Video Series

Episode 15
Helvetica:
Elegant & Minimalist

It is the most celebrated and recognizable typeface of all times. It is clean, efficient, and Modernist. It is called Helvetica. It was developed in 1957 in Switzerland and has since become a cultural phenomenon. In Latin, Helvetica means "Swiss."

It was introduced during an era when Swiss design was very popular. Helvetica was favored by advertising agencies, and quickly appeared in corporate logos, transportation systems, fine art prints, and in myriad uses worldwide. It has been recognized as reliable, and a smart choice for business.

It is incredibly easy to read and you have seen it everywhere. It dictates urban spaces, advertising, and various aspects of communication. It dominates the logos of Orange, Hoover, Lufthansa, Panasonic, Royal Bank of Scotland, and Tupperware. The list of companies that have appropriated the power of Helvetica to create success is almost endless.

Episode 14
Gourmet Food Trucks

There's a new design phenomenon ... on wheels! They are so distinctive that they stand out in the built fabric of New York. Even on busy avenues, they can be easily identified, even from high above in office towers. Devotees follow them on social media. Foodies swoon.

The trend I am talking about is Gourmet Food Trucks. They are noted for exceptional graphics, innovative kitchen design, and restaurant-quality cuisine. They are mobile kitchens, relying on creative design to maximize small spaces, and on brilliant visuals to market their exclusive products. The days of outdoor food being defined by hot-dog pushcarts are well behind us.

Immigrants from Europe brought the tradition of food carts to America, and by 1900, they were very popular in NYC. Items ranged from roasted corn to steamed oysters and baked chickpeas.

Episode 13
Bicycle Innovations

In recent years bicycles have come to play a far greater part in our world, emerging as an environmentally sustainable alternative to the car. For some urban professionals, they are the primary form of transport, projecting the image of a healthy, economical lifestyle.

New York City has spent millions creating bicycle lanes, and just partnered with Alta Bicycle Share to make thousands of bicycles available to subscribers. These self-service docking stations will launch in the summer of 2012. London, Paris & other cosmopolitan cities have introduced bike-share programs, based in the railway system stations. Not since the Golden Age of the 1890s have bicycles characterized urban culture so prominently, and now they have made a grand entrance into the pantheon of the design world. Designers are inventing design vocabularies and searching for creative solutions to various needs.

From an engineering standpoint, the most substantial innovation in recent years has been the use of carbon fiber, facilitating improvements in the weight and flexibility of bicycles.

Episode 12
Whiteware

White tableware, also know as whiteware, is becoming increasingly sophisticated and interesting. Designers are exploring sculptural and unorthodox forms that revisit the entire notion of white tableware. The result is extraordinary dining possibilities. Setting a dining table is one of the most accessible ways to express one's personal taste. However, nothing dresses up a table like cutting edge, sophisticated whiteware to complement a contemporary lifestyle.

Whiteware occupies a central role in the legacy of dining design, and dates back to the very beginning of refined dinnerware production in 18th-century Europe. After centuries of research and endless experimentation, Europeans finally discovered the secret formula of making white porcelain. The Germans, Austrians, French, and British began producing lavish dinnerware that was grand, expensive, and communicated an image of status and wealth. Most designs emphasized the whiteness of the surface, leading to the birth of white dinnerware

Episode 11
Central Park Ramble
Nature by Design

The English garden is a picturesque landscape, a style that emerged in England during the Romantic period of the 18th and 19th centuries. It revolutionized the way gardens were designed.

The traditional garden was formal, symmetrical and manicured; the English garden looked almost as if it was untouched nature. Lakes, sweeps of rolling lawns, groves of trees, Gothic ruins, bridges, all designed to create an idyllic pastoral landscape. That style of gardening spread all over the world and soon dominated landscape design of 19th century America. Perhaps the most ambitious example of an English garden is Central Park, created in the middle of the 19th century, as a green oasis for New Yorkers to escape their harried and stressful lives. Sound familiar?

Episode 10
Put a Cork in It

Cork! It's not just about wine stoppers and wedge shoes. Cork's sustainability and multiple design uses are phenomenal.
Cork is the outer bark of a special oak tree. After each harvest the cork tree fully regenerates its precious bark and can be harvested over and over again until the tree reaches approximately 200 years of age.
Cork is an amazing material: it's elastic, waterproof, fireproof, and buoyant. Plus, it's sustainable, environmentally friendly, and easily recyclable. Most cork today comes from Portugal.

