A sleek table consisting of a slender arc joining two legs and a table top. The table is deep red in color and from the table top descends a column of 32 stylized black feathers.
Year of Glass: Feathers from Volcanic Glass
Gloria Cortina creates stylized feathers from black obsidian in contemporary homage to Mexico's past and present cultures.
Read Time
5 minutes
Posted By
Jessica Walthew
Date
September 30, 2022
Eyeglass-like frame with a simple band on the left earpiece and on the right earpiece a glass prism and plastic housing for a camera and other technical elements.
Year of Glass: Google Glass
In Google Glasses, glass interfaces with digital technology to augment the world around us.
Read Time
4 minutes
Posted By
Sarah Barack
Date
August 31, 2022
A round-cornered gray television screen suspended on a rounded brass bracket. The bracket is centered on a beige, rectangular platform.
Year of Glass: Picture in a Tube
Once a ubiquitous staple of home entertainment, CRT televisions were a technical marvel. Learn about the physics and engineering that made the transmitted moving image possible with the help of glass.
Read Time
4 minutes
Posted By
Sarah Barack
Date
July 29, 2022
A number of pink flowers with green, spiky stems and leaves dance on an untreated, cream-colored paper.
Florals by Sophia
Sophia Crownfield's delicate floral drawings informed her range of patented wallcoverings and textiles for a variety of manufacturers.
Read Time
5 minutes
Posted By
Kimberly Randall
Date
July 13, 2022
A group of transparent, colorless, starburst-shaped glass trophies sit on a black background.
Year of Glass: Cooper Hewitt’s National Design Awards
Learn how the iconic National Design Awards trophies at made in glass.
Read Time
4 minutes
Posted By
Sarah Barack
Date
June 29, 2022
A moody black-and-white photograph shows the exterior of a Southern-style mansion with tall white columns and a porch chair. On a splotch of bright orange, the title BABY DOLL appears in letters made of yellow dots. The author’s name appears at the bottom in all caps: TENNESSEE WILLIAMS.
Tennessee Williams and the Art of the Book Cover
Alvin Lustig and Elaine Lustig Cohen designed covers for many works by Tennessee Williams that employ type and image to build an emotional setting for the text.
Read Time
7 minutes
Posted By
Ellen Lupton
Date
June 29, 2022
Layers of blue and purple lines and shapes form the symmetrical background of a photomontage of a nude man, pictured from behind, with large butterfly wings. The word "LOVE" is repeated on the bottom in yellow on either side of the background shape.
An Avant-Garde Argentine: Edgardo Giménez
Designer Edgardo Giménez synthesized a variety of artistic styles to establish one of his own, a style that he blended with provocative imagery (including his own nudity) to produce graphics that both captured a moment in Argentine history and created a tool for self-promotion.
Read Time
4 minutes
Posted By
Christina L. De León
Date
June 22, 2022
Side-by-side posters with oval portraits of male military personnel in uniform.
To Die For: Posters Against Homophobic Violence, 1993
The tragic murder of Allen R. Schindler inspired Marlene McCarty and Donald Moffet to take a stand against anti-gay violence through graphic design.
Read Time
4 minutes
Posted By
Ellen Lupton
Date
June 10, 2022
The finished Art Clock displayed on a horizontal tablet sitting on a light wood shelf with books to the right and a Christmas cactus to the left. The Art Clock shows a close cropped etching of a medieval figure with the minute hand pointed to their chin (at 30 past the hour) and the hour hand a 1pm, corresponding to the angle of the figure's eyes.
Design Retrospective: Art Clock
This article is part of a series of Design Retrospectives on the prototypes commissioned by Cooper Hewitt’s Interaction Lab as part of Activating Smithsonian Open Access. It was written by Zander Brimijoin, Creative Director and Partner at Red Paper Heart. Experience the Art Clock through your web browser, and help source times of your own!...
Read Time
13 minutes
Posted By
Rachel Ginsberg
Date
June 2, 2022