2007 National Design Award Winners

Antoine Predock

Antoine Predock has been the Principal of Antoine Predock Architect since 1967. Based in Albuquerque, NM, Predock maintains offices in Los Angeles and Taiwan and lectures and exhibits his work worldwide. Inspired by the landscape of the American West, Predock designs expansive spaces that seamlessly weave the present with the past. He has been recognized for his unique ability to design highly contextual works that respond to their environment. Major projects have included the San Diego Padres Stadium; Austin City Hall in Texas; Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.; the Las Vegas Central Library and Discovery Museum, the Museum of Science and Industry in Tampa, Fla.; the Nelson Fine Arts Center at Arizona State University in Tempe; the National Palace Museum in Taiwan; and buildings for Stanford and Rice universities.

Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown

Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, principals of the architecture firm Venturi Scott Brown, have been collaborators for over thirty years. Their Philadelphia, PA-based firm has received widespread acclaim for its breadth in design and urban planning as well as its contributions to architectural theory. The firm has engaged in projects for civic, cultural, and academic institutions, including the provincial capitol building of the Haute-Garonne in Toulouse, France; the Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery in London; additions to the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego; the Seattle Art Museum; Brown University, Tsinghua University in Beijing, Princeton, Harvard, Dartmouth, and Yale universities; Bard College; and the universities of Pennsylvania and Michigan. Venturi and Scott Brown were awarded the Presidential National Medal of the Arts in 1992 and Venturi the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1991.

Maharam

Distinguished for its holistic approach to design since its founding in 1902, textile company Maharam continues to be a pioneering force under the leadership of brothers Michael and Stephen Maharam. Maintaining a repository of textiles drawn from the archives of iconic designers such as Anni Albers, Charles and Ray Eames, and Josef Hoffmann, Maharam re-editions historic designs, but also collaborates with leading contemporary designers, including Hella Jongerius, Bruce Mau, and Paul Smith. Maharam is recognized for its commitment to the environment, both in its business practices and product development and for its exploration of new technologies and creation of high-performance textiles.

Adobe Systems Incorporated

The 2007 Corporate Achievement Award is presented to software company Adobe Systems, Inc. Now in its twenty-fifth year, Adobe has revolutionized the way professional designers and everyday consumers approach design. Providing tools that bring the artistic process into the digital realm, Adobe’s pioneering applications enable users to translate images and text into compelling end results. Products like Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, InDesign, Flash, Acrobat, and Dreamweaver have transformed personal and business communication, forever changing the face of graphic design, publishing, video editing, and creation of multimedia and web content. Adobe’s far-reaching influence touches almost every facet of the imagery in our everyday lives, inspiring innovation and creativity in design.

Professor Frank Ching

Francis D.K. Ching has shaped the fundamental vocabulary of every designer and
architect through his writing and illustration. Author of numerous books on architecture
and Professor Emeritus at the University of Washington, Francis D.K. Ching’s work has
influenced a generation of students and continues to be regarded as the canon in design education. Respected for its clear, instructional approach, Ching’s work is known for its ability to articulate the often complex relationships between abstract ideas and their expression in design. Seminal texts such as Architectural Graphics, Architecture: Form, Space and Order and Building Construction Illustrated have been widely incorporated into curricula in the U.S. and abroad.

Office dA

Office dA is a Boston-based architecture and design firm established in 1991 by principal partners Monica Ponce de Leon and Nadar Tehrani. Recognized for their interdisciplinary approach to architecture and innovative construction techniques, the firm has worked nationally and internationally on projects ranging from affordable housing, to buildings for academic and cultural institutions. Their commissions include the Villa Moda mixed use building in Kuwait; the Tongxian Arts Center in Beijing; Northeastern University’s Multi-Faith Spiritual Center; Rhode Island School of Design’s Main Library; and most recently, the Macallen building, the first LEED-certified, environmentally sensitive, multi-housing building in Boston. Ponce de Leon and Tehrani have lectured and exhibited widely, and currently teach architecture at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design.

