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?’. The Capsula Mundi coffin is designed to allow a body to decompose naturally and provide nourishment for a tree...

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?’. Two Clever Triennial Entries Help Us Track Our Energy Consumption The PSA’s have been espousing “The More You Know”...

This past Spring before the Triennial opened, we taught an interdisciplinary graduate-level course offered to MA students in Cooper-Hewitt’s Decorative Arts and Design History program and MFA students in the School of Visual Arts new Design Criticism program. Using the National Design Triennial, Why Design Now?, we introduced key issues associated with curating design exhibitions...

CIID Homepage The Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design offers a sophisticated post-experience program in interaction design, attracting students from Denmark and all over the world, as well as consulting with companies and organizations. They have a lot of really interesting projects on their website spanning a range of sixteen courses. It’s well worth a browse!...

Trove founders Jee Levin and Randall Buck invited Cooper-Hewitt’s Design Watch Members to their environmentally responsible wallcovering atelier for a private visit. Jee and Randall constantly seek new ways to translate this three dimensional, five sensory world into a visual two dimensional language. Their modern photographic wallcoverings break the rules of traditional design. Patterns are...

The third of the grand challenges posed by Secretary Wayne Clough for the new strategic plan of the Smithsonian is explained by the sentence: “As a steward and ambassador of cultural connections, with a presence in some 100 countries and expertise and collections that encompass the globe, we will build bridges of mutual respect, and...

This is the second of the grand challenges posed by Secretary Wayne Clough for the new strategic plan of the Smithsonian, with the explanatory sentence: “We will use our resources across scientific museums and centers to significantly advance our knowledge and understanding of life on earth, respond to the growing threat of environmental change, and...

Cooper-Hewitt’s Design Watch Members visited Steelcase for a private tour of the showroom and sunset reception on the terrace overlooking Columbus Circle. Lew Epstein presented the trends behind media:space, the convergence of furniture and technology, changing the way we think of work spaces as collaborative “destinations”. Members also previewed the Cobi chair, featured in the...

Why? Oceangoing ships present significant health, pollution, and efficiency challenges. The concept vessel E/S Orcelle is designed to be propelled without oil. Made of lightweight materials, it relies on energy sources obtained at sea—solar energy collected through photovoltaic panels in the sails, wind energy obtained through propulsion sails, and wave energy from fins, which can...

Subway car interior I lived in New York for a few months in 1965, when people were afraid to stand on a station platform alone, or board a train without protection from friends, and there was a police officer in every car. What a contrast from this week, when I rode the Lexington Avenue Express...

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...

On September 28, Design Life Now will open at the Boston Institute of Comtemporary Art (ICA) in Boston, where it will be on view through January 6. The installation is being designed by Michael Meredith, who is featured in the exhibition. Hear Michael talk about his work on our Triennial podcast. For those of us...

One of the themes looked at in the Triennial is the rise of graphic design as a consumer product. It used to be that graphic design was strictly a business-to-business service. Now, everyday citizens have access to professional quality software, fonts, printing services, and more. It’s a whole new world out there. One example of...

The magazine Make, featured in Design Life Now, bills itself as a “mook,” a hybrid between a book and a magazine. The smallish paperback size recalls Popular Mechanics from the 1950s. The publishers of Make are using the same format concept for their new magazine Craft:. Why the book format? Nostalgia aside, these bookish little...

Recently released is The Word It Book, a collection of visual submissions to the blog Speak Up. “Word It” is one of SpeakUp’s most popular and original features. Each month, a different word is posted on the site, and anyone who so desires can submit a visual/verbal interpretation. (Selections from Word It are on view...