Cooper-Hewitt Staff   T-Shirt Design I was surprised when I arrived at work yesterday morning when Pete (Ron Petersen), who makes the place clean and ready everyday, said cheerfully, “Great day for a photo-op!” I had no idea what he was talking about. It made sense in the middle of the morning, when Jennifer Northrop,...

Design for the Other 90% opens in Toronto, Canada at Ontario College of Art and Design’s Professional Gallery October 4, 2008 through January 25, 2009. In addition to the exhibition at OCAD, the Design Exchange will present a complementary program of exhibits and events as part of Design for the Other 90%. Announcement from ArtForum,...

Cooper-Hewitt invites you to submit ideas for our fourth Triennial exhibition, opening in 2010. We are looking for designers, firms, and projects from around the world that answer the question “Why design now?” Why is design an essential tool for solving some of today’s most urgent problems? What draws creative thinkers, makers, and problem solvers...

International Development Enterprises’ founder Paul Polak has just released his much anticipated book Out of Poverty, What Works When Traditional Approaches Fail. Based on his 25 years of experience he tells why traditional poverty eradication programs have fallen short and how his alternative approach works. Paul’s work and dedication to developing practical design solutions that...

Nutrition in Bolivia Positive Deviance Study In this growing area of design innovations are evident in numerous forms. Not limited to current technologies these designers sample from current, emerging and out-moded technologies to provide low cost effective solutions to benefit the poor and marginalized. Working across disciplines and sectors they partner in innovative ways. They...

Many families are still crowded into one-bedroom FEMA trailers even 2 years after Hurricane Katrina devastated the US Gulf Coast. The Building Goodness Foundation has been providing relief to these cramped conditions building extra rooms for storage or a living room, even an extra bedroom. Over 150 of these extra rooms have been built in...

Though we knew that we may find it tough to ship several of the objects, our registrars and exhibitions department have had to make extraordinary efforts to make arrangements to bring objects from remote areas around the world. In the beginning of March we received an email from Nigeria. Mohammed Bah Abba, the designer of...