“Where It’s At” is not only the title of this gloriously psychedelic wallpaper but also how someone in 1968 would have described the United De Soto wallpaper company in Chicago. A division of DeSoto Industrial Coverings, Inc., United De Soto stood out for its technical innovations, being the first American company to use fluorescent pigments...

By Andréa Pellegrino, Worldstudio Design Ignites Change, an initiative of Worldstudio, promotes and encourages talented high-school and college students across the country to use design thinking and innovation to develop actual projects that will benefit their own communities while giving them a voice on important social issues. The winning projects of the Fall 2011 Design...

Cooper-Hewitt’s DesignPrep is a series of free design-education programs that introduces New York City high-school students to collegiate and career opportunities in design. Participating students attend design workshops with professional designers, visit design colleges as well as designers’ studios, and engage in professional development.   Students from all over the city were invited to become...

One of the exciting aspects of Design with the Other 90%: Cities is the ability to connect the international themes of the exhibition to a New York setting. In our second DesignPrep workshop held at the United Nations, teens examined key issues highlighted in the exhibition. The workshop was an opportunity for teens to raise...

New York City teens joined the DesignPrep program this fall for a series of school visits to local art and design colleges. DesignPrep introduces teens to colleges and career opportunities in design. This fall a number of schools opened their doors to our students, sharing information about the admissions process and college life. Teens thinking...

DesignPrep participants pose in their newly created garments Design with the Other 90%: CITIES, currently on view at the United Nations Visitors Center in New York, features projects, proposals, and solutions that address complex issues arising in emerging and developing economies. DesignPrep teens participated in a multi-session workshop led by designer Trudy Miller. Inspired by...

Hundreds of Washington, DC high-school students gathered at the Kogod Courtyard of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery to participate in one of the biggest teen design events of the year. DC teens were invited to learn about design careers from the National Design Award winners, finalists, and jurors working in the...

Celebrated fashion designer Sena Yang, creator of her namesake line SENA, led a two-session fashion workshop at Cooper-Hewitt for high-school students. The workshop was an exciting opportunity for students to create original prints and a concept for a collection based on their own designs.   Sena started the workshop with a bang when she shared...

Teens from around the city joined us for a two-day product-design workshop led by instructor Julia Chiang. It was an unexpected design medium for sure – candy! Julia Chiang uses a wide variety of materials in her sculpture and installations, including nostalgic and sweet ring pops. Chiang is known for her use of the colorful...

Student teams work with designers to develop and create molds using traditional techniques and 3-D printing technology to enter into the third annual Jell-O Mold Competition scheduled for June 25, 2011. Workshop sessions are hosted at Cooper-Hewitt, Eyebeam Art + Technology Center, and Smart Design. 3D printing materials at Eyebeam were generously provided by Stratasys.

The Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Eyebeam Art + Technology Center and Smart Design have teamed up to take Jell-O on a whirlwind tour through New York City with a Jell-O Mold Workshop for high school students interested in food, design, and technology! NYC high school youth teamed up with leading product designers and industrial designers...

NYC teens worked alongside master jewelry designers from Van Cleef & Arpels as they try their hand at jewelry design here at Cooper-Hewitt in this exciting hands-on program. The exacting labor of creating a maquette, first in wax and then in pewter, is an important part of the jewelry design process. In this video, the...

Cooper-Hewitt is launching a series of FREE workshops for NYC teens on building, programming, and prototyping with the Makerbot 3D printer. Participants will learn how to assemble, program, and print their designs on the Makerbot 3-D printer. They’ll learn about hardware, software, and 3D modeling software like Google Sketchup and Blender. This is a huge...

A short video explaining youth participation in shaping Cooper-Hewitt's effort to make its vast collection web-accessible. NYC teens work with museum staff to select objects, tag them in their own words, and suggest features to make the virtual museum system more youth-friendly.

Digital (youth) interns tag objects in the Museum collection! Through the on-going program A City of Neighborhoods project the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum selected 5 students as digital (youth) interns. During a one-week internship youth met with curators at the Museum to discuss the e-museum collection and learn about the curatorial departments. The Digital Interns...