This striking drawing, titled Altar Mensa for the Borghese Chapel in the Santa Maria Maggiore, is by a lesser known but influential architect, Mario Asprucci the Younger.  Using water color paint to achieve vibrant illustrations of various, colored marbles and metals, Asprucci captures the architecture’s sumptuous materials and allegorical themes. The Borghese Chapel was originally...

Using design objects from the current exhibition Energizing the Everyday: Gifts from the George R. Kravis II Collection and works from Cooper Hewitt’s collection, Curatorial Director Cara McCarty examines how scientific inquiry, technology, and our persistent fascination with manipulating materials—from plastics and aluminum to silicon chips and LCDs—have impacted modern industrial design, as well as...

At first glance, this graphic field of squares looks almost like an abstract painting. Although this advertisement targeted scientists, designer Elaine Lustig Cohen captures the attention of laypeople and experts alike. Created in 1958 for the oilfield services company Schulberger, the ad promotes the company’s Sonic Log, a device for the identification of soil properties....

DesignBoost NYC was a two-day design conference held at Cooper-Hewitt in June 2011. Thirteen speakers specializing in everything from biomechanics to filmmaking addressed the conference’s theme, “Design Beyond Design” in this series of short talks.

For those concerned with the impact and lifecycle of construction materials, BEES is a new design tool that helps designers and consumers make informed decisions. Construction and manufacturing have a significant effect on the environment. Cooper-Hewitt’s Exhibitions department specifies, purchases, and uses many materials in our exhibits. We strive to be as environmentally sensitive as...

Fernando and Humberto Campana take a low-tech, artisanal approach to design, employing sustainable, readily available, and often recycled materials to craft high design. Together, the two brothers have designed idiosyncratic, evocative, and sometimes humorous works for Edra and H. Stern, among others. Held in conjunction with the opening of Campana Brothers Select: Works from the...

Aptly described by one blogger as “Home Depot from the future,” Inventables is a store unlike any other. The materials vendor sells unusual and unreal-sounding stuff, from rubber glass to translucent concrete. Their website is intended to help designers, artists and inventors “streamline the process of innovation and explore what’s possible.” Shape memory polymer that...

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,...

In any given day, we touch or handle thousands of different materials that are fundamental to our daily lives: a clay pot to hold the food for our dinner, a plastic toothbrush to perform our morning regimen, and a wool sweater to keep us warm and protected. Facing a simultaneous decrease in resources and an...

Designed by Patrick Jouin (French, born 1967), Manufactured by Materialise NV, Leuven, Belgium, 2004, Epoxy resin, Museum purchase from the Members’ Acquisitions Fund of Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, 2009-8-1, Photo: Matt Flynn   As part of Cooper-Hewitt’s efforts to explore and document outstanding examples of innovative design, the Museum has begun to collect objects produced...

  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...

  Two significant tools for American designers seeking to make their design process more sustainable have recently been announced. The first tool, which hopefully will have broad and positive implications for manufacturers of outdoor industry goods, is Eco-Index . Basically an assessment tool which evaluates a product’s environmental impact, Eco-Index allows manufacturers to measure six...

Over the last couple of months on the Cooper-Hewitt Design Blog, students from an interdisciplinary graduate-level course on the Triennial taught by the Triennial curatorial team have been blogging their impressions and inspirations of the current exhibition,‘Why Design Now?’ This post by MFA Student William Myers marks the last in this series of articles. A...

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?’.     If there is one design on view at the 2010 Triennial that affects the lives of every...

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?’.   Joe Gebbia is a San Francisco-based industrial designer and self-described “designtrepreneur,” as well as founding partner of the...