Tonight we are so excited to welcome Bobby Berk—interior design expert and host of Netflix’s Q***r Eye—to host the first-ever virtual #NationalDesignAwards Gala.
No matter where you are, join the live conversation as we reveal the 2020 winners, and celebrate the power of design!
7:30 P.M. ET tonight, Thursday, October 1.
nationaldesignawards2020.org
The virtual National Design Awards Gala is only a week away!
Launched in 2000, the Awards are bestowed annually in recognition of design innovation and impact. Will you be there as this year’s winners are announced? Hosted by Bobby Berk, interior design expert and Emmy-nominated host of Netflix’s Q***r Eye, the event is open for all to enjoy from home.
To register and learn more, visit www.cooperhewitt.org/virtualgala
#NationalDesignAwards
The National Design Awards is going virtual!
Celebrate the power of design and tune in to the virtual gala on October 1 for the first-ever live reveal of this year's winners, hosted by Bobby Berk
The gala will kick off the newly expanded National Design Month: an entire month of dynamic design programming, held online and free of charge.
To register and learn more, visit www.cooperhewitt.org/virtualgala
#NationalDesignAwards
Got a bright idea on how to make the world more inclusive?
Let it shine! Enter our 2020 National High School Design Competition: cooperhewitt.org/design-competition-design-challenge/
#BelongingByDesign
Thank you for an amazing year!
Join us this holiday season for free intergenerational design workshops, an array of fascinating historic and contemporary design exhibitions, and last-minute gift shopping at SHOP Cooper Hewitt.
Cooper Hewitt is open every day except Christmas (Dec. 25). New in 2020: Pay-What-You-Wish hours on Tuesday evenings from 6 to 8 p.m.
Our greeting was designed exclusively for Cooper Hewitt by Tobias Frere-Jones, 2019 National Design Award winner for Communication Design.
Happy holidays from all of us at Cooper Hewitt!
TONIGHT! Our summer performance series Cocktails at Cooper Hewitt launches at A/D/O with sets from Erol Sabadosh, Jackie Mendoza, and Coco and Breezy. The beat goes on all summer in our Arthur Ross Terrace and Garden. Full season lineup and tickets: cooperhewitt.org/cocktails
Always free for members.
Holiday Card 2018
Happy holidays from all of us at Cooper Hewitt! Enjoy this card designed by Civilization, 2018 National Design Award winner for Communication Design
Shop distinctive gifts for everyone on your list at Shop Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum: bit.ly/2SEUTFp
2018 Members’ Holiday Celebration
Raise a glass with your fellow design lovers at our annual Members’ Holiday Celebration (available for Design Insider members and above) and receive an exclusive first look at our exhibition The Road Ahead: Reimagining Mobility, which opens Dec. 14.
Join today: cooperhewitt.org/membership
Tag a friend who needs a gentle reminder.
These animated "Vote" posters from the Cooper Hewitt Collection were designed by David Virgien ca. 1980.
Civilization, Communication Design
Civilization is the 2018 National Design Award recipient for Communication Design.
Civilization was founded by Michael Ellsworth, Corey Gutch and Gabriel Stromberg in Seattle. Since the studio’s inception in 2007, it has built identity systems, digital experiences, printed materials, environmental graphics and exhibitions that are engaging, empathetic, sustainable and create meaningful connections. Working with those committed to creating positive change, the studio’s clients include the National Head Start Association, The Nature Conservancy, Shout Your Abortion, The Museum of History & Industry and The Biennale of Sydney. Civilization’s work is in the permanent collection of SFMOMA and the studio has won numerous awards, including the 2017 Webby Award for Best Activist Website.
This video was produced by RadicalMedia LLC for the 2018 National Design Awards ceremony.
Gail Anderson, Lifetime Achievement
Gail Anderson is the 2018 National Design Award recipient for Lifetime Achievement.
