• CALENDAR
    • Add Your Event
  • architecture
    • art & literature
    • awards
    • buildings
    • sustainable
    • prefabricated
    • public space
    • residences
    • urban planning
  • design
    • art & literature
    • awards
    • collectables
    • concept
    • fashion
    • sustainable
    • home
    • lifestyle
    • safety & special needs
    • transportation
    • workplace
  • editor’s pick
    • featured
    • gift ideas.
    • interviews
    • opinion
  • events
    • auctions
    • competitions
    • conference & Exhibitions
    • fairs
  • news
    • latest news
    • elsewhere
    • lifestyle
    • people
    • producer
    • retailer
DesignApplauseDesignApplauseyour daily design dose
  • CALENDAR
    • Add Your Event
  • architecture
    • art & literature
    • awards
    • buildings
    • sustainable
    • prefabricated
    • public space
    • residences
    • urban planning
  • design
    • art & literature
    • awards
    • collectables
    • concept
    • fashion
    • sustainable
    • home
    • lifestyle
    • safety & special needs
    • transportation
    • workplace
  • editor’s pick
    • featured
    • gift ideas.
    • interviews
    • opinion
  • events
    • auctions
    • competitions
    • conference & Exhibitions
    • fairs
  • news
    • latest news
    • elsewhere
    • lifestyle
    • people
    • producer
    • retailer

Target

Home Tag Target
michael graves awarded national design award for lifetime achievement.

michael graves awarded national design award for lifetime achievement.

May 5, 2015

Michael Graves was awarded the National Design Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. He’s best known for his Postmodernist-style, a label he was not happy with. Graves also designed products for both Alessi and Target which required a high-design as well as an eye for the masses mentality.

[ official release ] Michael Graves (1934 – 2015), the late celebrated architect and designer and founder of Michael Graves Architecture & Design has won the National Design Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Graves is best known for broadening the role of the architect in society and raising public interest in good design as essential to the quality of everyday life. Winners will be honored during National Design Week at a Gala on Thursday, October 15 at Pier Sixty in New York.

Graves, a prominent voice in architecture and design since founding his practice in 1964 has designed with his firm over 350 buildings and more than 2,000 products for clients such as Target, Alessi, Stryker, Kimberly-Clark and Disney.

Few are credited with spearheading a single design movement. Michael Graves led three. In the 1980’s he redirected the architectural conversation away from abstract modernism toward a more humanistic approach to architecture and urban planning – an approach that MGA&D still practices today. In the 1990’s, his partnership with Target defined America’s expectation that great design should be available to all. Over the past decade Michael became a passionate advocate for the disabled and used the power of design to improve healthcare experiences for patients, families and clinicians.

Graves has received prestigious awards including the AIA Gold Medal, the National Medal of Arts from President Clinton, and the Topaz Medallion from the AIA/ACSA. Graves is the 2012 Richard H. Driehaus Prize Laureate. Michael Graves has become internationally recognized as a healthcare design advocate, with the Center for Health Design naming him one of the Top 25 Most Influential People in Healthcare Design. In 2013, President Obama appointed Graves to the United States Access Board. The American Institute of Architects acknowledged Michael’s career with a Presidential Citation. He was the first architect inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame, and was the first recipient of the Michael Graves Lifetime Achievement Award from the AIA-NJ. Fast Company recently named MGA&D one of the 10 most innovative design firms in the world.

In 2014 MGA&D celebrated its 50th anniversary with a major exhibition at the Grounds For Sculpture in Hamilton, NJ. In addition, Michael’s lifelong contributions to design were celebrated by the Architectural League with a daylong symposium at Parsons New School for Design.

about phil patton

trump tower chicago’s new provocative signage is now national news unfortunately.

trump tower chicago’s new provocative signage is now national news unfortunately.

