On April 30th, Cooper-Hewitt Director Paul Warwick Thompson announced the winners and finalists of the 2009 National Design Awards, which recognize excellence across a variety of disciplines. The Award recipients will be honored at a gala dinner Oct. 22 at Cipriani in New York.
The 2009 National Design Awards nominations were solicited from a committee of more than 2,500 designers, educators, journalists, cultural figures and corporate leaders from every state in the nation.
Nominees must have at least seven years of experience in order to be nominated, and winners are selected based on the level of excellence, innovation and public impact of their body of work. This year’s jury—a diverse group of former National Design Award winners convened by Cooper-Hewitt—reviewed the nominations and chose Lifetime Achievement and Design Mind recipients, and selected winners and finalists in the Corporate and Institutional Achievement, Architecture Design, Communication Design, Fashion Design, Interaction Design, Interior Design, Landscape Design and Product Design categories. This year the new Interaction Design category was added to the Awards, celebrating exceptional work using digital technology.
The 2009 National Design Award recipients are:
Lifetime Achievement: Bill Moggridge
Design Mind: Amory B. Lovins
Corporate and Institutional Achievement: Walker Art Center
Architecture Design: SHoP Architects
Communication Design: The New York Times Graphics Department
Fashion Design: Francisco Costa for Calvin Klein Collection
Interaction Design: Perceptive Pixel Inc.
Interior Design: Tsao & McKown Architects
Landscape Design: Hood Design
Product Design: Boym Partners
The 2009 jury was composed of a diverse group of previous winners of the National Design Awards, including:
John Maeda, chair, president, Rhode Island School of Design
Stephen Frykholm, vice president and creative director, Herman Miller
Michael Maharam, principal, Maharam
Marissa Mayer, vice president of search products and user experience, Google Inc.
Sigi Moeslinger, partner, Antenna Design
Monica Ponce de Leon, dean, University of Michigan (TCAUP) and principal, Office dA
Ralph Rucci, principal, Chado Ralph Rucci
Margaret Stewart, user experience manager, YouTube, a subsidiary of Google Inc.
Marc Tsurumaki, principal and co-founder, Lewis.Tsurumaki.Lewis
Michael Van Valkenburgh, principal, Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates
About the awards:
The National Design Awards were conceived by the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum to honor the best in American design. First launched at the White House in 2000 as an official project of the White House Millennium Council, the annual Awards program celebrates design in various disciplines as a vital humanistic tool in shaping the world, and seeks to increase national awareness of design by educating the public and promoting excellence, innovation, and lasting achievement. The Awards are truly national in scope–nominations for the 2009 Awards were solicited from a committee of more than 800 leading designers, educators, journalists, cultural figures, and corporate leaders from every state in the nation.
The National Design Awards is one of the few programs of its kind structured to continue to benefit the nation long after the Awards ceremony and gala. A suite of educational programs will be announced this summer in conjunction with the Awards by Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum’s award-winning Education Department, including a series of public programs, lectures, round tables, and workshops based on the vision and work of the National Design Award winners.
Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum is located on Museum Mile, at the corner of 91st Street and Fifth Avenue in New York City.
cooperhewitt.org.