Color is a meaning maker. Red, for example, often has an agenda, calling attention to itself. It can shock or convey basic instructions (stop!), emotions (equally, anger and love), or temperature (red hot). In many cultures red is the color of power, and it signifies revolution as seen in the histories of both Russia and China. Color can be intrinsic or added. Coral and sanguine have a natural reddish hue, but silk, cotton, paper, glass, porcelain, rope, and numerous other materials can be dyed, fired, or injected with color. Achieving pure color has motivated artists and scientists alike for centuries.
Josef Albers, an artist and educator, published his Interaction of Color as a teaching aid for artists, instructors, and students. Designed to illustrate the changing and relative nature of color, this plate explores color illusions, optical effects, and after images, through a visual exercise.
Newson’s Compendium exhibits distorted circular motifs and shocking red colorations that reflect the op art aesthetic. Op art celebrated optical illusions created during the visual process; this vigorous red wallpaper would have been used selectively as an accent wall, adding warmth and balancing the abundant white walls typical of the 1960s.
Bandanas were originally tie-dyed silk scarves from India, typically bearing patterns of white dots. The use of Turkey red on later cotton versions meant they could only be printed by the discharge method: perforated lead plates were used to apply bleach to the dyed cloth, recreating the spotted effect of the originals.
This flashlight's textured soft rubber handle, inspired by a bycicle handle, is comfortable to grasp and hold. The broad conical head directs the illumination from a powerful light-emitting diode (LED) and also serves as a platform that lets the flashlight sit upright when not in use. The Grip is produced in bright red, blue, yellow, and white--easy to find in any setting.
The child’s chair was one of the first furniture designs by Charles and Ray Eames to go into production, and one of the first molded plywood furniture designs to be mass-produced. Its contoured form, simple silhouette, and playful use of color can be seen in the Eameses’ later, more iconic furniture designs.
Every year, Bantjes designs valentines for family, friends, and colleagues. In 2010, she repurposed old holiday cards she had collected by putting them through a laser cutter, transforming the rather prosaic cards into valentine “snowflakes.”
This decanter is an expressive use of Blenko’s signature ruby glass. Patented for use in stained glass windows, the glass could be double fired, which enabled enamel decorators to paint on it. Blenko’s technological advances resulted in a 1929 launch of innovative glass tableware that incorporated creative forms and strong colors.
In the Russian language, the words “red” and “beautiful” share an etymological root. This photomontage propaganda poster promoting a political rally highlights the importance of red to Soviet identity. It features women at work in the textile industry wearing the red headscarves associated with socialist pioneers.
bent epoxy-coated steel, hand woven dyed cotton rope, aluminum
Gift of Edra SpA, Italy
interior
home
seating
loops
chairs
irregular
layers
rope
unexpected shapes
For the brothers Fernando and Humberto Campana, startling materials are a hallmark of their practice. Often evoking the rich street-market culture of their native Brazil, they utilize quotidian elements in unexpected ways, such as cord for the opulent pile upholstery of this Vermelha chair.
Resembling a spinning top more than a chair, Spun is a creative and entertaining take on the act of sitting. Its material is durable enough for outdoor use, and its bright red color suggests playfulness. Spun shows that functional objects can be fun and pieces of art in their own right.
This mural, from a portfolio of Roman interiors intended to document ancient decor and to inspire contemporary neoclassical adaptations, was the first such work to employ chromolithography. The lavish vermilion red atrium, a color found in many Pompeian houses, reflects the Romans’ love of bright colors and the city’s reputation as a pleasure-resort.
Form
Form captures three dimensions. It can be an accumulation of parts or a single gesture. Molded clay is often a visceral expression of form while bent wood and curved glass are elegant and dramatic examples. Mathematical folding techniques transform paper and textiles into three-dimensional sculptures that can be sat upon, worn, or used as interactive kinetic elements in pop-up books. Form is often associated with a style, time period, or tradition. The modernist claim that form should follow function applies equally to innovative shoe design and building massing, as to the once ubiquitous desktop Rolodex. While structure can define form, obscuring structure often celebrates form for form's sake.
graphite, blue color pencil on wove paper, laid down
Museum purchase through gift of George A. Hearn
ceramics
plan
documentation
bowls
fluted
fabricator
elevations
This graphite drawing could have been made as a document for designers or as a fabrication drawing against which artisans would have checked the finished mold-made object before firing. The shading articulating the flutes, pinecone, and leaves emphasizes the powerful, spherical form.
Museum purchase through gift of Dale and Doug Anderson, Anonymous Donor, Arthur Liu, and Prairie Pictures, Inc. and from General Acquisitions Endowment Fund
interior
decoration
container
display
flowers
organic
texture
ridges
biomorphic
Rath’s bowl was mold-blown and then cut on the surface to emphasize the contours and imitate the texture of rock crystal. It was a centerpiece of the Paris 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes (the exhibition from which the term “art deco” derives).
The fluted sides of Hoffmann’s raised silver bowl mimic the channels on the Ionic and Corinthian marble columns of Greek temples. Hand-hammered marks from raising the bowl from a sheet of silver create a contemporary feel while simultaneously reflecting classical aesthetics.
This 1924 issue of the Gazette du Bon Ton illustrates three fanciful ballroom costumes created by French fashion designer, Jeanne Lanvin. The dramatic, whimsical, layered geometric forms, resembling lampshades, are the distinctive elements of these art deco period gowns.
Henningsen’s PH Artichoke lamp employs copper leaves attached to a metal framework to suggest the actual plant. The resulting composition creates industrial-looking uniform layered planes while evoking a naturally occurring structure.