Episode 9
The 9/11 Memorial
and the Power of Simplicity

The new World Trade Center Memorial, designed by Michael Arad, opens on the 10th Anniversary of 9/11. This new memorial honors victims of September 11th and the victims of the earlier terrorist attach -- the 1993 bombing of the North Tower.
It is called "Reflecting Absence."
The Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, once the tallest buildings in the world, were designed by the American architect Minoru Yamasaki in 1965 and completed in 1973. They were minimalist structures of glass and steel that symbolized a modernist corporate image. They were often derided as lacking in character but over the past decade, the Twin Towers have become icons of lost dreams. Paul Goldberger calls them Martyrs, and Martyrs are beyond criticism.

Episode 8
The Legacy
of George Nakashima

George Nakashima was an architect who called himself a woodworker. For nearly five decades, he lived in New Hope Pennsylvania, creating furniture out of magnificent planks of wood. He established himself as one of the fathers of the American Studio Movement.
Nakashima formulated a distinctive language of design that expressed his love for the natural properties of trees. Rather than discarding the edges, the cracks, and even signs of termites, traits that traditionally were considered imperfect, Nakashima preserved and highlighted them. His most important contribution to the history of modern design is what became known as "free-edge" furniture.
There is a lot of copying in the marketplace, but there are also designers who are revisiting and reinventing Nakashima's legacy. They move beyond simple quotations with fresh and original designs.

Episode 7
Playgrounds

It is hard to believe, but in 1821, America already had its first playgrounds -- but they were no more than sandboxes. Playgrounds have changed tremendously since. The formula of slides and swings is no longer the only choice. Now, playgrounds are being created by design stars who provide new experiences informed by contemporary design sensibilities.
Playgrounds have become a design phenomenon. These brilliant spaces of great design ideas, instill discipline, foster creativity, and stimulate independent thinking. They depart from the traditional playground, and propose new ways for kids to interact with each other.

Episode 6
Pop-Up Architecture

Temporary structures have been recognized as a new way of expressing extravagant design ideas that would not have been voiced otherwise. In this episode, Daniella discusses the Electrolux Cube Pop-Up Restaurant by Park Associati; the Chanel Pavilion by Zaha Hadid; and the Roc-Pop-Shop, featuring Jay Z's new premium line of Rocawear apparel, designed by D-Ash. Pop-ups are like magic tricks, surprising and delighting audiences with whimsy and flourish. They are especially suited to urban environments, because pop-ups are a distillation of the changing city landscapes, a cutting-edge approach to creating unique, mobile structures out of limited materials and space. Pop-ups are a sophisticated trend made possible by design.

Episode 5
Knoll Textile

Daniella Ohad Ph.D. visits her Alma Mater, the Bard Graduate Center, to explore their gallery's exhibition, Knoll Textiles: 1945 - 2010. The show celebrates the creative process of this landmark design company, which is known more for its furniture than for its innovative textiles. Rather than floral chintz and bright velvets, popular in American homes of the 50s, Knoll produced fabric inspired by the simplicity of men suites to upholster its modernist furniture. Daniella states that Knoll's great success in modernizing textiles is thanks to Florence Knoll Bassett, the genius behind Knoll's textile machine.

Episode 4
Backpacks: Ancient Future

Years ago backpacks were only popular with boy scouts, mountaineers or soldiers. They were heavy, unwieldy, unattractively shaped and made of dull colored canvas. But in recent times backpacks have become a high design and high fashion item as at home on the streets of New York as on the slopes of the Rockies.

Episode 3
Sustainability at PS1

Once a year at the beginning of the summer, PS1 organizes an architectural show in its outdoor courtyard. It is called the annual Young Architects Program and it provides visitors with an outdoor recreational area created of recycled, low impact materials in a very small budget.

Episode 2
The Noguchi Museum

When you walk in Long Island City, Queens, it is hard to imagine that behind tall concrete walls stands a peaceful, almost mystical sculpture garden, with round stones, modernist sculptures, stone garden furniture, and flowing trees. This garden is a part of the Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum. While the name of the Japanese-American artist and designer is known worldwide for his sculpture, stage sets, organic furniture, and paper and bamboo lighting, few are aware of this gem. It was founded by the artist himself and opened to the public in 1988, just three years before he died.

Episode 1
Felt

The exhibition Fashioning Felt at the Cooper Hewitt, National Design Museum has generated an extraordinary attention to this humble material. Whether produced by hand or machine, whether made of wool, silk, synthetic fibers, or recycled materials, the possibilities of manipulating felt into remarkable shapes and ornaments are endless. While most fabrics are woven or knitted, felt is a unique type of textile in that it is a dense, non-woven material that is made of compressed fibers.