Gail Anderson is a New York-based designer, writer and educator. Anderson serves as creative director at Visual Arts Press, the in-house design studio for the School of Visual Arts, where she has been teaching design for more than 25 years. She is also a partner at Anderson Newton Design. Previously, she served as creative director of design at SpotCo, an advertising agency that creates artwork for theater, and as a designer and senior art director of Rolling Stone. Anderson has co-authored 14 books on design and popular culture, lectured about design internationally and received numerous awards, including the 2008 AIGA Gold Medal and the Society of Illustrators’ 2009 Richard Gangel Art Director Award. Her work is in the permanent collections of Cooper Hewitt, the Library of Congress, the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the Milton Glaser Design Archives at SVA.
This video was produced by RadicalMedia LLC for the 2018 National Design Awards ceremony.
Blu Dot, Product Design
Blu Dot is the 2018 recipient of the National Design Award for Product Design.
Blu Dot was founded in 1997 by college friends John Christakos, Maurice Blanks and Charlie Lazor. Based in Minneapolis, Blu Dot’s mission is to design and manufacture furniture that is useful, affordable and brings good design to as many people as possible. Christakos, Blanks and Lazor focus on pragmatic issues in an effort to arrive at forms that are both practical and beautiful. Recognized for its inventive use of materials, fabrication technology and assembly methods, Blu Dot produces furniture that is determined by an economy of means while maintaining a playful sensibility.
This film was produced by RadicalMedia LLC for the 2018 National Design Awards ceremony.
Mikyoung Kim Design, Landscape Architecture
Mikyoung Kim Design is the recipient of the 2018 National Design Award for Landscape Architecture.
Mikyoung Kim, FASLA, is the founding principal of Mikyoung Kim Design, an international landscape architecture and urban design firm based in Boston. Over the past two decades, the firm has crafted an exceptional body of award-winning work that redefines the discipline of landscape architecture and inhabits the intersection of art and science. Its projects—from large to small—solve challenging urban resiliency issues while always considering the unique character of place making. As a multi-disciplinary office, the firm’s ideas emerge through a responsive and collaborative approach that imagines possibilities across disciplines and scales. The firm’s work, including the Chongae River Restoration, Crown Sky Garden and Prudential Plaza, celebrates the transforming experience of water and light in the city.
This video was produced by RadicalMedia LLC.
Oppenheim Architecture + Design, Interior Design
Oppenheim Architecture + Design is the recipient of the 2018 National Design Award for Interior Design.
Founded in 1999 by Chad Oppenheim, Oppenheim Architecture + Design is an architecture, planning and interior design firm specializing in hospitality, commercial mixed-use, retail and residential buildings worldwide. Based in Miami with offices in New York and Basel, Switzerland, the firm creates spaces that evoke the senses, catering to both pleasure and performance. Inspiration is drawn from vernacular styles and local resources are asserted with minimal gesture. With projects in over 25 countries, including the GLF Headquarters in Florida, the Enea Headquarters in Switzerland and the Ayla Golf Academy and Clubhouse in Jordan, the firm designs with sensitivity toward man and nature—harmonizing with the surroundings of each site.
This video was produced by RadicalMedia LLC for the 2018 National Design Awards ceremony.
Neri Oxman, Interaction Design
Neri Oxman is the 2018 National Design Award recipient for Interaction Design.
Neri Oxman is an architect, designer, inventor and professor at MIT, where she is the founding director of The Mediated Matter Group. An experimental design practice, the group combines commissioned work with scientific research exploring ways in which digital design and production techniques can enhance the relationship between built and natural environments, operating at the intersection of computational design, robotic fabrication, materials engineering and synthetic biology. The group applies this knowledge to design, from the micro scale to the building scale. Oxman coined the term “Material Ecology” to describe the study, design and digital fabrication of buildings, products and systems that integrate environmentally aware, computational, form-generating processes and digital production. Her team’s work was presented at the White House and the World Economic Forum, and it is in the permanent collections of Cooper Hewitt, MoMA, SFMOMA, Pompidou, MFA and others.
This video was produced by RadicalMedia LLC for the 2018 National Design Awards ceremony.
Darren Walker, Director's Award
In recognition of outstanding support and patronage within the design community, Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation, received the Director's Award of the 2018 National Design Awards.