Composed of a curved tubular metal stand, a plastic wheel, and cards, this file for storing names, addresses, and phone numbers is an artifact of the pre-digital office. Turning the wheel flips the cards, creating multiple planes. Some electronic versions are designed to evoke the tactile qualities of the rotating wheel.
This photograph by M. Thérèse Bonney, with its contrasting light and shadow, dramatically captures the curvilinear form of the spiral stair in the Martel House in Paris. Architect Robert Mallet-Stevens (French, 1886–1945) incorporated clean, sculptural, machine-like, elements to create a modernist aesthetic in this residence.
digitally enhanced fujiflex print, laminated and mounted on plexiglass
Museum purchase from Drawings and Prints Council Fund
architects
architecture
perspective
study
preparatory
light
curves
stairs
clients
geometric
presentation drawing
shadows
angular
vortex
ramps
exaggerated
stark
skewed
Cohen’s design responds to an idiosyncratic triangular site. Each floor has a unique plan, with the whole unified by a vertically twisting atrium containing the circulation core (stairs and ramps), which allows light to fall through the building and highlight the complex warped geometric volumes.
Ohr, known as the “mad potter of Biloxi,” made free-form vessels that are organic in both form and surface treatment. Here, the variegated rose and pink glaze with dark brown splotches on the exterior is paired with an interior glazed in yellow speckled with mottled green.
Museum purchase through gift of Anonymous Donor, Carol B. Brener and Stephen W. Brener, Mr. and Mrs. Max B. Furman, Mrs. John Innes Kane, James M. Osborn, and Thonet Industries, Inc.
interior
decoration
container
home
display
asymmetry
brightly colored
irregular
glass
folded
slumped
By layering and slumping fine glass threads, Zynsky creates vessels in organic forms that are texturally and colorfully rich. This particular bowl includes iridescent black, scarlet, pale and medium green, and mauve, with an interior layered in an intense red.
Gehry made his first prototype for this lamp from flattened paper cups stapled together. To replace the flammable paper, he developed a flame-resistant polyester. The basic spherical shape can be changed by pulling or poking the flexible form or by adding or removing panels, making the user a collaborator in the design.
Suter combines the amorphous and unpredictable nature of felt-making with the fastidiousness of dressmaking. She gently pleats gossamer sheets of wool batting into folds, hand-stitching a strip of plastic over each fold to prevent it from felting to the background. During the felting process, the folds are transformed into organic standing ridges.
Museum purchase from General Acquisitions Endowment Fund
instruction
model
brightly colored
curving line
mathematical
ruffles
data visualization
wool
Taimina, a mathematician, conveys the concept of exponential increase by means of a crocheted model in which the number of stitches increases in each row. The result is a dynamic illustration of certain intrinsic properties of hyperbolic space.
Manufactured by Paye & Baker Manufacturing Company
silver plated, nickel
Museum purchase from Decorative Arts Association Acquisition and General Acquisitions Endowment Funds
interior
decoration
container
home
pattern
art deco
line
form
angular
cone
zoning
vase
Karasz developed designs by beginning with a form and appending new elements. Here, a conical object is altered by the addition of four triangular planes forming a cross at the base. Karasz utilized these simple geometric components for a variety of objects characterized by planes and smooth surfaces.
brush and watercolor, black chalk on cream laid paper
Museum purchase through gift of various donors and from Eleanor G. Hewitt Fund
preparatory
flowers
repetition
tableware
bowls
roses
scallops
food
The cabbage-leaf shape of this design for a salad bowl is indicative of the ways tableware became use-specific in 18th-century France. Micaud’s elevation and plan views emphasize the intricate patterning for which Sèvres was famous, including sprays of roses, tulips, and colored daisies, and blue and yellow-brown painted scallops on the edges.
Museum purchase through gift of Georgiana L. McClellan
decoration
domestic
dining
organic
stemmed
flared
iridescent
The form of this Favrile glass vase suggests a flower with flared bloom and narrow stem. Tiffany coined the word “favrile” from the Latin fabrilis (relating to a craftsman), to imply handwork for his mold-made glass. His experiments with minerals resulted in an iridescence suggesting the surface of excavated ancient Roman glass.
black crayon, stumped; brush and black ink over photostat, varnish on illustration board
Gift of Mrs. Hugh Ferriss
architects
architecture
communication
advertising
designers
future
planning
New York
cities
skyscrapers
buildings
edifice
totemic
exploration
sharp
Ferriss envisioned 4 orchestrations of the shape of the modern skyscraper, determined by the 1916 New York zoning law requiring setbacks to let light into the streets. Ferriss blocked out the building’s form in a greasy crayon, used a paper stump to achieve halftones, and produced highlights with an eraser.
Museum purchase from Smithsonian Institution Collections Acquisition Program Fund
architects
architecture
print collectors
urban dwellers
future
art deco
form
urban planning
buildings
angular
towers
Fuller’s Ten-Deck House, composed of ten geometrically shaped floors, was designed to be mass-produced for single-family housing but was never realized. His lightweight aluminum structure was intended to be airlifted by zeppelin and lowered into a crater. Fuller produced low-cost multiples of his drawing using a mimeograph and hand-colored the prints.
The Compagnie des Arts Français’s products ranged from furnishings to tableware, including the mirror nearby and the faience vegetable dish modelled after this drawing that was exhibited at the 1925 Paris exposition. Süe and Mare’s designs suggest a parallel dialogue between historic style and a modern sensibility.
Origami Pleat is made by folding polyester fabric at crisp angles in the traditional “Mountains and Valleys” origami pattern. Dye-transfer paper is sandwiched between the fabric and the outer paper. During the heat-setting process, the pleats are permanently pressed and the dye penetrates the folded layers to varying degrees.
pen and ink, brush and black ink, crayon on tracing paper
Gift of Serge Ivan Chermayeff
preparatory
triangles
geometric
elevations
modular
architectural drawing
residential
mid-century modern
For his studio on Cape Cod, Chermayeff employed a modernist sensibility, using geometric forms in two and three dimensions. While the plan of the structure is based on four geometric modules, the exterior plane mimics the shapes and colors of semaphore flags, perfectly suited to the setting.
Museum purchase from General Acquisitions Endowment Fund
illusionistic
domestic interiors
op art
columns
black and white
curtain
spirals
diagonal lines
architectonic
Brown is best known for her bold geometric designs of the 1960s and 1970s, most created for Heal Fabrics, an important producer of avant-garde designs. Her distinctive style pioneered the fashion for architectural-scale patterns, including 3D and op-art effects.
This 1924 issue of the “Gazette du Bon Ton” illustrates a fanciful ballroom costume created by French designer Paul Poiret. The bold, dramatic, whimsical, layered geometric form, resembling lampshades, is the distinctive element of this Art Deco period gown.
This photograph by M. Therese Bonney, with its contrasting light and shadow, dramatically captures the curvilinear form of the spiral stair in the Robert Mallet-Stevens House in Paris. French architect Robert Mallet-Stevens incorporated several such clean, sculptural, machine-like, elements to create a modernist aesthetic in this residence.
Line
Line is a thinking device—it enables designers to envision a concept and define its character. Lines can be organic and fluid, or straight and disciplined, just as the connection between two points can be direct or ambling. Lines can create pattern and texture, express movement, demark space, or meander off the page or surface. The hand-drawn line connects us directly to the designer, revealing an active process. Lines that have been embroidered, stenciled, carved, or cut by hand evoke the same spontaneity—though the process of their creation may be meticulous. A line in space can delineate a volume, bringing the immediacy of drawing to three-dimensional form.
The Getty Center sits on a Los Angeles hilltop overlooking the San Diego Freeway. Meier based his design on one angle corresponding to the turn of the freeway and to two geological ridges that run through the site. According to Meier, the angle is “like two outstretched arms.”
Design 105 was part of the Taliesin Line, named after Wright’s Wisconsin home. Believing that the design of furnishings was integral to the architecture of the home, Wright imagined this set of matching wallpapers and textiles, many inspired by architectural plans and elevations, affording homeowners the opportunity to create a unified interior.
mulberry paper (kozo washi) treated with fermented persimmon tannin (kakishibu), and silk threads (itoire)
Gift of Helen Snyder
water
abstraction
designers
clients
rhythm
dyers
Katagami, the stencils used in the Japanese resist-dye process katazome to produce printed textiles, typically feature abstract motifs drawn from nature, traditional folklore, and literature. The curving, rhythmic lines shown here convey moving water. The simplicity of the design belies the laborious process of carving the stencil.
Museum purchase through gift of Mrs. Florence Matthews, Mrs. Edward Stern, Mrs. Calvin Stillman, and W. & J. Sloane
wall hanging
museum exhibition
black and white
experimentation
curving line
color transitions
digital manufacturing
In Cloned Line, Knauss exploits a limitation of early digital looms: his meandering hand-drawn lines “wrap” when they hit the edge of the 14-inch horizontal repeat, multiplying in number and causing a gradual transition from white to black over the length of the textile.
Purchase in memory of Mildred Rosenberg, Gift of her Family.
rounded
dining
coffee/tea drinking
decorative
curvilinear
curving line
globular
colorful
Choo creates vessels intended to add heightened sensuousness and a feeling of celebration to daily life. Choo says of this piece that the “handle and knob are three-dimensional transcriptions of strokes of my brush calligraphy; sweeping movements of my brush . . . give [my work] a flowing line of energy.”
hand-molded glass set with fire-joined turquoise canes (mezza filigrana), gold leaf inclusions
Museum purchase from the Members' Acquisitions Fund of Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum
interior
decoration
container
stripes
kitchen
gold
display
dining
vases
curvilinear
shells
curved
rhythm
line
lattice
glass
striated
movement
This vase is a collaboration in which Scarpa revived an old technique, mezza filigrana, in a Venini-designed form in a way that expresses modernist sensibility. Glassblowers produced mezza filigrana by embedding filaments of opaque white glass of slightly varying thickness into transparent molten glass while maintaining an exacting spiral, accentuating the vase’s curves.
Museum purchase from the Members' Acquisitions Fund of Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum
architects
architecture
home
personal environmental control
adornment
repetition
protection
stylized
rhythm
foliate
curving line
family
art nouveau
exterior
organic line
iron
Best known for his designs for the Paris Metro in 1900, Guimard was a prominent innovator of the art nouveau style, epitomized in this grille for an apartment-house balcony. Sinuous, organic lines generate aesthetic continuity between the balconies and the interiors, which were also designed by Guimard.
George Bickman, an English writing master and engraver, compiled with his father, John Bickman, a series of copy books for teaching penmanship and lettering styles. The proper handling of the quill is pictured with examples of expressive script at left; at right is a lesson on proportion and formulation of letters.
The shapes of 16 mollusk shells are the inspiration for a diverse grouping of abstract woodcuts that rhythmically swirl on every page. The dramatic use of line, no doubt intended to be copied or adapted as decorative motifs for textiles and other decorative objects, demonstrates the designer’s creativity in transforming nature into pattern.
Zeisel collaborated with a number of ceramics manufacturers around the world. This white ovoid teapot with a fluted opening and delicately arched handle was manufactured in Russia by the Lomonosov Porcelain Factory (formerly the Imperial Porcelain Factory).
