2011. Designer/Editor: Ms. Liz Granger. Courtesy: Technology for Tomorrow Ltd. Interlocking Stabilized Soil Blocks (ISSB), an affordable and environmentally sustainable alternative to fired bricks, are made from soil stabilized with 5% cement, compressed in manually operated machines, and dried in the sun.
2011. Editor: Bas Hoefman. Courtesy of Text to Change. Text to Change partners with national governments, United Nations agencies, mobile-communication providers, for-profit companies, and NGOs to design free, accessible health, education, economic-development, and transparency programs that aim to effect change through customized information and services.
This is the fifth in a series of posts about my new book, Designing Media Chris Anderson, November 2008 I interviewed Chris Anderson in the offices of Wired magazine in San Francisco. He had taken the job of Editor in Chief just before the crash in 2001, so he was faced with hard choices about...
This is the fourth in a series of posts about my new book, Designing Media James Truman, December 2008 I was lucky to be able to interview James Truman in Napa Valley, not so far away from my home base, where he was staying in a visitor’s cottage on the Francis Ford Coppola estate. He...
This is the third in a series of posts about my new book, Designing Media Paul Saffo, July 2008 I put the interview with Paul Saffo at the beginning of the book because he gives such an erudite overview of the changes in media and the challenges faced by the people involved its creation and...
It was an exciting moment for MOUSE Corps Students when a surprise visit from Bill Moggridge left them awestruck and inspired. An innovative youth development program, MOUSE Corps prepares high school students for future educational and professional roles by providing opportunities for in-depth technology projects. One of many programs through MOUSE includes a student-led design...
During the summer of 2010, the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Nike and Make Something!! teamed up for a youth-based education program in celebration of the World Basketball Festival which took place in Rucker Park on August, 12. Youth participated in the ultimate design experience working with top designers from Nike, Jordan, and Converse. Workshops...
The winner of the 2010 Interaction Design award is Lisa Strausfeld. Lisa Strausfeld is an expert at visualizing information. She specializes in digital information-design projects ranging from software prototypes and Web sites to interpretive displays and large-scale media installations for a range of civic, cultural, and corporate clients. Lisa has earned many Design Awards, including...
Bill Moggridge, director of Cooper-Hewitt, was awarded the 2010 Prince Philip Designers Prize Tuesday, Nov. 9. The U.K.’s most prestigious design prize is awarded annually to recognize a lifetime contribution to design. As one of the pioneering designers of the 20th century, the jury, chaired by Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, determined that Moggridge...
Have you ever considered how many fonts there are in the font menu on your computer? Microsoft makes available almost 200 different typefaces. On the Apple machine I have at home there are a similar number. I never would have believed it if I had not counted them myself. Of course these statistics include the...
Have you ever considered how many fonts there are in the font menu on your computer? Microsoft makes available almost 200 different typefaces. On the Apple machine I have at home there are a similar number. I never would have believed it if I had not counted them myself. Of course these statistics include the...
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...
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...
High Ground Conversationalists I went to Colorado last week for the High Ground Conversation at Mike and Kathy McCoy’s place in the mountains. Every year they invite fifteen to twenty design academics and practitioners to come together for three days to talk about what’s happening in design. Everyone brings a short presentation that they deliver...
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?’. There is no shortage of practical objects in the 2010 Triennial. You will see everything from noble solutions for...