National Design Awards

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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.
Image of Susannah Drake, Mark Chambers, and Susan Szenasy
Design Salon: Designing Sustainable Cities
As climate change reshapes the planet, how can design advance solutions that promote a healthy, sustainable future for all? In this salon, the inaugural winner of the 2020 National Design Award for Climate Action, Susannah Drake (Founding Principal, dlandstudio) for the Sponge Park, is joined by 2017 National Design Award winner Susan Szenasy (former editor-in-chief,...
2020 National Design Awards Gala
Cooper Hewitt is proud to announce the 2020 National Design Award winners at our first-ever virtual gala, hosted by Bobby Berk, interior design expert and Emmy-nominated host of Netflix’s Queer Eye. Congratulations to all the winners!   Proceeds fund National Design Month programs and Cooper Hewitt’s work to educate, inspire, and empower people through design...
Banner type image of 4 portraits: from l to r: Jeffrey Mansfield, Craig Wilkins, Bon Ku, and Maurice Cox
Designing Equitable Healthy Cities
Design is all around us—our cities, homes, and even our healthcare systems are products of design choices. As the U.S. simultaneously faces a global pandemic and a crucial movement for racial equity, designers must consider: if design is problem-solving, then what is the responsibility of design in facilitating lasting change? This online conversation examines the...
Image of Pinar Guvenc, Derek Lam and Patricia Moore, 2019 NDA winners, sitting together on stage, all in dark grey and black clothing, with a dark background, Derek holds a microphone with one hand and gestures with the other
2019 National Design Awards in Detroit
Ruki Neuhold-Ravikumar, Director of Education at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum moderates a panel with 2019 National Design Award winners: Pinar Guvenc, Open Style Lab (Emerging Designer Award) Derek Lam (Fashion Design Award) Patricia Moore (Design Mind Award) This panel was held as part of Include, a biennial international conference that focuses on issues central...
Tobias, a white man around forty with dark hair, dark eyes, wearing black-framed glasses and a black polo shirt. He's slightly smiling with his mouth closed.
NDA 20 YRS | Q&A with Tobias Frere-Jones
Tobias Frere-Jones, winner of the 2019 National Design Award for Communication Design, is one of the world’s leading typeface designers, creating some of the most widely used typefaces, including Interstate, Poynter Oldstyle, Whitney, Gotham, Surveyor, Tungsten, and Retina. He started designing letterforms in 1986 at the age of 16 and became a professional type designer...
Two architects in business clothing. Lisa is a smiling Asian-American woman in her thirties. Craig is a tall white man with short white hair
NDA 20 YRS | Q&A with Lisa Iwamoto and Craig Scott
IwamotoScott Architecture, winner of the 2019 National Design Award for Interior Design, is a San Francisco-based architecture and design firm founded by Lisa Iwamoto and Craig Scott in 2000. Committed to pursuing architecture as a form of applied design research, the firm believes that each project can achieve a unique design synthesis. Conceptual themes of...
Tinker is in a design studio. A white man in his sixties or seventies, he wears a hip brown fedora, cool glasses, a nice patterned shirt, and a blue vest.
NDA 20 YRS | Q&A with Tinker Hatfield
Tinker Hatfield is the recipient of the 2019 National Design Award for Product Design. After studying architecture at the University of Oregon, where he was coached by Nike co-founder Bill Bowerman, Hatfield joined Nike in 1981 and currently serves as vice president of creative concepts. Known for his inventive imagination, relentless drive toward improved performance...
Patricia Moore, a white woman with a brown bob haircut in her sixties, stands near an architectural waterfall. Her arms are folded and her head tilted forward. She's wearing a purple tunic layered over a 3/4 sleeve length black tee.
NDA 20 YRS | Q&A with Patricia Moore
Patricia Moore is the recipient of the 2019 National Design Award for Design Mind. From 1979 to 1982, Moore traveled throughout North America disguised as elder women—her body altered to simulate the normal sensory changes associated with aging—to better respond to people, products and environments. Moore’s clients include Johnson & Johnson, Maytag, NASA, OXO, Pfizer,...