The Ming dress regulations of 1391 systematically correlated birds and animals to civil and military ranks, to be displayed as badges on robes. Here, a pair of white egrets is set against a background of swirling golden clouds. The egret was the symbol of a 6th-rank civil official.
mulberry paper (kozo washi) treated with fermented persimmon tannin (kakishibu), and silk threads (itoire)
Gift of Helen Snyder
water
plants
leaves
vegetal
lattice
spirals
movement
curving lines
thread
Katagami, the stencils used in the Japanese resist-dye process of katazome to produce printed textiles, typically feature abstract motifs drawn from nature, traditional folklore, and literature. The curving, rhythmic lines shown here convey moving water. The simplicity of the design belies the laborious process of carving the stencil.
Designed for an Otis Rush, Grateful Dead, and Canned Heat concert at San Francisco’s Fillmore, Wes Wilson’s poster is a pioneering example of psychedelic poster design. Characterized by their swirling letterforms and bright colors, Wilson’s designs are today synonymous with the 1960s peace movement.
Museum purchase from General Acquisitions Endowment Fund
collectors
profile
display
exhibition
romance
women
print collectors
printmakers
intertwined
curving line
line
pair
art nouveau
hair
erotic
kissing
publishers
An icon of art nouveau illustration, Behrens’ Der Küss (The Kiss) appeared in the avant-garde journal Pan in 1898. The flat, evenly colored style—evidence of the fashion for Japanese woodcut prints in turn-of-the-century Europe—makes plain the provocative imagery of two androgynous figures kissing, their hair erotically intertwined.
This whimsical poster depicts the malevolent spirit Mephistopheles from the operatic interpretation of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Faust, Part One. Mephistopheles interrupts Faust’s suicide attempt with an enticing proposal: he bargains to be Faust’s servant on Earth, if Faust agrees to be Mephistopheles’ servant in Hell.
This poster was designed by graphic designer and book publisher Müller on the occasion of an exhibition exploring the work of Italian artist and designer Bruno Munari (1907–1998). Wavy red lines and circular holes pay homage to Munari’s playful transformations of simple, everyday objects.
Combining functionality and aesthetics, each of these bulbs’ looping compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) tubes creates a sculptural, organic form. The yellow-tinted Plumen 001 offers an energy-efficient alternative to traditional light bulbs, without the cold, white light of conventional CFLs, showing that what is good for the environment can also be good for design.
Combining functionality and aesthetics, each of these bulbs’ looping compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) tubes creates a sculptural, organic form. The yellow-tinted Plumen 001 offers an energy-efficient alternative to traditional light bulbs, without the cold, white light of conventional CFLs, showing that what is good for the environment can also be good for design.
Combining functionality and aesthetics, each of these bulbs’ looping compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) tubes creates a sculptural, organic form. The yellow-tinted Plumen 001 offers an energy-efficient alternative to traditional light bulbs, without the cold, white light of conventional CFLs, showing that what is good for the environment can also be good for design.
Combining functionality and aesthetics, each of these bulbs’ looping compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) tubes creates a sculptural, organic form. The yellow-tinted Plumen 001 offers an energy-efficient alternative to traditional light bulbs, without the cold, white light of conventional CFLs, showing that what is good for the environment can also be good for design.
Combining functionality and aesthetics, each of these bulbs’ looping compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) tubes creates a sculptural, organic form. The yellow-tinted Plumen 001 offers an energy-efficient alternative to traditional light bulbs, without the cold, white light of conventional CFLs, showing that what is good for the environment can also be good for design.
These earrings exemplify Muehling’s approach to interpreting nature. He can take a seemingly mundane natural form and render it in a way that emphasizes its beauty. Some of his work in jewelry and other media elaborates a simple form into a more complex design—in this case, a manipulated spiral shell.
Museum purchase from Friends of Textiles and General Acquisitions Endowment Funds
women's clothing
curving line
movement
brushstrokes
The Jazz Age flapper had a counterpart in Japan: the moga (modern girl). When this confident young woman wore a kimono, she preferred one with a bold graphic statement. This piece, with its sweeping arcs of color and sense of movement, evokes the work of French artist Sonia Delaunay.
Giarrè, a late 18th-century engraver working in Florence, was a skillful calligrapher and artist known for his work on contemporary atlases in Italy. His manuals on lettering and penmanship contained numerous examples of curvilinear script.
Pattern
Pattern is often described in terms of music—both are dependent on a sense of movement and rhythm. It stimulates the eye to move around an object, exploring starts and stops, continuities and interruptions. Using a vocabulary of repetition, reflection, and rotation, designers create an infinite variety of patterns—each providing the illusion of endlessness or a space beyond the immediate surface. Pattern may be used to obscure or to enliven. It can be created in all media, whether printed, stamped, woven, dyed, cut-out, pierced, carved, molded, or drawn. Sometimes technology facilitates pattern-making, but throughout history designers have been drawn to pattern even in entirely freehand techniques.
Museum purchase from Combined Funds and through gift of Crane and Co.
interior
circles
pattern
dining
seating
utility
geometric
pierced
cross-media
sanitorium
cut-out
leather
chair
Hoffmann worked from the principle of unity in architecture, interior decoration, and furniture. The circular cutouts in the chair back and the wood balls in the crook of the legs relate to circles in textiles and wallcoverings. The round holes also provide ventilation and make the chair light enough to be moved easily.
