Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum Announces Winners of the 2012 National Design Awards

NEW YORK, May 3, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum will celebrate outstanding achievement in design this fall with its 13th annual National Design Awards program. Today, Cooper-Hewitt Director Bill Moggridge announced the winners of the 2012 National Design Awards, which recognize excellence across a variety of disciplines. The seventh annual National Design Week will be held Oct. 13–21. The award recipients will be honored at a gala dinner Wednesday, Oct. 17, at Pier Sixty in New York.

"The National Design Awards program is Cooper-Hewitt's largest and most widespread educational initiative and celebrates the full spectrum of American design practice," said Moggridge.  "The provocative work of this year's winners truly shapes the way we experience the world."

First launched at the White House in 2000 as a project of the White House Millennium Council, the National Design Awards were established to promote excellence and innovation in design. First Lady Michelle Obama serves as the Honorary Patron for this year's National Design Awards.

This year Cooper-Hewitt is keeping the focus of the awards on the exemplary work of the winners, and chose not to have category finalists. A jury of design leaders and educators from across the country, convened by the museum, reviewed submissions resulting from thousands of nominations submitted by the general public. Nominees must have at least seven years of experience, and winners are selected based on the level of excellence, innovation and public impact of their body of work.

The 2012 National Design Award recipients are:

• Lifetime Achievement: Richard Saul Wurman
• Design Mind: Janine Benyus
• Corporate and Institutional Achievement: Design that Matters
• Architecture Design: Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects
• Communication Design: Rebeca Mendez
• Fashion Design: Thom Browne
• Interaction Design: Evan Roth
• Interior Design: Clive Wilkinson Architects
• Landscape Architecture: Stoss Landscape Urbanism
• Product Design: Scott Wilson

National Design Week is made possible in part by the generous sponsorship of Target. The National Design Awards are supported in part by Behance. Media sponsorship for the National Design Awards is provided by Fast Company. The National Design Award Trophies were created by The Corning Museum of Glass, in collaboration with Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum.

SOURCE Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum