends before opening her own design firm, Dorothy Draper & Co., in 1925. In 1939, she wrote Decorating Is Fun: How To Be Your Own Decorator, which...
Weaver and designer Dorothy Liebes owed much of her success to her ability to create textiles that complemented and enhanced mid-century modern architecture. Using windows to bring the outside in was an integral part of the period’s new design for living. Multiple large windows became a standard feature in new homes, often replacing fireplaces as...
In 1999, Stefen Sagmeister (1962- ), founder of Sagmeister and Walsh Inc., carved text into his own body with an X-Acto knife. His dedication to his projects and his willingness to communicate with the audience are shown in his startling depictions of sexuality, pain, and uncanny humor. By pushing the boundaries of graphic design, he...
The granite and glass Ford Foundation Headquarters Building on East 42nd Street in Manhattan was designed by Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo Associates. Completed in 1967, the building is an icon of International Style Modernism. New York Times critic Ada Louise Huxtable hailed the building, with its sky-lit atrium and lush indoor garden, as “12 stories...
Acorn is an early digital print by Francesco Simeti. The format is based on the print room papers fashionable in England in the mid-18th century. This trend began with the pasting of actual prints on the wall, which were then outlined with narrow wallpaper borders. Manufacturers picked up on this trend and started designing wallpaper...
