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Competitions

Wheelwright Prize 2013 Winner

As visiting assistant professor at Pratt Institute, Wolff taught an advanced design studio course that challenged students to consider whether a body can be a paradigm for a building.

Mohsen Mostafavi, Dean of Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, announced the winner of the inaugural Wheelwright Prize, a $100,000: Brooklyn based architect Gia Wolff.

The new Wheelwright Prize is an update of the Arthur Wheelwright Traveling Fellowship, which was established in 1935 and previously available only to GSD alumni. The prize is now open to architects all over the world, and is a $100,000 traveling fellowship dedicated to fostering new forms of architectural research informed by cross-cultural engagement.

The Wheelwright Prize jury — Mostafavi, Yung Ho Chang, Farès el-Dahdah, K. Michael Hays, Farshid
Moussavi, Zoe Ryan, and Jorge Silvetti — selected Gia Wolff from among 231 applicants from 45
countries, including Afghanistan, Brazil, Burkina Faso, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Nigeria, and
Spain.

Wolff has worked for Acconci Studio, LOT-EK, Adjaye Associates, and Architecture Research Office (ARO), where she has been involved in projects that range from libraries to residences, exhibition designs to urban installations. She is presently an assistant professor adjunct at the Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture at the Cooper Union and a visiting assistant professor at Pratt Institute. She leads her own practice, which focuses on “performance and its use of space and objects to convey narrative, form, and emotion,” in her words. Recently, she has been collaborating with the Phantom Limb Company on set designs for productions including The Devil You Know (presented at La Mama Experimental Theater, New York, 2010), The Composer Is Dead (Berkeley Repertory Theater, Berkeley, 2010), and 69° South (BAM Next Wave Festival, Brooklyn, 2011). Wolff received a Master of Architecture from Harvard GSD in 2008 and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Parsons School of Design in 2001.

Wolff’s winning proposal, Floating City: The Community-Based Architecture of Parade Floats,
proposes the study of the tradition of parade floats — elaborate temporary and mobile constructions
that are realized annually in carnival festivals in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Goa (India), Nice (France), Santa
Cruze de Tenerife (Spain), and Viarreggio (Italy).

Projects

Infographic: The Global Public Interest Design 100

John Cary and Megan Jett have followed up the success of the Public Interest Design 100 which had a predominantly U.S. focus with a new global list that celebrates leaders at the intersection of design and social change:

"Everyone deserves good design. This is the shared belief of a global network of people operating at the intersection of design and service. Building on our popular Public Interest Design 100, released in December 2012, this second edition takes a much more global look at the advocates, communicators, funders, makers, and others shaping our world."

For more, visit publicinterestdesign.org.

Collections

Flickr Collection of the Week: Tales From A Parallel Universe

30 seconds by michmutters

The Flickr group capturing our imagination this week is Tales From A Parallel Universe.

Black Sun by lee.thatcher

Lacoste by Daniele Zanni

Events

Michigan Modern: Design that Shaped America

Michigan was an epicenter of modern design in postwar America. Architects Eero Saarinen and Minoru Yamasaki were instrumental in defining the look of the mid-century. Companies like Herman Miller and General Motors and designers Charles Eames, George Nelson and Harley Earl, shaped the American dream and brought good design to the masses.

The Michigan Modern story will be told June 13-16 through a symposium at the Cranbrook Educational Community and an exhibition at the Cranbrook Art Museum. Our own Alexandra Lange will be speaking on June 15th. Go to michiganmodern.org to register. Early bird registration is through May 22. Registration ends May 31.

Collections

Circus Poster Archive

All images via Circusmuseum.nl

Circusmuseum.nl, claims to be "the ultimate image bank" of circus posters, photos and prints, and the claims aren't unfounded. The site is created from the collection of Jaap Best, the Netherlands’ largest of circus memorabilia. There are nearly eight thousand circus posters from 1880 to the present, from the Netherlands to America.

Projects

Ideas that Matter

If you believe in the power of design to create positive social impact in the world, Sappi's Ideas that Matter is a wonderful opportunity.

"Since 1999, Ideas that Matter has funded over 500 nonprofit projects, contributing $12 million worldwide to causes that enhance our lives, our communities and our planet. Sappi believes that the creative ideas of designers can have an impact beyond the aesthetic and that those ideas can be a powerful force for social good. Working together with our customers, we aim to make a difference."

Grant awards range from $5,000 to $50,000 per project. Applications are due July 19, 2013.

Books

Recent Books Received: 05.09.13

Designing the Creative Child: Playthings and Places in Midcentury America
Amy F. Ogata

Vernier: Fashion, Femininity and Form
Robin Muir and Becky Conekin

Negro Building: Black Americans in the World of Fairs and Museums
Mabel O. Wilson

Maynard L. Parker: Modern Photography and the American Dream
Jennifer A. Watts, Editor

Meme Wars
Kalle Lasn and Adbusters

Collections

Flickr Collection of the Week: Look Out For Pirates

Holy Island harbour By 13th man on the Moon

The Flickr pool Look Our For Pirates looks longingly out to sea.

DSC0755NIKON D90. by paulita y rogelio

T-Steg by Martin Schmidt (www.schmaidt.de)

Miscellaneous

Saul Bass Google Doodle

Today, Saul Bass would have turned 93. To celebrate his prolific career, Google commissioned one of the more sublime "Doodles" yet. Designer/director Matt Cruickshank visually references nearly a dozen classic Bass film title sequences and film posters, from Psycho to Spartacus to North by Northwest.

