Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum Announces Winners and Finalists:
Just in, Cooper-Hewitt Director Bill Moggridge announced today the winners and finalists of the 2011 National Design Awards, which recognize excellence across a variety of disciplines.

“As the nation’s design museum, Cooper-Hewitt raises awareness that design is everywhere,” said Moggridge. “The work of this year’s National Design Awards winners represents extraordinary solutions to the design problems central to the landscape of daily life, from how we dress, shape our personal and private spaces, frame communication and interact with the world at large.”

The 2011 National Design Award recipients are:

photo credits: Steve Marsel; Courtesy of Matthew Carter

Lifetime Achievement
Winner: Matthew Carter
The Lifetime Achievement Award, recognizing an individual who has made a long-term contribution to the practice of design, is presented to Matthew Carter. During the past 50 years, Carter has designed some of the most recognizable typefaces used today. Named a MacArthur Fellow for 2010, he teaches type design at the Yale University School of Art.

photo credits: Baden Copeland; Courtesy of Steve Heller

Design Mind
Winner: Steven Heller
The Design Mind Award recognizes visionary individuals or firms that have affected a shift in design thinking or practice through writing, research and scholarship. The 2011 recipient is Steven Heller. Heller is the author and editor of more than 130 books on graphic design, satiric art and popular culture. He served as art director for 33 years at The New York Times and continues to contribute as a columnist for The New York Times Book Review and other leading publications.

photo credits: Courtesy of Knoll, OXO, Design that Matters

Corporate and Institutional Achievement
Winner: Knoll
Finalists: Design that Matters | Oxo
The Corporate and Institutional Achievement Award recognizes a corporation or institution that uses design as a strategic tool of its mission and helps to advance the relationship between design and quality of life. The 2011 award is presented to Knoll, which was founded in 1938 by Hans Knoll on the conviction that good design enriches lives. In 1943, he was joined by his wife, Florence. Throughout its history, Knoll has fostered innovative designers with one constant goal: a genuine balance of art and industry.

photo credits: Lajos Geenen; courtesy Dan Rockhill; Shuli Sade

Architecture Design
Winner: Architecture Research Office
Finalists: Dan Rockhill | Weiss/Manfredi
The Architecture Design Award, which recognizes work in commercial, public or residential architecture, is given to Architecture Research Office, a New York-based firm led by Stephen Cassell, Adam Yarinsky and Kim Yao. Since 1993, its work spans from strategic planning to architecture and urban design. From a prototype for 1,000-square-foot low-income sustainable housing to a proposal to reinvent the role of ecology and infrastructure in New York, ARO uses design to unite the conceptual and the pragmatic.

photo credits: Thea Dickman; Andy Clymer; courtesy of Project Projects

Communication Design
Winner: Rick Valicenti
Finalists: Hoefler & Frere-Jones | Project Projects
The Communication Design Award, which honors work in graphic or multimedia design, goes to Rick Valicenti. Valicenti’s graphics bristle with innovation, imagination, curiosity and craft. A leading presence in design as practitioner, educator and mentor, Valicenti was honored with the AIGA Medal and included in Cooper-Hewitt’s “National Design Triennial: Design Life Now.” He is the editor of a monograph on Thirst, Emotion as Promotion, a suggestive title evoking the wit and passion that invariably animate Valicenti’s work.

photo credits: Rankin; Daniel King; Tyler Rose

Fashion Design
Winner: J. Mendel
Finalists: Prabal Gurung | Jason Wu
Recognizing work in clothing, accessory or footwear design, the Fashion Design Award is presented to J. Mendel. J. Mendel is a fifth-generation luxury brand established on the principles of high quality, style and craftsmanship. In recognition of his achievements in women’s fashion, Mendel was inducted into the Council of Fashion Designers of America in 2003.

photo credits: Anne Jackson; Jennifer Heath; Ariel Efron

Interaction Design
Winner: Ben Fry
Finalists: Chris Milk | Local Projects
The Interaction Design Award, given for exceptional work using digital technology, is awarded to Ben Fry. Drawing on a background in graphic design and computer science, Fry pursues a long-held fascination with visualizing data. As principal of Fathom Information Design in Boston, Fry develops software, printed works, installations and books that depict and explain topics from the human genome to baseball salaries to the evolution of text documents.

photo credits: courtesy of Shelton, Mindel & Associates; Greg Endries; Marcus Hanschen

Interior Design
Winner: Shelton, Mindel & Associates
Finalists: Clive Wilkinson Architects | Aidlin Darling Design
The Interior Design Award, recognizing an individual or firm for exceptional and exemplary work in domestic, corporate or cultural interior design, is awarded to Shelton, Mindel & Associates. Founding partners Peter Shelton and Lee Mindel have applied their passion for building unified environments to the firm’s portfolio of projects, which includes the design of the Polo/Ralph Lauren headquarters. Shelton and Mindel were recognized as the Deans of American Design in 2005, and both have been inducted into the Interior Design Hall of Fame.

photo credits: Julie Harmsen; Miller Mobley; Scott Lewis

Landscape Architecture
Winner: Gustafson Guthrie Nichol
Finalists: Tom Leader | Margie Ruddick
The recipient of the Landscape Design Award, which is presented for work in urban planning or park and garden design, is Gustafson Guthrie Nichol, a Seattle-based landscape-architecture practice that works throughout the Americas and Asia. Founded by partners Kathryn Gustafson, Jennifer Guthrie and Shannon Nichol, the firm offers special experience in designing high-use landscapes in complex, urban contexts. Prominent projects include the Robert and Arlene Kogod Courtyard at the Smithsonian’s Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture, and the new Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Campus in Seattle.

photo credits: Richard Davia; Leslie Williamson; courtesy of RKS

Product Design
Winner: Continuum
Finalists: Heath Ceramics | RKS
Given for work in the design of consumer goods, technology or home and office furnishings, the 2011 Product Design Award is presented to Continuum. Founded in 1983 by Gianfranco Zaccai, Continuum is a global design and innovation consultancy that endeavors to improve people’s everyday lives. Its medical innovations include the Insulet OmniPod insulin delivery system and the Nala Patient Recovery Chair and Compass Patient Room System for Herman Miller.

The call for National Design Award nominations was extended this year to the general public, broadened from the select committee solicited in past years. 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.

First launched at the White House in 2000 as a project of the White House Millennium Council, the National Design Awards were established to promote excellence and innovation in design. The awards are accompanied each year by a variety of public education programs, including special events, panel discussions and workshops. First Lady Michelle Obama serves as the Honorary Patron for this year’s National Design Awards.

2011 National Design Awards Jury
Andrew Blauvelt, Walker Art Center
June Cohen, TED Media
Jamie Drake, Drake Design Associates
Terry Guen, Terry Guen Design Associates Inc.
David Kusuma, Tupperware Brands Corporation
Jennifer Morla, Morla Design
Lela Rose, Lela Rose
Billie Tsien, Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects
Patrick Whitney, Institute of Design, Illinois Institute of Technology

Cooper-Hewitt’s sixth annual National Design Week will be held Oct. 15–23.