Chip Kidd

Recognized for his innovative work in both in the design and literary worlds, Chip Kidd has been creating book jackets for Alfred A. Knopf for over twenty years. His work has been honored by international awards and has helped spark a revolution in the art of American book packaging. Working in close collaboration with authors such as Cormac McCarthy, Orhan Pamuk, David Sedaris, Jay McInerney, and John Updike, Kidd’s distinctive design approach does not adhere to a particular style, but is rather guided by the content of each book and discovery of surprising images and relationships that compel the reader to look inside. Kidd has written about graphic design and popular culture and is an editor of comic books for Pantheon, a Knopf subsidiary. He was a finalist in this category in 2006 and his work is included in Cooper-Hewitt’s 2006 National Design Triennial.

Rick Owens

Originally from Southern California, Rick Owens currently bases his practice in Paris, where he oversees his own line and also served as Artistic Director for the French fur house Revillon from 2002 through 2006. Using a minimalist palette to accentuate his sculptural designs, Owens’ edgy design sensibility brings a raw, modern elegance to women’s fashion. Infused with a sense of drama, his work has been noted for its masterful use of draping and asymmetrical cut. Owens’ approach to design, while inspired by the workmanship of couture, retains a consciously unfinished quality. Shortly after his first show in New York, Owens was given the CFDA Perry Ellis Award for Emerging Talent in 2002.

Lewis.Tsurumaki.Lewis

Lewis.Tsurumaki.Lewis (LTL) is an architecture and design firm that explores the intersection between theory and practice. Founded in 1993 by Paul Lewis, Marc Tsurumaki, and David Lewis, the firm is recognized for their attention to detail and craft, inventive use of materials, and close involvement in the installation process. LTL has completed academic, retail, and restaurant design projects throughout the United States, including the College of Wooster’s Bornhuetter Hall in Ohio, and Tides and Xing restaurants in New York City. In their writing, the firm has examined contemporary suburban architecture and hotel design. LTL’s work is part of several museum collections and has been exhibited widely at venues including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the 2004 Venice Architecture Biennale, and the 2000 National Design Triennial.

PWP Landscape Architecture

Principal of Peter Walker and Partners in Berkeley, California, Peter Walker has fifty years of experience in the teaching and practice of landscape architecture. His work explores the relationship of art, culture, and context that is grounded in extensive knowledge of history and tradition, understanding of contemporary needs, and mastery of construction. Walker’s projects have ranged from urban design and planning for public parks and university campuses to corporate headquarters, plazas, and private gardens, including Stanford University’s Center for Clinical Science Research; the Toyota Municipal Museum of Art in Japan; the Millennium Parklands in Sydney, Australia; and the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas, Texas. Walker’s and architect Michael Arad’s design was selected for the World Trade Center Memorial in New York City.

Jonathan Ive, Apple Inc.

Jonathan Ive is the senior vice president of industrial design at Apple Inc., where since 1996 he has led a product design team widely regarded as one of the industry’s best. Ive’s streamlined design aesthetic, combined with a strong knowledge of the engineering process, has brought design into the public consciousness in an unprecedented way. Creating some of the most innovative products of the past decade, ranging from the iMac and iBook, to the now iconic iPod, Ive has not only made complex technological devices user-friendly, he has designed sculptural, desirable objects. He was named Designer of the Year (2003) by the Design Museum of London, awarded the title Royal Designer for Industry by the Royal Society of Arts, and was included as a finalist in this category in 2006. Apple was included in the 2000 and 2006 National Design Triennials and won the 2000 Corporate Achievement Award.

TOMS Shoes by Blake Mycoskie

TOMS, slip-on shoes available in vibrant colors and prints, are inspired by the traditional, rope-soled Argentine “alpargata.” Blake Mycoskie founded TOMS in 2006 following a trip to Argentina, where he was struck by the poverty and health issues of the country. During the first year of business alone, TOMS sold 10,000 pairs of shoes and Mycoskie returned to Argentina to lead the company’s first shoe drop. In November, Mycoskie will travel to Africa, where he will be delivering more than 50,000 pairs of TOMS.
“I’m delighted that for the second year in a row, the public has chosen a socially conscious design that not only looks great, but helps the lives of less fortunate people around the world,” said Cooper-Hewitt director Paul Warwick Thompson.