For decades, Troxler has produced posters promoting annual jazz concerts in Willisau, Switzerland. His designs, with their emphasis on individuality and improvisation, are a reaction to the rationalist tradition in Swiss graphic design. Here, letters punctuated by circles of varied sizes create a visual evocation of the jazz spirit.
mouth-blown colorless glass, black ink feather-pen drawing with gilding
Museum purchase through gift of Dale and Doug Anderson, Anonymous Donor, Arthur Liu, and Prairie Pictures, Inc. and from General Acquisitions Endowment Fund
interior
circles
circular
container
kitchen
home
dining
symmetry
pitchers
foliate
curving line
geometric
art nouveau
bulbous
handle
carafes
Massanetz’s water pitcher is of blown glass with applied handles. The surface is decorated with black-pen painting and gold decoration, a technique refined in Steinschönau, in northern Bohemia. The intricate, lace-inspired design radiates symmetrically from the middle of the body, creating a kaleidoscope of pattern and detail.
For this poster featuring Bob Dylan, Sharp drew inspiration from the musician’s signature curly hair. Radiating circular motifs imitate the curls and also borrow from Albrecht Dürer’s woodcut, seen nearby. Just above Dylan’s forehead and scattered throughout, Sharp inserts the knot patterns that Dürer created in the early 16th century.
Razzmatazz reflects the period’s taste for op art, which exploited how the eye perceives a dissonant figureground interaction. These papers were intended to be used sparingly, as accents balanced by unadorned adjacent walls. The black flock creates a tactile experience and gives the design a greater sense of depth.
Museum purchase from General Acquisitions Endowment Fund
decoration
domestic
dining
symmetry
commemorative
eagles
ornamental
foliate
propaganda
From the Kremlin Service commissioned by Emperor Nicholas I, this porcelain plate has a pattern reflecting a new interest in Russian design traditions. The extensive use of gold and stylized ornament—an imperial eagle and surrounding Cyrillic inscription meaning “Nicholas the Emperor and Ruler of All the Russias”—create a powerful visual impact.
Gefle Porslinsfabrik was a manufacturer of tableware and other ceramics for everyday use. The graphic effect of the black and white radiating lines decorating this cup and saucer creates a visual energy and is typical of the company at its best in the 1950s and 1960s.
Museum purchase from Charles E. Sampson Memorial Fund
depth
interior
circles
domestic
dining
drinking
abstraction
overlapping
geometric
contrast
service
white porcelain
The surfaces and forms of this coffee set are based on the circle. From the rust-red surface decoration to the cutouts in the handles and lids of the vessels, Sika plays with the circle as both a utilitarian and a decorative shape.
This oval-shaped footed bowl with scalloped rim uses molding and hand-cut finishing to create a pattern that features lozenge shapes, stars, and husks—popular motifs in the neoclassical designs of its era. The prismatic effect created by significant lead content in the glass accentuates the pattern in a dazzling geometric display.
With its repeated large-scale commas and periods, Pause plays with elements rarely highlighted in wallcoverings. The earliest examples of typographic papers were educational rather than decorative, intended for children’s rooms. Typography has provided motifs for adult wallpaper design since the 1920s, reaching its peak as a source of decorative elements in the 1960s.
These gates, from the entrance to the Chanin Building’s executive suite, are excellent examples of the important role metalwork played in defining the art deco style of New York skyscrapers from about 1925 to 1940. The gates’ largely linear, radiating design created an industrially informed aesthetic that was part of the machine-age era.
Manufactured by Coherent Communications System Corporation
molded plastic, metal
Gift of Walter Dorwin Teague Associates, Inc.
circles
metallic
communication
lattice
portable
correspondence
electronics
rotation
Walter Dorwin Teague Associates’ streamlined, disc-shaped, metallic-toned conference phone is also a decorative object. The pattern of small square number and function keys is repeated across the molded plastic body’s pierced center to form the speaker panel.
This acquisition made possible through Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation
interior
decoration
container
domestic
dining
asymmetry
octagonal
decorative
brightly colored
bowls
geometric
eating
glass
concave
Twisted, semi-opaque red-orange and deep translucent blue glass canes were heat-laminated together to create this bowl, with its pattern of audaciously contrasting blue parallelograms and red ground.
silk, metallic yarns (gilded parchment wound around linen core)
Gift of John Pierpont Morgan
metallic
churches
roundel
apparel fabric
interlaced
vestments
stars
Woven during Spain’s Nasrid dynasty (1232-1492), this fragment has a colorful and delicate geometric design that uses gold thread for a jewel-like effect. The Nasrids, the last Muslim kingdom in Spain, paid tribute to Castile by presenting gifts of fine textiles to the nobility and high-ranking members of the Catholic Church.
The delicate textile designs of Felice Rix-Ueno show the influence of the several trips she made to Japan before relocating to Kyoto with her husband, Japanese architect Isaburo Ueno. She designed textiles, wallcoverings, ceramics, and cloisonné for the Wiener Werkstätte from before World War I until 1930.
Museum purchase through gift of Eleanor and Sarah Hewitt
circles
pattern
symmetry
repetition
interlaced
knots
dense
embroidery
The intended purpose of this enigmatic interlaced design—one of six similar motifs produced by Dürer after designs by Leonardo da Vinci—is unknown. It may have served as a pattern for embroidery or textiles, or as a demonstration of the artist’s craftsmanship.
Museum purchase from General Acquisitions Endowment Fund
water
symmetry
gardens
fountains
statues
baroque
grid
garden design
landscape design
arcades
niches
tunnels
French designer Daniel Marot spent his career as a designer in Holland, working for the royal court. Marot produced extravagant designs for everything from beds, to curtains and mirrors. In his elaborate designs for gardens, Marot balanced a passion for ornament and order, as illustrated here with a semi-enclosed garden surrounded by a green arcade.
