Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award Winners

Fresh, News June 8, 2015June 8, 2015 Gordon Kaye

New York NY

Each year, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, recognizes achievement in American design with its annual National Design Awards program. Of particular note to graphic designers, this year’s recipient in the Communication Design category is Project Projects, a graphic design studio founded by Prem Krishnamurthy and Adam Michaels in 2004. The firm focuses on art, architecture and culture, and by teaching and lecturing internationally, the founders and associate principal Chris Wu “seek to extend public understanding of the role of graphic design within contemporary culture.”

Design, editing, and publishing of The Electric Information Age Book by Jeffrey T. Schnapp and Adam Michaels, The Electric Information Age Album by The Masses (Adam Michaels, Daniel Perlin, Jeffrey T. Schnapp), and the Inventory Press tote bag (designed with Slow and Steady Wins the Race). Photo: Courtesy of Project Projects
Pictured Top: Exhibition and graphic design for Architecture in Uniform: Designing and Building for the Second World War at the Canadian Centre for Architecture (Montreal, Quebec, 2011). In collaboration with WORKac. Photo: © CCA, Montreal); Pictured Above: Design, editing, and publishing of The Electric Information Age Book by Jeffrey T. Schnapp and Adam Michaels, The Electric Information Age Album by The Masses (Adam Michaels, Daniel Perlin, Jeffrey T. Schnapp), and the Inventory Press tote bag (designed with Slow and Steady Wins the Race). Photo: Courtesy of Project Projects
What If . . . ? The Architecture and Design of David Rockwell, book conceptualization, editorial consultation, comprehensive book design and layout, in collaboration with Rockwell Group (New York, New York, 2014). Photo: Courtesy of Project Projects
What If . . . ? The Architecture and Design of David Rockwell, book conceptualization, editorial consultation, comprehensive book design and layout, in collaboration with Rockwell Group (New York, New York, 2014). Photo: Courtesy of Project Projects

Other recipients, covering a variety of disciplines, are Michael Graves for Lifetime Achievement; Jack Lenor Larsen for Director’s Award; Rosanne Haggerty for Design Mind; Heath Ceramics for Corporate & Institutional Achievement; MOS Architects for Architecture Design; threeASFOUR for Fashion Design; Jack Underkoffler for Interaction Design; Commune for Interior Design; Coen + Partners for Landscape Architecture; and Stephen Burks for Product Design.

Two-slice toaster, J.C. Penney (2013). Photo: Courtesy of Michael Graves Architecture & Design
Two-slice toaster, J.C. Penney (2013). Photo: Courtesy of Michael Graves Architecture & Design
Spinning whistle teakettle, Target (2000). Photo: Courtesy of Michael Graves Architecture & Design, Inc.
Spinning whistle teakettle, Target (2000). Photo: Courtesy of Michael Graves Architecture & Design, Inc.
Heath Ceramics packaging, designing for a better world, held together by its own parts (2014). Project partner: House Industries. Photo: Jeffery Cross
Heath Ceramics packaging, designing for a better world, held together by its own parts (2014). Project partner: House Industries. Photo: Jeffery Cross

First launched at the White House in 2000 as a project of the White House Millennium Council, the awards promote design as a humanistic tool in shaping the world. The program includes a broad range of public education programs and the recipients are honored at a gala dinner in October in New York City. First Lady Michelle Obama, is this year’s Honorary Patron.

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