As president of the Ford Foundation, Walker oversees an international social justice philanthropy with a $13 billion endowment and $600 million in annual grant making. For two decades, he has been a leader in the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors. Walker led the philanthropy committee that helped bring a resolution to the city of Detroit’s historic bankruptcy (2013–2014), and chairs the U.S. Impact Investing Alliance. He co-chairs New York City’s Commission on City Art, Monuments, and Markers, and serves on the Commission on the Future of Riker’s Island Correctional Institution and the UN International Labour Organization’s Global Commission on the Future of Work. He also serves on the boards of Carnegie Hall, Friends of the High Line and the Committee to Protect Journalists, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
This film was produced by RadicalMedia LLC for the 2018 National Design Awards ceremony.
Christina Kim, Fashion Design
Christina Kim is the 2018 National Design Award recipient for Fashion Design.
Christina Kim is the co-founder and designer of dosa, a Los Angeles-based clothing, accessories and housewares company established in 1984 with a focus on rethinking conventional fashion-industry production and sustaining artisan cultures. In-house production enables an evolving system for efficient use of natural resources, recycling and creative reuse. Kim draws on traditional handwork techniques, particularly in India, Mexico and Colombia, engaging local artisans and communities in long-term collaborations. Recognized globally for sustainable-design practices, Kim was named by Time magazine as one of its Innovators of the Year in 2003, received the Innovation in Craft Award by Aid to Artisans in 2006, the Longhouse Reserve Design Award in 2006 and an honorary doctorate from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2017.
This film was produced by RadicalMedia for the 2018 National Design Awards ceremony.
WEISS/MANFREDI, Architecture Design
WEISS/MANFREDI is the 2018 National Design Award recipient for Architecture Design.
Founded by Marion Weiss and Michael A. Manfredi, Weiss/Manfredi expands the territory of architecture by connecting landscape, art, infrastructure and architecture. The New York firm’s projects, including the Seattle Art Museum’s Olympic Sculpture Park, Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s Visitor Center, Penn’s Nanotechnology Center, Cornell Tech’s Tata Innovation Center and the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi, seamlessly fuse architecture and nature. Weiss/Manfredi’s distinct vision has been recognized with the Academy Award for Architecture by the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Architectural League’s Emerging Voices Award. The firm’s work has been exhibited at MoMA and will be featured in the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale.
This film was produced by RadicalMedia LLC for the 2018 National Design Awards ceremony.
Design for America, Corporate & Institutional Achievement
Design for America is the 2018 National Design Award recipient for Corporate & Institutional Achievement.
Design for America (DFA) is a national network of innovators working together to improve their local communities through design. DFA began as the brainchild of Northwestern University faculty member Liz Ge**er and three of her students in 2009. Ge**er saw how design could be used to bring new solutions to seemingly intractable social issues and how the training and experience could equip young people with the capacity to make change. The network has tackled hundreds of challenges—ranging from accessible health care to drinkable water—and has inspired more than 4,000 passionate students, educators and design professionals across the country.
This video was produced by RadicalMedia LLC for the 2018 National Design Awards ceremony.
Anne Whiston Spirn, Design Mind
Anne Whiston Spirn is the recipient of the 2018 National Design Award for Design Mind.
Anne Whiston Spirn is an award-winning author, landscape architect, photographer and the Cecil and Ida Green Distinguished Professor of Landscape Architecture and Planning at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her writings and action research have brought forth a new state of mind among designers and the general public—provoking the integration of city and nature, advancing design theory and practice, and transforming how people see and act. For 30 years, Spirn has directed the West Philadelphia Landscape Project, which was recognized at a 1999 White House conference on Imagining America. In 2001, she received Japan’s International Cosmos Prize for contributions to the harmonious coexistence of nature and humankind.
This film was produced by RadicalMedia LLC for the 2018 National Design Awards ceremony.
2018 National Design Awards Gala | Live
Watch the 19th annual National Design Awards Gala, live from Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York City.
Thanks Target, Design Within Reach, Facebook, Bloomberg Philanthropies, The Corning Museum of Glass, Adobe and Smithsonian Media
What is Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum?
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum is the only museum in the nation devoted exclusively to historic and contemporary design.
