NATIONAL TREASURES
People have taken to calling the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum annual award show the “Oscars of design,” and no description could serve the National Design Awards better. From a White House reception hosted by the First Lady, to a flashbulb-lit red carpet entrance, to the star-studded after party that keeps even the most demure design luminaries out way past their bedtimes, the awards have become somewhat of a transcendent event for the industry.

At this year’s gala, held Oct. 18, among the notable honors will be a well-deserved Lifetime Achievement Award for Albuquerque, N.M.-based Antoine Predock for his masterful melding of contemporary architecture and the old American West. The Design Mind award—honoring a visionary shift in thinking—will be awarded to architects Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown. A Corporate Achievement award will be bestowed upon the indispensable design tools of Adobe, while Communications Design nods go to C&G Partners, Paula Scher and Chip Kidd. Other awards seem impeccably timed. The three Interior Design nominees—winning firm Lewis.Tsurumaki. Lewis and finalists David Rockwell and Tsao & McKown—have been sweeping up awards all year long. Landscape Design winner Peter Walker and finalists Field Operations and Ken Smith have become icons for reclaiming much-needed green space in urban communities. And in the wake of the iPhone phenomenon, the award for Product Design could go to none other than Apple senior VP of Industrial Design Jonathan Ive. Added to the festivities for the second year is National Design Week, a series of nationwide public programs held Oct. 14–20. Design fans should also plan to stop by the website between Sept. 10 and Oct. 16 for the People’s Design Awards, where visitors can nominate and vote for the best designs of the year. www.cooperhewitt.org/nda

WEST COAST WINNERS
Held every two years since 2003, the California Design Biennial is the only museum show that focuses exclusively on the achievements of the state’s designers. Fashion, furniture, transportation, consumer products and graphic design from over 100 firms will be featured at the Pasadena Museum of California Art in September, as well as being published in a catalog. Perhaps because the exhibition encompasses everything from lounge chairs to laptops, screen-printed posters and surfboards, it’s difficult to boil down a single new direction for the state’s design, according to juror Michael Worthington. “What you get instead is the best of many directions: minimal modernist work existing next to naïve illustration-based work; highly conceptual pieces next to overtly decorative pieces,” says the cochair of California Institute of the Arts’ Graphic Design program. “This eclecticism and openness to a variety of ideas and styles, if anything, is what seems Californian.” Aug. 18 through Sept. 30, 2007. www.pmcaonline.org

SUSTAINABILITY, SQUARED
Reporting on the world of sustainable architecture with narration by none other than Brad Pitt, the six-part Design: e2 series premiered last summer on PBS to rave reviews. This fall, the e2 series, named for its focus on the “economies of being environmentally conscious,” will premiere two additional installments: part two of Design: e2, and Energy: e2. Featuring architect Thom Mayne’s super-green skyscraper in San Francisco, wind farms in Minnesota, climate change advocate Ed Mazria, and projects from Bogota, Colombia, to Ladkah, India, e2 is poised to radically change the way television is perceived as a socially responsible medium. Shot in high definition with theatrical- quality production, the series shifts sustainability awareness away from a somber view of the status quo and towards a sharp, cinematic focus on the solutions. Energy: e2 premieres Oct. 9 on PBS, with narration from Morgan Freeman. www.designe2.com

BEST BET
Greg Bradshaw, William Harris, Kristina O’Neal and Adam Farmerie make up the New York-based firm AvroKO, who became darlings of the dining and design worlds when they won prestigious James Beard Awards for both Best Restaurant Design and Best Restaurant Graphics, an unheard-of accomplishment for a single firm. AvroKO has brought multidisciplinary magic to eateries like The Stanton Social, Sapa, Quality Meats, The E.U. and PUBLIC, the latter of which was not only designed by the quartet but is also owned and operated by the firm. The first monograph of AvroKO’s work, documenting these projects as well as the firm’s process, will be published in October under the name Best Ugly (Harper Collins), a term the firm uses to describe something that’s beautiful, but perhaps also awkward or out of sync with its environment. “Something that feels right, but possibly for all the wrong reasons,” further explains O’Neal. “It has come to encapsulate the elements that become the odd little breaks in the visual landscape of our projects.” www.avroko.com

RUNNING COMMENTARY
The year is 1977. Disco’s infiltrating dance floors, running is just beginning to catch on as a form of exercise and a little company based in Beaverton, Ore., is about to become the global epicenter of athletic footwear. Such is the premise of Nike’s traveling show Re-Run, which opened July 7 in Brooklyn, N.Y. Seventy-seven ’70s-inspired panels were stacked like Eames cards in the powerHouse Arena, where among the Technicolor graphics were vintage finds like actual ’70s running shoes, old Nike print ads and even the waffle iron originally used to press soles into that signature square pattern. Art by Scott Campbell, Tracy Nakayama and Andrew Jeffrey Wright adorns the exhibition, which was curated by Aaron Rose of Beautiful Losers fame, with graphics by Keith Scharwath. True to its subject, Nike is taking the show on the road with a marathon tour scheduled to stop in Los Angeles and Miami. www.nike.com/nikevintage

