Cooper Hewitt reveals 2018 National Design Award honorees

It's that time of year again when the Cooper Hewitt, National Design Museum announces the winners of their honorable National Design Awards. First launched in 2000 as a project of The White House Millennium Council, the National Design Awards recognize designers, patrons, and companies for excellence, innovation, and public impact across 10 design disciplines. The winners are selected based on the level of excellence, innovation, and social impact of their body of work. 

The 10 category winners for 2018 include Gail Anderson, WEISS/MANFREDI, Mikyoung Kim Design, and Oppenheim Architecture + Design, to name a few. The Director’s Award, which will be awarded at a later date, will be given to an individual or organization in recognition of their outstanding support and patronage within the design community.

Recipients will be honored during a gala dinner and ceremony at the museum on October 18. 

Scroll down to see the rest of this year's winners!

Lifetime Achievement: Gail Anderson 

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.

Design Mind: Anne Whiston Spirn 

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

Architecture Design: WEISS/MANFREDI

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.

Landscape Architecture: Mikyoung Kim Design 

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.

Communication Design: Civilization 

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.

Corporate & Institutional Achievement: Design for America 

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 Gerber and three of her students in 2009. Gerber 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.

Fashion Design: Christina Kim 

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.

Interaction Design: Neri Oxman 

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 4 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.

Interior Design: Oppenheim Architecture + 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.

Product Design: Blu Dot 

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.

The 2018 Jury:

• Diane Jones Allen, director of Landscape Architecture Program, University of Texas at Arlington; principal landscape architect at Design Jones LLC 
• Jeffrey Bernett, principal, CDS 
• Valerie Casey, principal, Applied Theory
• Rand Elliott, principal, Elliott + Associates Architects 
• Adi Gil, creative director, threeASFOUR 
• Jenny Lam, senior vice president, user experience design, Oracle 
• Doug Powell, distinguished designer, IBM 
• Ann Willoughby, founder, Willoughby Design