Author: Carolyn Herrera-Perez With changes in digital technology occurring so rapidly, the discreet design of this wearable fitness tracker may well be forgotten in the coming years. In production from only 2011 to 2014, the Jawbone UP tracked the wearer’s steps, workouts, and sleep rhythms. An innovative product, it was the first fitness tracker styled...
Excerpt from Mindy Thompson Fullilove, Molly Rose Kaufman, and Aubrey Murdock's essay “The Aesthetics of Equity: A Magic Strategy for the Healthy City” about the innovative urban renewal efforts in the city of Orange, New Jersey.
Responding to migrant deaths along the Arizona-Mexico border due to dehydration, minister Robin Hoover (along with former Navy engineer Tim Holt) designed a system for placing water in the desert. Their project, Humane Borders Water Stations and Warning Posters, is featured in the exhibition By the People: Designing a Better America, curated by Cynthia Smith, Curator...
A ubiquitous figure in design history, Josef Hoffmann had a career that spanned more than 50 years. The Austrian architect-designer created this chair for the dining room of the Purkersdorf Sanatorium, located just outside Vienna, and built between 1904 and 1906. Hoffmann designed both the sanatorium’s austere exterior and much of its interior. Hoffmann worked...
Last year, our librarian Stephen Van Dyk picked up this slender blue hardcover at a rare book auction. He didn’t know exactly what a “chakra” was, but still he found the worn old book remarkable, if not a bit weird, for its striking illustrations of big painted circles. I was surprised to see this book...
Exhibition Catalog, designed by Michael Bierut and Yve Ludwig of Pentagram Sunday January 9th was the last day of our National Design Triennial, open since May 14th. How can almost nine months go so fast? The show answered the question “Why Design Now?” with 134 examples, assembled from around the world by our curatorial team,...
There was a deluge at dawn on Friday, canceling many trains and tempting people to stay at home, in spite of their commitment to arrive at Jazz at Lincoln Center by 9:00 am for the start of the WHY DESIGN NOW? Solving Global Challenges Conference. Luckily, the event was streamed live, both on CooperHewitt.org...
Over the next two weeks on the Cooper-Hewitt Design Blog, students from an interdisciplinary graduate-level course on the Triennial taught by the Triennial curatorial team blog their impressions and inspirations of the current exhibition,‘Why Design Now?’. This year the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum’s Triennial: Why Design Now? explores topics of sustainable design. Current...
Why? Another billion people, mostly in the developing world, will acquire access to cell phones in the next three years, unleashing a revolution in communications. The Next Billion Network partners students and local organizations to create mobile technologies for this population, expanding opportunities for self-reliance. For example, Mobile Care enables cell phones to become medical...