MORE GOURMET GRAPHICS
Chef, author and Food Network host Michael Chiarello serves up the Napa Valley experience to a hungry audience through his line of NapaStyle products. Recently, NapaStyle’s first retail experience in Berkeley, Calif., was prepared with similar zest by Principle, the design firm of Allyson Lack, Jennifer Sukis and Pamela Zuccker. Like ingredients of a time-honored dish, NapaStyle’s blend of old-world traditions and family recipes are paired with Chiarello’s buoyant personality. “As so many people relate to Michael at a one-on-one level because of his show, it was necessary to give his voice a strong presence throughout the store,” says Zuccker. So the shopping bags are emblazoned with snippets of Chiarello’s quirky wisdom, like “Make it twice, and the recipe is yours.” Custom tissue paper chronicles Chiarello’s travels as an illustrated “World Salt Exhibition.” The designers are already back in the kitchen preparing a second course: Another store is planned in nearby Los Gatos, Calif. www.napastyle.com

WHAT’S NEXT?
“In our rapidly changing world, what is the relevance of Design?” asks AIGA this October at NEXT, the organization’s 2007 national design conference. Held in Denver, Colo.—a historical yet forward-looking town in its own right—the conference will be moderated by Studio 360 host Kurt Andersen, and features future-focused mainstage speakers like Marian Bantjes, Paul Budnitz, Daniel Libeskind, Christoph Niemann and Khoi Vinh. Added to the regular conference fare is an evening honoring the 2007 AIGA Medalists—Ed Fella, Ellen Lupton, Bruce Mau and Georg Olden—field trips to local microbreweries and Command X, a graphic design reality show that will have seven designers under 26 completing assignments in real time throughout the conference. Oct. 11–14. designconference2007.aiga.org

WIGGED-IN
L.A.-based artist Martha Rich has been creating and posting one painting a day—and that’s every single day, not just every workday—since Nov. 1, 2006. Directly inspired by the happenings in her day—Rich often provides commentary in the description—these mixed-media masterpieces are painted on the pages of old novels, cookbooks, sheet music and other found documents, with choice phrases often circled or highlighted to hilarious eÙect. Besides showing oÙ Rich’s prolific ability, the site of the postings—titled Freedom Wig—also serves as the ultimate online gallery, since each original work is also for sale. Among the lobsters and brassieres, there are of course a few wigs to be found in the collection. Still, why name the project Freedom Wig? “Wigs can either make you feel like someone else or make you feel normal,” says Rich. “The art on this site is like that.” www.freedomwig.com

PLEASE BUY THIS LEMON
When the hot-pink collectors item GUM burst onto the scene in 2001, the design world marveled. Part comic book, part magazine, part cereal box (complete with prizes), GUM was revolutionary in every way—and incredibly expensive for creators Kevin Grady and Colin Metcalf to produce. So Grady and Metcalf looked for another way to bring their “experiences in print” to clamoring audiences, launching a new magazine in May of 2006 (incidentally, it was a Judge’s Selection in the STEP Design 100 competition and profiled in STEP’s March/April 2007 issue). “We wanted a more agile vehicle that’s easier to distribute,” says Grady. “So we started Lemon, which adheres to a more typical and manageable magazine format.” The current issue celebrates Stanley Kubrick, with an impressive list of contributors: Malcolm McDowell, Jill Greenberg, Billy Corgan, Leelee Sobieski and Chip Kidd, to name a few. The issue has two covers, with singer Pop Levi and actor Sobieski reprising famed Kubrick roles. In addition, Grady and Metcalf have started their own design studio, Grady & Metcalf, to do Lemon-level work for clients—and, hopefully, fund many more juicy publications. www.lemonland.net, www.gradyandmetcalf.com

SALAD DAYS
Kara Bartlett and Michael Chung met while getting their Masters of Architecture at Yale, then both went on to work across the street at renowned architecture firm Pelli Clarke Pelli. But even after founding their own firm, Lettuce, Bartlett and Chung never limited themselves to the built environment. A typical project might be something like the Sandwich Shop in downtown L.A., where they’re designing the space as well as all the branding, signage and menu graphics. They were recently awarded a Spark Award for their Buffer House, an inventive urban residence that also acts like a living sculpture, designed to sprout green walls like a giant Chia Pet. The pair make furniture, they design buildings, and they even do feasibility studies for developers—work which they embrace as just another form of creative problem solving. www.lettuceoffice.com