Museum purchase from General Acquisitions Endowment Fund
advertising
water
trees
symmetry
gardens
fountains
statues
cross
geometric
grid
lattice
garden design
landscape design
niches
ground plan
lawns
This title page features four different designs for garden beds, a preview to the imaginative designs featured in Marot’s publication. Here Marot playfully hems in the untamed forest of trees at the top of the print, giving way to his elaborately ordered landscape design.
Museum purchase from Smithsonian Collections Acquisition and Decorative Arts Association Acquisition Funds
Maria Likarz-Strauss was one of the most prolific designers for the Wiener Werkstätte, creating her first design for them in 1912. Her designs frequently featured geometric patterns of stylized floral motifs rendered in vivid, saturated colors.
Museum purchase from Smithsonian Collections Acquisition and Decorative Arts Association Acquisition Funds
Maria Likarz-Strauss was one of the most prolific designers for the Wiener Werkstätte, creating her first design for them in 1912. Her designs frequently featured geometric patterns of stylized floral motifs rendered in vivid, saturated colors.
Museum purchase from Smithsonian Collections Acquisition and Decorative Arts Association Acquisition Funds
Maria Likarz-Strauss was one of the most prolific designers for the Wiener Werkstätte, creating her first design for them in 1912. Her designs frequently featured geometric patterns of stylized floral motifs rendered in vivid, saturated colors.
Museum purchase from Smithsonian Collections Acquisition and Decorative Arts Association Acquisition Funds
These drawings, which document different colorways, might have been made for the various Wiener Werkstätte shops, as records for the individual designers, or for fabric printers who were outside contractors.
Museum purchase from Smithsonian Collections Acquisition and Decorative Arts Association Acquisition Funds
The Wiener Werkstätte (Vienna Workshops), which operated from 1903 to 1932, produced more than 1,800 different patterns for use in fashion, accessories, and interior furnishings. The designers of the Wiener Werkstätte borrowed freely from contemporary forms of abstraction, such as futurism and cubism, as well as from traditional folk-art motifs.
This wallpaper design in a grid or trellis pattern uses bold hues of green and yellow to create an optical surface tension, and was part of a collection containing designs by several renowned international artists.
Getulio Alviani is an Italian artist based in Milan whose paintings and sculptures have established his reputation as an important international optical-kinetic artist. Alviani became fascinated with polished aluminum surfaces and began creating artworks with this material. He likes to create within three main bodies of work: those with polished aluminum surfaces which reflect light in different hues according to the angle at which they are viewed; chromodynamic surfaces where he juxtaposes primary colors to achieve a tensile reaction; and the use of mirrors to create the illusion of rings on reflecting metal surfaces.
His work was included at the Venice Biennale in 1964. After being included in an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York the following year, the museum acquired the work for their permanent collection. The MoMA collection now contains three screen-printed works on paper by Alviani. He also wrote a book on Josef Albers in 1988.
Early in his career, von Zülow experimented with a type of negative stencil printing, in which the cross-pieces were printed, creating a network of black outlines. The cut-out voids were hand-colored in brilliant tones, creating a stained-glass effect, which is reflected in this textile design for the Wiener Werkstätte.
This design for a floor treatment is one of a series of vivid patterns produced by Moser to be applied to a variety of flat surfaces. This kaleidoscopic pattern of interlocking red and gray hexagons is typical of Viennese Secessionism, an artistic style characterized by simple lines and modern, geometric forms.
Created with Japanese paper and water-soluble inks, White executed most of her designs by adding moisture to the ink, folding the paper, and squeezing to distribute and blend the colors. The ancient technique of tie-dyeing gained popularity in the West in the 1960s and 1970s, when it was associated with the hippie movement.
Created with Japanese paper and water-soluble inks, White executed most of her designs by adding moisture to the ink, folding the paper, and squeezing to distribute and blend the colors. The ancient technique of tie-dyeing gained popularity in the West in the 1960s and 1970s, when it was associated with the hippie movement.
The design of this poster, produced for the Wiener Werkstätte, referenced collections of 19th-century katagami (pattern paper), a tool created by Japanese craftsmen to print patterns on silk.
In this series of posters, waves of linear distress engulf core typographic forms. Schuurman uses software tools in an unexpected way to produce an optical overload. The letterforms have no clear center point, dissolving both inward and outward to congest the field of vision.
heat- and steam-shaped horn, with engraved and black-stained decoration
Gift of Barbara Munves
decoration
personal
curving form
waves
flowers
trees
floral
scrolls
curvilinear
curved
tool
stylized
geometric
tapered
fleur-de-lis
shoes
footwear
handheld
guilloche
This is a rare shoe horn from about 1600—only 17 examples from this period are known to exist. The detailed decoration of what was typically a plain, utilitarian object suggests that it may have belonged to a toilet table set. The engraved designs may relate to blackwork embroidery.
Museum purchase through gift of the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation and from General Acquisitions Endowment Fund
upholstery
domestic interiors
brightly colored
curtain
furnishing fabric
geometric
parallelogram
abstract
This pattern evidences Albers’ mastery of the language of modular, geometric forms. She uses isosceles trapezoids and parallelograms, in a finite number of sizes, carefully arranged according to subtle principles of repetition and rotation into elegantly interlocking groups.
