See how 3D printing works in this short video. The machine shown is a 3DS Cube, which uses extruded ABS plastic. This demonstration is courtesy of Alex Benham at 3D Systems. This “part” took about 8 hours to design and print. About this series: Design Dictionary is a new Cooper Hewitt video series that vividly...
See how weaving works in this short video. Weaver Cynthia Alberto demonstrates a simple weaving project using a standard floor loom. She is working at Weaving Hand, the studio she founded in Brooklyn, New York City. This scarf took about 8 hours total to weave. About this series: Design Dictionary is a new Cooper Hewitt...
It is easy to miss the highlights when you don’t know where to look. At Design Miami/ 2012, there were many, and the guided tours I led sought to help visitors navigate the fair by taking a deep dive into the content, illuminating themes and historical continuity in the contemporary work. What follow are five...
In this ten-minute gallery tour, curator Ellen Lupton talks about indie publishing, typographic spectacle, non-normative software use, and design as fiction. The exhibition explores some of the most vibrant sectors and genres of graphic design from 2000 to the present. Last day to catch this exhibition is September 3rd, 2012.
Nominations for the 2011 National Design Awards are now open! Conceived by the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt to honor the best in American design, the Awards are now in their twelfth year. This year the nomination process is open to the public for the first time. The categories are Lifetime Achievement, Design Mind, Corporate and Institutional Achievement,...
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...
On May 14, 2009, Cooper-Hewitt opens Design for a Living World, an exhibition developed by The Nature Conservancy, one of the world’s leading conservation organizations. As part of our partnership with TNC, Cooper-Hewitt met the challenge of publishing a companion book that would emphasize the exhibition’s principal themes: sustainable design and materials, and responsible conservation...
At the end of the introduction to the Multiple Choice exhibition, the curator reflects that, “as contemporary design industries move to open-sourcing and electronic formats for the marketing of their products, physical samples may soon become obsolete.” From a future academic and archival view point, this is a sad possibility, as material sampling formats contain...
The makers of Make, the techie-geek D.I.Y. magazine featured in the Triennial, have a new publication out, now in its third issue, called Craft:. This hip and beautiful little zine got me thinking about the craft revolution, which has reinvigorated the lives of design professionals as well as the lives of a vast and passionate...
