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Status Cloth
The sophisticated visual culture of the Kuba kingdom has been noted since the first explorers visited the region. Abstract geometric patterning is deployed across all media, from scarification of the skin to textiles, basketry, pottery, and even the woven walls of noble dwellings. The devices of color alternation, contrast of surface texture, and play of...
The globular body of the pot rests upon a flat base. The swelling sides have a slightly angled shoulder; the body tapers toward a circular mouth. The exterior is painted in a traditional geometric line pattern of a repeating series of interlocking continuous lines arranged in contiguous triangles.
Pottery of Precision
In celebration of Women’s History Month, March Object of the Day posts highlight women designers in the collection. Today’s blog post was written by Rebekah Pollock and originally published November 19, 2016. Lucy Martin Lewis learned to make pottery from her great-Aunt and other women living in Sky City, a remote three hundred foot high sandstone...
Millmosaic
Millmosaic was introduced in 1960, while Alexander Girard was head of the Textile Division at Herman Miller.[1] His work derived from a wide range of sources such as ancient and folk art, however the design for Millmosaic was most likely inspired by his interest in contemporary art, or more specifically, Op Art. The geometry of...
Alternating vibrant yellow and blue lines form staircase-like zigzags diagonally across a cream-colored textile, with horizontal black lines accenting each "stair."
Painterly Effects
Tissu simultané no. 46, a bold geometric design of blue, yellow, and black lines on a white ground, has the hallmark characteristics of Sonia Delaunay’s textiles from the 1920s: contrasting colors with abstract, geometric, or rounded patterns that are block-printed on cotton or silk fabric. In fact, she often printed the same pattern and colorway...
An Elegant Duality
Andean cloth has many meanings. Some are expressed through complex iconographic representations, others employ a strictly geometric vocabulary. Another form of meaning comes from the materiality of the cloth itself and way it was made. This simple cloth is composed of interlocking stepped squares in contrasting colors. The duality of the design, like the Chinese...
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. As baby boomers reach their mid- to late sixties, highway sign legibility has become an...
Do I want an iPad?
Photo: Apple, Inc As the popularity of eBooks and eInk surges, I wonder about the impact on book publishing and ponder the pleasures of traditional paper books. Why would anyone want an electronic book? After all, a beautifully designed and produced paper book is so wonderful! It’s easy to carry around and very robust. The...