To celebrate the opening of Saturated: The Allure and Science of Color, Object of the Day this month will feature colorful objects from the exhibition. This vividly striking sidewall was created by Osborne & Little, a leading name in British fabric and wallpaper designs. Founded in 1968 by Sir Peter Osborne, the 17th Baronet of Ballentaylor,...
To celebrate the opening of Saturated: The Allure and Science of Color (May 11, 2018-January 13, 2019), Object of the Day this month will feature colorful objects from the exhibition. The book Colour Based on Nature, created by Dutch graphic designer Irma Boom, analyzes the color landscape of eighty UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and...
Wrapped in a warm summer haze, a pair of birds, at the center of the composition, overlook a flowing stream surrounded by a flower filled landscape. The famed Windsor Castle idly appears in the background, surveying the quiet scene below. Hushed yellows and greys, in addition to the creamy white background, create an almost ethereal...
This charming frieze doubles as an overview of women’s fashion from the period 1700-1900. It features nine women grouped into trios separated by a curvilinear motif of a flowering vine. On the far left, a woman in simple colonial dress stands next to a woman in mid-eighteenth-century and a woman in late-eighteenth-century garb. The next...
Topographies dazzles our eyes and walls with a trompe l’oeil effect that successfully tricks our senses—the seemingly three-dimensional surface is deceptively flat. To create the pattern, designers stacked multiple sheets of paper and tore away portions of the surface by hand, forming canyon-like valleys of various widths and depths. The wallcovering’s name refers to the...
In celebration of our new exhibition, The Senses: Design Beyond Vision, this Object of the Day post explores the multisensory experience of an object in Cooper Hewitt’s permanent collection. Today’s blog post was written by Greg Herringshaw and originally published on October 22, 2015. Cord #1 is a greatly magnified image of vertical cords or yarn which...
This paper attributed to the wallpaper manufacturer Delicourt depicts the Roman goddess Juno and would have been part of a set of panels that featured members of the Roman pantheon. The accompanying panels would have likely shown Juno’s husband Jupiter as well as two or three other gods, and the whole set would possibly have...
This beautiful sidewall was one of several designed by Kate Faulkner in the 1880s for the wallpaper company Jeffrey & Co. A member of the Arts and Crafts Movement, her pattern reflects the movement’s interest in simple yet pleasing color schemes and motifs drawn from native British wildflowers. These qualities are also typical of Faulkner’s...
In celebration of Women’s History Month, March Object of the Day posts highlight women designers in the collection. This wallpaper delights with its lively motifs of birds and plants and playful stylization. The bright colors and presence of nature injects an otherwise strongly geometric and simplified rendition of an urban landscape with a cheerful energy....
In celebration of Women’s History Month, March Object of the Day posts highlight women designers in the collection. When describing wallpaper, Marthe Armitage, the designer of this paper, has said “Wallpaper… should be seen and not heard. It should provide a background in a home, and should not make you feel you have to look...
In celebration of Women’s History Month, March Object of the Day posts highlight women designers in the collection. This floral paper stuns with its bright warm colors and energetically-rendered flowers. The Cooper Hewitt has three other colorways of this particular design, each equally eye-catching and bold. This particular paper, though printed by a New York-based...
In celebration of Women’s History Month, March Object of the Day posts highlight women designers in the collection. Blogging today about an early women designer and craftsperson, Hannah Davis. Hannah is known for creating some of the most finely constructed bandboxes in the business. She entered the field in 1818 at the age of 34....
In celebration of Women’s History Month, March Object of the Day posts highlight women designers in the collection. Long before the space race and the potential of space travel, humans have always been fascinated with the stars as tools for better understanding our world and our place in it. Naturally, artists and designers also take...
As citizens of the twenty-first century, we are accosted constantly by advertising; by billboards on the highway, posters on the street, and through our media outlets at home. As a society certain symbols of advertisement, known as logos, have become in grained into our collective conscious. You would be hard pressed to find someone who...
This beautiful sidewall tile by Marcel Wanders overwhelms with its variety of details. The pattern features layers of circular motifs, snowflakes, stars, and dots on a complex floral curvilinear design. When the tile is repeated along a wall as intended, the overall effect is dazzling and makes the wall seem made of lace. This effect...