This design displays the unique textural patterning that is a signature of Karasz. The myriad geometric patterning is playful and intriguing which creates a nice energy and keeps the design from becoming stagnant. Printed by the blueprint or mezzotone process, this was Karasz’ favorite printing technique as it captured all the delicacy of her original line drawings. The blueprint method is a photographic process that creates a positive print from a blueprint negative. Each paper printed by this process requires a hand drawn, full-scale original artwork on linen. Karasz designs all contain an unusual or flat perspective as she believed walls should be represented as a two-dimensional surface. The grid format used here helps maintain the flatness of this design while also imparting a quilt or folk aesthetic. Karasz began designing wallpaper in 1947, working almost exclusively for Katzenbach & Warren, Inc. In 1960 she founded Design Group, Inc., in Brewster, New York, for which she designed a new line of murals, all printed in the blueprint method.
Gift of Robert W. Chanler 1931, Smithsonian Libraries NK8 S558 CHMRB Vol. 1
These abstract patterns, inspired by simple floral designs, appeared in the 1902 issue of the Japanese periodical, Bijutsukai. Each issue—comprised solely of colorful woodblock prints by well-known Japanese painters of the day—was intended to provide traditional and innovative designs for textile artists, potters, and craftsmen worldwide.
Gift of Robert W. Chanler 1931, Smithsonian Libraries NK8 S558 CHMRB Vol. 2
These abstract swirling and intersecting patterns appeared in the 1902 issue of the Japanese periodical, Bijutsukai. Each issue—comprised solely of colorful woodblock prints by well-known Japanese painters of the day—was intended to provide traditional and innovative designs for textile artists, potters, and craftsmen worldwide.
Texture
Texture engages the sense of touch, even when we only take it in with our eyes. Smooth or rough, fluffy or prickly, texture provides information about what something is made of. But how something looks is not always how it feels. In graphic design, textures are often created by repeating and rotating a combination of lines, creating an illusion. Texture can be made by subtractive techniques—such as cutting, carving, or piercing—or additive methods—like overlays, embroidery, or flocking. Raised and layered surfaces—achieved by knotting and interlacing, twisting and overlapping, pushing out and encrusting—invite plays of light and shadow, which further arouse tactile sensation.
Color: Blue
The creation of a color combines science, craft, and art. Naturally occurring blues—from the brilliant blue of kingfisher feathers to the deepest lapis lazuli, from the green-blue of turquoise to the violet-blue of indigo—have been used in the service of design for millenia. Blue, the color of the sky, associated with cool serenity, has always been one of the most sought-after colors for artists and designers. Indigo dyeing processes were known to the Mesopotamians, and the oldest object in the Cooper Hewitt collection, an Egyptian vessel from ca. 1100 BCE, still shows a bright, manufactured turquoise blue. More recent technologies, like cyanotype and anodization, have resulted in new but equally iconic shades of blue.
The island of Murano in Venice has been an important glass-blowing center for over 1,000 years. An ancient technique called "casing" was used to create the bold organic form of this modern vase, in which dense areas of pure color–azure blue and smoky purple–appear to float weightlessly in a vessel of colorless glass.
Traditionally called a "rosewater sprinkler," this ewer was part of a gift of Iranian glass from Rodman Wanamaker. It represents the type of antique objects sold in the family's department stores in Philadelphia and New York from the late 19th to early 20th century, while also functioning as inspiration for the contemporary art glass and pottery sold by the firm.
Van Dyke printing was a reprographic technique used in the early 20th century for making intermediary prints of architectural plans, with white lines on a dark-brown ground. Johnson chose to render his design in pure white on a deep-blue ground, the more-familiar color scheme of architectural blueprints.
From 1946 to 1953, Edward McKnight Kauffer produced more than 30 posters for American Airlines. Kauffer believed that travel posters should convey “the character of places.” Rather than focus on the travel itself, Kauffer highlighted the destination with a soaring view of skyscrapers set against a clear, blue sky.
Lissim was versatile, producing designs for wallpaper, jewelry, textiles, metalwork, graphics, theater design, and ceramics. He designed over 120 pieces for the Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory, including this plate design, which elegantly encompasses the curved form of the plate with abstract motifs that twist inward.
In 1931, Eleanor Roosevelt commissioned a bowl to celebrate her husband Franklin's reelection as governor of New York. Produced in a small series, this bowl was designed in Ohio by Schreckengost. His visits to New York City inspired the nightlife motifs and the vibrant-blue glaze that he said evoked the "funny blue light" of the city.
The vivid iridescent blue of this headdress is the natural color of feathers from the kingfisher bird, native to parts of China and other Asian locations. Kingfisher feathers were used for objects of personal adornment because of their dazzling visual appeal. Associated with affluence and status, finely crafted ornaments such as this one were popular among high ranking government officials and weatlhy patrons.
Among the most prized items brought back in trade by the Dutch East India Company in the 17th century was Chinese blue-and-white porcelain. Quick to try to replicate the look, the town of Delft had so many factories that specialized in blue-and-white earthenware that the resulting production became known as Delftware.
Known for his jewelry and metalwork in anodized aluminum, designer Tisdale chose blue as one of the colors for his Electra flatware series of 1986 because it is a signature anodized color, and it was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration at that time.
Known for his jewelry and metalwork in anodized aluminum, designer Tisdale chose blue as one of the colors for his Electra flatware series of 1986 because it is a signature anodized color, and it was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration at that time.