Jun 24, 2014

above> alex garcia tribune photo

Donald Trump is a lightning rod. Now Trump has made Adrian Smith‘s, architect at Chicago’s SOM, emblematic Trump Tower Chicago a lighting rod. The issue went public three weeks ago when Chicago Tribune architecture critic, Blair Kamin, architecture critic of the Chicago Tribune, jumped all over evidence of new signage in-the-making. Trump responds and it went back and forth prompting mayor, Rahm Emanuel to weigh in, “a tastelss sign”. Trump finds a need to say, ‘I love chicago…and my sign ‘. These happenings now national news, Jon Stewart can’t contain his get-real sentiment either.

trump-sign-early1

above> about the time kamin went public

Let me weigh in from my own experience with this building and two others regarding signage. In 2002, when Trump was looking for marketing proposals I was asked to create a concept for @Properties. The concept: Create two books, a graphic coffee table piece and one with strategies and numbers. @Properties was wildly successful though a very new company. A humongous building in their portfolio would not be a bad thing. The thrust of the concept was jumping into the future, as if @Properties had already won the Trump Tower job. @Properties deftly pitched it but didn’t get the job. Solace was achieved by Trump’s marketing team loving the creativity and boldness of the pitch, it was one of the best. We walked feeling we won and thinking Trump hired a great architect and they would not mess up.

Trump_Tower-from-riverwalk1

above> trump tower from river walk | image courtesy som / click to enlarge all images on this post

An uh oh moment occurred at the time Santiago Calatrava‘s brilliant and ambitious Spire was looking like it might happen. Under construction at this time, Trump’s building was looking good too. Also at this time, The Spire began placing beautiful marketing signs along both north and south Michigan Avenue. Really understated, as elegant as the building. But then, more signs popped up, freshly mounted in the sidewalks. 10 large bullet-points… Trump Tower is coming.

Trump_Tower-SW-&-NW-Elevations1

above> trump tower sw/nw elevations | image courtesy som

trump_tower-ground-plan1

above> trump tower ground plan | image courtesy som

Trump_Tower-abstract-render1

above> trump tower abstract rendering | image courtesy som

Trump Tower’s new signage comes as no surprise, though very disappointing that someone, didn’t feel the collaboration between Trump and Smith created a magnum opus capable of saying all the right things on its own. The building’s design calls out for more than all cap fatso letters that seem slapped on the facade. Recently faced with the dilemma of marketing their new State Street store and respect Louis Sullivan‘s building Target figured it out by placing all messaging inside the structure and not on it.

Not many know this story about the John Hancock Center. In 1969, three years prior to my arrival as a designer at The Design Partnership‘s signage partner Mabrey/Kaiser, Bud Mabrey with the help of SOM’s Bruce Graham, the designer of JHC, persuaded John Hancock Insurance to eschew any signage, that a brightly lit observation deck would be all the identity that this building needed. [ interesting jhc tidbits ]

trump-hancock1

above> bruce graham’s john hancock center | 1969

trump-cna2

In 1973, again Bud Mabrey and again with the help of the architect, Graham Anderson Probst and White, enticed CNA Financial Corporation to paint their building red. The concept, the red design was used to depict the sun setting over the ocean as illustrated by the red imagery to the west of Lake Michigan. And again, no building identification signage except on the plaza. A sign was eventually added more than 20 years later.

Now the CNA building really has no business being in this conversation, too short, a non-existent brand image, but it does belong with the Hancock Center in the big concept arena. Big concepts don’t mean success and huge concepts go so unnoticed because they may be very open to interpretation. It may take someone next to you to set you straight. But you gotta love their conception, the pitch and execution. I would have praised Trump if he had topped the building with a ‘big concept’ oversized toupée instead.

trump-timessquare1

above> developer’s proposal for 300 north michigan avenue

Times Square. The above image surfaced late last year for 300 north Michigan avenue, which is SOUTH of the river and not the Mag Mile. This stretch is becoming known as the Millennium Mile. Yes, a Times Square style will make its way to Chicago. Only if it’s very profitable for the city though. Guessing State Street not Mag Mile suits this format best. Mag Mile is our Madison Avenue. Confident Rahm Emanuel will support the right thing [ Chicago places ads on really public spaces ]

Michael Bierut, Pentagram partner and DesignObserver co-founder said this, “What’s interesting about Times Square is that there are special signage regulations that ensure that every new building has to have big signs on it. They were put in place in the late 80s when there were proposals to replace the older buildings with new (and boring) corporate buildings. Now there are a lot of new skyscrapers there but they are covered with flashing signs. Trivia point: Tibor Kalman helped develop the standards, working with architect Robert A.M. Stern.”

527-ronscope200about ron kovach

A visit to jc penny housewares.