Miscellaneous

The Craft of Design

American Craft magazine has produced a special 2013 design issue focusing on 25 designer/makers. You can read the lushly illustrated issue for free at craftcouncil.org/sip as well as download an interactive version on your iPad.

Exhibitions

Change of State

If you are in NYC Saturday night, we recommend you walk by the New Museum to see "Change of State" — a site specific projection on the facade of the New Museum during Ideas City Festival, Saturday, May 4th, 2013 from 8pm - 12am.

Participating artists include Cecil Balmond, Agathe de Bailliencourt, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Nicolas Guagnini, E Roon Kang & Ahrong Han, Sara Ludy, Virginia Overton & Motoko Futuyama, Jeff Preiss, Martha Rosler, Nicolas Sassoon, Krzystof Wodiczko and Ben Wolf.

More information here.

Events

counter/point: The 2013 D-Crit Conference

“counter/point: The 2013 D-Crit Conference” will take place on Saturday, May 11, 2013. This is the fourth in a series of annual conferences organized by, and starring, the graduating students of the SVA MFA in Design Criticism. The event, moderated by NPR’s John Hockenberry, will be held at the Visual Arts Theatre, 333 West 23rd Street.

Paola Antonelli, senior curator of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art, will deliver the keynote lecture, launching an afternoon of rich, polyphonic exchange between the D-Crit Class of 2013 and a headlining roster of design curators, practitioners, theorists, critics, educators, and planners. The lineup includes: Andrew Blauvelt, Fiona Raby, Mark Foster Gage, Toni Griffin, and Michael Sorkin.

Full details and registration information can be found here.

Books

Recent Books Received: 05.02.13

Souvenir Nation
William L. Bird Jr.

Building: Inside Studio Gang Architects
Jeanne Gang and Zoë Ryan, Editors

The Where, the Why, and the How: 75 Artists Illustrate Wondrous Mysteries of Science
Jenny Volvovski, Julia Rothman, Matt Lamothe

John Heartfield and the Agitated Image
Andrés Mario Zervigón

The Address Book
Sophie Calle

Photos

FILMography

In FILMography, photographer Christopher Moloney recreates backgrounds for classic films by matching movie scenes with their real, present-day locations.

Leon: The Professional (1994)

The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)

Kill Bill: Vol 1 (2003)

Annie Hall (1977)

Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)

Collections

Book Trade Labels

Label from William A. Colman, New York, New York, c.1829 (via Seven Roads)

As we process all the book entries for 50 Books/50 Covers there are hundreds of books piling up all around us. But not one of the new books we've received has a book trade label. For those, we have to look to the old books on our shelves. According to Greg Kindall at Seven Roads:

Anyone who handles old books will have come across these small and sometimes beautiful labels pasted discreetly (more or less) into the endpapers. Booksellers, binders, printers, publishers, importers, and distributors of books used to advertise in this way their part in bringing the book to market.

Greg's expansive archive is widely regarded and written about, but he's not the only one drawn to the imagery and history of the labels. You can also find them on Flickr and pinned to Pinterest, or maybe just in an old book on your shelf.

Book trade labels from Eric Cass on Pinterest.

Photos

Movies in Color

Movies in Color is a "blog featuring stills from films and their corresponding color palettes."

Books

Recent Books Received: 04.25.13

Curiosity and Method: Ten Years of Cabinet Magazine
Various

Norman Bel Geddes Designs America
Donald Albrecht

The Complete Engraver: Monograms, Crests, Ciphers, Seals, and The Etiquette of Social Stationary
Nancy Sharon Collins

Sky High
Germano Zullo

Brooklyn Makers: Food, Design, Craft and Other Scenes from the Tactile Life
Jennifer Causey

Miscellaneous

Modern Pictograms

Modern Pictograms is an icon typeface for interface designers. Modern Pictograms Pro, is version 2 and includes 130 new icons with half of the originals redrawn for retina. Learn more here.

Photos

Maddie the Coonhound

Photo: © Theron Humphrey

Two years ago Theron Humphrey rescued a Coonhound named Maddie. They embarked on a yearlong, cross-country trip and along the way Theron realized that Maddie had an incredible sense of balance and patience. He photographed her on their journey and the end result was a book: Maddie on Things. Theron and Maddie are currently on a book tour that started March 8th in Austin. While on tour they'll be filming a new documentary: Why We Rescue, collecting 50 stories of rescue dogs — one from each state.

Maddie Book Tour! from This Wild Idea on Vimeo.

Books

Awful Library Books

Awful Library Books is a collection of amusing and/or questionable library holdings found in real libraries and curated by librarians Mary Kelly and Holly Hibner. Today's post is the book New York Confidential: The Big City After Dark (Lait and Mortimer, 1948), contains such advice as:

Smart Gotham gals don't keep diaries. If what does into 'em is unimportant, why bother? If it's secret stuff, never put it in writing.

Do NOT walk in Central Park or other parks AFTER DARK, even if escorted.

Do not use cheap perfume when night clubbing (or any other time).

Gals who pass out after five (or 55) drinks should wear identification bracelets with name and address — especially when on a first date with a gent who may not know where to deliver the body.

Don't invite gents who call for you into your apartment. Have them meet you below. If they once get in, they may decide they'll stay a while, smoke your cigarettes, drink all your liquor, raid your ice box, and then if you won't give in, they won't buy you dinner.

Obviously a must-have for any modern library. Other books found in the stacks include How to Good-bye Depression: If you constrict anus 100 times everyday. Malarkey? Or Effective Way?, Why Cats Paint: a theory of feline aesthetics and Latawnya, the Naughty horse, learns to say “no” to drugs.