Known for his jewelry and metalwork in anodized aluminum, designer Tisdale chose blue as one of the colors for his Electra flatware series of 1986 because it is a signature anodized color, and it was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration at that time.
hard paste porcelain, vitreous enamel, gold, metal
Museum purchase from Decorative Arts Association Acquisition Fund
ceramics
gold
vessels
luxury
nature
porcelain
Sèvres showed this vase form at their display in the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1855. Named after missionary R. P. Ly, who published influential studies on Chinese porcelain, the vase was produced in a range of patterns, including this rich vegetal motif against a brilliant blue background.
brush and watercolor, graphite, brush and gouache on brownish, translucent wove paper, possibly coated with resin
Museum purchase from Drawings and Prints Council Fund through gift of The Florence Gould Foundation
symmetry
jewels
figurative
leaves
vegetal
jewelers
jewelry
stars
art nouveau
transparent
jewelry design
This drawing for a corsage ornament by famed art nouveau designer Lalique features a Milky Way of diamonds and sapphires flanked by two nudes, both personifications of Night. The final brooch was exhibited in Paris at the influential Exposition Universelle of 1900.
brush and blue watercolor on pre-printed white wove paper
Museum purchase through gift of George A. Hearn
dining
seating
affordable
mass market
innovative
mid-century modern
In 1950, Baker Furniture, Inc., hired Danish designer Juhl to create a new line of furniture that appealed to a younger American market. The result was a 24-piece set that includes this design for a dining chair, characterized by its clean lines and slender, exposed-wood framing.
Museum purchase through gift of Mrs. Gilbert W. Chapman and Ely Jacques Kahn
graphic design
advertising
trees
women
winter
art nouveau
promotional poster
magazine
ice
literary
ice skates
Bradley used two contrasting inks—a sumptuous blue and a vibrant vermilion—to create this poster. He generated a third color by overprinting them, resulting in the rich, dark purple of the trees and the woman’s coat. The thicket of vermilion-edged trees is a carefully planned by-product of the overprinting.
Frankl, the Austrian-born designer of this desk, wrote in 1930, "The horizontal line is expressive of the style of today." Frankl used strong horizontals here to evoke the sleekness of the fashionable streamlined style and to accent the geometry of the desk's construction. Blue-lacquered surfaces punctuated by red knobs enliven the desk's typical association with utility.
Museum purchase through gift of Dale and Doug Anderson, Anonymous Donor, Arthur Liu, and Prairie Pictures, Inc. and from General Acquisitions Endowment Fund
decoration
container
domestic
display
dining
delicate
globular
flared
luminous
blue
fruit bowl
Although a sculptor and founder of Wiener Keramik, Powolny also worked with glass. This vase suggests a study of ancient forms and techniques. The cobalt-blue color replicates some ancient Egyptian glass, while the form is closer to that of ancient Greek calyx-kraters, but with Powolny's own take on handles: finger holes.
Apple introduced the iPod, an all-white, personal music-player, in 2001, showcasing their now-iconic minimalist aesthetic. By 2009, the firm’s smaller iPod Nano was available in vibrant metallic colors. This shift reflects a change in the market for personal technology devices—a change that allowed for a greater range of choice and personalization.
Designed for an exhibition of French architect Jean Prouvé’s work, this poster uses a photograph of Prouvé’s design for the Rotterdam Medical School of Erasmus University. By reducing the building to a gradient of blue, Odermatt made the text stand out against the simplified background, while cleverly wedding the exhibition title to the architecture.
bent plastic-coated metal wire, woven cotton upholstery, foam rubber
Gift of the Bard Graduate Center: Decorative Arts, Design History, Material Culture
interior
domestic
modernism
seating
sculptural
metal
curving line
diamonds
geometric
chair
Bertoia was inspired by a plastic-coated wire dish rack to create the construction of the Diamond chair in 1952. To this intersection of his sculptural background and metalworking expertise, Bertoia added comfort and color with the cushion.
Museum purchase through gift of George R. Kravis II and from General Acquisitions Endowment Fund
interior
exhibition
modernism
seating
future
curving line
glass
plaid
bent
sleek
transparent
World's Fair
chair
extrude
At the 1939 New York World's Fair's Glass Center, a pavilion that marketed glass as the material of the future, visitors encountered a model dining room with a suite of glass furniture. Six examples of this chair were on view, showcasing the industrial material of plate glass formed in a technically sophisticated curve befitting the modern interior.
Buchsbaum was an architect and interior designer who worked for several architectural offices in New York before establishing his own firm in 1967. He received a Bachelor of Science degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and his Bachelor of Architecture Degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1961. Buchsbaum became known for creating polished, high-tech interiors for loft apartments, and was a key figure in three significant, consecutive design phases: supergraphics, high-tech and postmodernism. This strong graphic pattern is a combination of his desire for polished, hi-tech interiors and his passion for large-scale graphics. The herringbone format, based on the classic herringbone design, is made contemporary by the use of primary colors, its large-scale, and the chopped or segmented execution of the design. The seemingly random placement of the yellow dots in select sections disrupts the regularity of the design, causing the eyes to meander in pursuit of the dots, which visually breaks up the strict geometry of the herringbone pattern.
Shibori, the art of tied-resist dyeing, has been practiced for centuries in and around the village of Arimatsu, Japan. This piece was dyed by Arimatsu native and 9th generation indigo dyer Kenji Hattori. The delicate tracery of the spider web design requires exceptional mastery of the shibori technique.
molded and emulsion-painted pyrex glass, cast and nickel-plated steel, molded phenolic plastic resin and rubber, fabric (cord)
Gift of George R. Kravis II
women
industrial design
color gradation
colorful
iron
In response to metal shortages during World War II, Saunders Machine & Tool Corporation partnered with Corning Glassworks to develop this Silver Streak iron with a durable and heat-resistant shell and handle of Pyrex. Consumers could choose from a body in red, green, or blue jewel tones that glowed through the colorless glass.
Delaunay was a textile designer and artist known for her use of geometric shapes and strong colors. Her work in the 1930s, when this book of pochoir designs was published, looks very modern today. The shapes and colors are so vivid that they seem to vibrate and move on the page.