Jun 16, 2013

jcpenny-graves1

I have been watching with interest and dismay the saga of Ron Johnson’s arrival at and departure from J.C. Penney’s. The whole enterprise seemed dubious: turning Penney’s into another Target, if that was the goal, seemed misguided. But I was curious to see where it would end up. At Target, Johnson hired Michael Graves and other designers and he was the creator of the Apple stores—which I never thought would succeed.

jcpenny-graves3

Johnson is gone now but some of the product lines he ordered up for the housewares departments at Penney’s have arrived in the stores. There is stuff from Graves, Jonathan Adler, Conran’s, Martha Stewart, Bodum, Cuisinart, Pantone, Joseph Joseph and others. I wasn’t sure what would happen to these goods after Johnson’s firing,. There was an elaborate advertisement in Architectural Digest magazine’s June issue, the goods were online and I decided to check into my local Penney’s the other day.

jcpenny-conran1conran

The pieces are arranged in a series of mini shops. I was amazed how extensive the variety and display. I don’t know whether the things will sell or be reordered but there were highlights: colorful Bodum mixers, Graves vases and frames that are better than any in the earlier Target collections, and Conran’s furniture that recalls Ikea. The Martha Stewart shop is mostly paper goods.

jcpenny-display1joseph joseph
jcpenny-bodum1

jcpenny-graves4

My favorite: the celedon vase at Graves. [ jc penny shop ]

<a href="about phil patton

Retailers (finally) ready for mobile holiday shopping.

Nov 12, 2012

retailers (finally) ready for mobile holiday shopping. stores biggest competitor yet: smartphones. via forbes [RK]

Slimmed-down stores open as citytarget.

Jul 20, 2012

click > enlarge

On 29 July Target is opening three stores in Chicago, Los Angeles and Seattle. Chicago’s store is in one of the city’s most architecturally significant Louis Sullivan designed building (formerly Carson Pirie Scott) which many have been waiting for with mixed emotions. Target had promised not to deface the landmark building and has kept their word. CityTarget is a “little box” concept that will feature fresh food, clothing and electronics. The State Street CityTarget occupies roughly 124,000 square feet and about 54,000 feet is selling space. This is the second CityTarget in Chicago. Another Los Angeles and San Francisco store will open in October. A third Los Angeles store and one in Portland will open in 2013.



The San Francisco store is located in the new Metreon in the Yerba Buena Center Redevelopment Project Area and will occupy 85,000 square feet.



A Seattle store located at the intersection of 2nd Avenue and Pike Street is a 3-story store occupying 103,000 square feet.



above> CityTarget mini-golf promotion aboard a Washington State Ferries vessel on the Seattle/Bainbridge route.

If you’re aware of the JC Penny rebranding and the CityTarget concept, you can visualize two retailers seeking a new and similar niche. Both are pushing design and value. JCP new ceo, Ron Johnson, a former Target and Apple store retail change agent, has partnered with several designers and the designer brands may be more visible than the Chicago CityTarget store I recently visited. CityTarget seems light years ahead of JCP at the moment, though Johnson must feel good that JCP is mentioned in this design-related post. Of interest is the latest CB2 catalog, which also featured designers and objects found at the 2012 Milan Salone. This is CB2’s best designed object catalog and puts them head-to-head with DWR more than ever before. These four retailers are specialists selling a select mix of clothes, electronics, furniture and kitchen and bath accessories. There’s also a new hip, good-value online segment from other brands that’s figured out how showcase and sell. [ citytarget ] [ cb2 ] [ dwr ] [ jcp ]

target and neiman marcus and 24 designers team up.

Jul 11, 2012

target and neiman marcus team up with 24 designers for the holidays. target gets luxurious. neiman gets youth. via wsj [RK]

Final michael graves products hit target.

Mar 30, 2012

Michael Graves’ final collection for Target hit stores this month. via star tribune [RK]

Discounted designer power. Target and missoni.

Sep 14, 2011

Missoni and Target collaboration maybe too successful. via chicago tribune [RK]

The growth of Target.

Mar 25, 2009

Animated infographic shows Target opening 1600 stores from 1962 to 2008. via flowing data [PR]

Contact Us

We're currently offline. Send us an email and we'll get back to you, asap.

Send Message
DesignApplause

your daily design dose

Follow Us


about us
contact/help
privacy policy

ADVERTISEMENT

LATEST NEWS

  • the beginning is the most important part of the work. hello 2023.
  • 40m zero-emission domus redefines trimaran concept.
  • this glass is for the birds migratory birds that is.
  • 2023 all-electrifying timeless instant recognition porsche taycan.
  • unrivaled residences found in repurposed chicago tribune tower.

All content ©2007 > 2022 DesignApplause