Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum Assignment

2 East 91st Street

(between Fifth and Madison Avenues)

Due: no later than January 4, 2016

The Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum is part of the Smithsonian Institution, located in a mansion that was once the home of industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. Considered a “technological marvel” when it was completed in 1902, the Smithsonian Institution converted the building into a museum in 1976. It recently underwent a $91 million dollar renovation to create a twenty-first century design museum that would be “a place to inspire, educate, and empower people through design.”

Please bring a guest to the museum,someone with whom you can discuss the assignment.

When you pay admission you will receive a ticket and The Pen. This pen will allow you to download images to later pull up on your computer. You will need images for this assignment. DO NOT LOSE YOUR TICKET. The ticket has the information on it that allows you to download the images. Please attach your ticket to your completed assignment. You will transfer the pictures that you take with your pen to be printed with the assignment you hand in. If you are unable to capture every object with the pen, please take a photograph.

You are required to do Provocations and How Posters Work. Then choose one more question to answer from the 3 optional assignments. On a separate sheet, write your answers in complete sentences and paragraphs. Make sure your answers are clear and descriptive. Include images with each answer and Include a “selfie” from anywhere in the museum. Please type and print the final assignment.

David Adjaye Selects (Option #1):
In this room, you will find several kinds of cloth from various countries. Choose two pieces of fabric and sketch a pattern from each piece. Identify the culture, material, process (batik, block print, woven, etc.), and function of each piece. Now go around the museum and look carefully at the architecture, building facade, other works, ceilings, etc. Find two patterns that are similar to the ones you sketched. Take a picture or draw them and identify where you found them in the museum.
How Posters Work (REQUIRED):
Continues on the second floor
Save your 3 favorite posters (photos or The Pen). Use at least 2 elements and 2 principles of design to explain why you like each one. Identify the Design Strategy that was used for the three posters:

DESIGN STRATEGIES

Focus the Eye
Overwhelm the Eye
Use Text As Image
Overlap
Assault the Surface
Cut and Paste
Simplify / Tell A Story
Amplify
Say Two Things at Once
Communicate with Scale
Exploit the Diagonal
Make a System
Make Eye Contact
Immersion room (Option #2):
Create a pattern using at least two colors and two line variations. Take a picture of it with your phone. Write a short reflection of your thought process in creating this pattern. How does your pattern compare to the patterns found in the cloth examples you looked at earlier? Which elements and principles did you use to create your pattern?
Making Design (Option #3):
Still on the second floor go through the exhibit which showcases works according to the elements and principles of design. You will find that the elements and principles are integrated to create a functional form that is not merely ornamental. Choose one 3 dimensional object and photograph it or save it. Explain how the element or principle is used to create both beauty/design and function/structure in this object.
Provocations:(REQUIRED)
On the top floor
Find one project that intrigues you (or that you just like). Photograph it or save it with The Pen. Read the essential question & descriptive paragraph on each label that explains the design process. Write one paragraph about which space/structure you would most like to interact with and why. Write one paragraph about the one you would least like to interact with and how you might change it.