I had a remarkable trip to DC to attend the White House luncheon celebrating the 2009 National Design Awards. As a member of this year's jury, I was honored to be a part of the process, and learned so much from my fellow jurors, who are each experts in the various design disciplines recognized by the awards. So being invited to attend a celebratory event hosted by The First Lady was clearly icing on the cake. I'll share what I can remember from the whirlwind proceedings.

We congregated at the East Gate to clear security. The line was filled with a who's who of the design world: Francisco Costa, this year's winner for Fashion Design; Michael Bierut, last year's Design Mind Award recipient; Tom Kundig, last year's architecture award recipient; Lisa Strausfeld of Pentagram and a finalist in this year's nascent Interaction Design category. And the list goes on and on...

Here are a few of the specifics:

A mix of Presidential china (Bush, Eisenhower and Truman), a practice unheard of prior to Mrs. Obama. Here's a photo of the dish that served up my delicious dessert:
Toy robots sat amongst the flower centerpieces; these struck me as an unusual choice, and at the event, no one gave any explanation as to their significance. I read later it was a reference to technology and innovation. In any case, they allowed us to take one home, and I snagged a lovely, red, "Lost in Space" model:
The portraits of all the former First Ladies were lovely to look at. Unlike the Presidential portraits, which feel more formulaic, these paintings of Presidential spouses seemed to truly reflect the tastes and unique character ad style of each subject. Here's my favorite, of Jacqueline Kennedy:
Members of one of the nation's military bands (ashamed to say I don't know which) offered a beautiful musical backdrop:
I cherished each small memento of the event, including my place card:

The First Lady sadly only stayed long enough to delivery some nice remarks about the importance of design in society and the role that designers play in firing the imaginations of the next generation. She was then quickly ushered out of the room as lunch was served. As I fumbled to get my camera, she walked by me in her striking yellow suit, and she was gone.

In thinking back on the whole experience, I must admit that meeting so many design luminaries in one setting was kind of overwhelming. Which brings me to the big conundrum of the event itself: when faced with a limited amount of time, does one focus on the people, or the extraordinary setting? Trying to take photos, meet every amazing person, and follow all the protocol required in such a setting, I didn't take much time to really soak it in and live it while it was happening.

But I did get to meet many remarkable people. And I did see many amazing sights and soaked up many of the details so painstakingly planned by The First Lady's staff. Below is a slide show of all the photos I took at the event. And if you're looking for great coverage of the foodie details, check out Obamafoodorama's blog post. Enjoy!

A few months ago, I served on the jury for the National Design Awards, an annual event organized by the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. Serving on the jury was one of the most exciting experiences and biggest honors of my professional career. It felt as though I got a free year of graduate school in just two days! I'm looking forward to celebrating with the winners, finalists, and fellow jurors this fall during the Museum's design week and gala.

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post for their blog that I wanted to share here as well. In it, I shared some thoughts about the design awards, the process of jury deliberation, and the role of the designer as creative problem solver.

As a member of the 2009 National Design Awards Jury, let me first and foremost congratulate all of the winners and finalists. It was an exciting, exhausting, and inspiring process to review all the submissions and debate the merits and accomplishments of each. As a designer who has spent most of my career in the digital realm, I found it fascinating to delve into the categories that I am less familiar with as a practitioner: landscape architecture, fashion, and architecture. And my fellow jurors, each experts in their own fields, were so generous to the rest of us, sharing their insights into the peculiarities of their own discipline, and putting the many different portfolios into a larger context.
Let me make an admission: as a designer of software and products driven by technology, I have a bias towards functionality. Working at Google for a few years has certainly made that bias more pronounced. I enjoy intellectual design, and the kind of work that blurs the lines between art and design, but I also am fairly adamant that chairs should be comfortable to sit in; cups should have reasonably ergonomic handles; and shoes…well, I do love beautiful shoes, and in this realm I foolishly let go of my bias to favor style over comfort. But in most respects, and certainly in my work at Google and YouTube, I am a Bauhaus girl. So what philosophy is right? Does great design have to be functional? Is communicating an idea enough to make a product well designed?

There were certainly interesting exchanges about these timeless debates during our two days of deliberation: what distinguishes design from art? I’ve thought a lot about this since the jury convened, and I’ve come up with something I know to be true for myself. As a designer, my goal is to take my creative faculties, and those of my team, and use them in service of others. When I reflect on the impressive array of candidates for this year’s award winners and finalists, I was so inspired by the many ways these master practitioners have succeeded in improving the lives of people in so many ways. It could be through putting technology to work for humans, and not the other way around; creating spaces for living and working, both indoors and out, that bring out the best in ourselves and in each other; producing housewares that are a pleasure to hold and behold for decades; creating exquisite clothing that makes the wearer feel beautiful; taking complex issues of the day and helping us understanding them better through visual explanations; and finally, using design to prompt humankind to care for the fragile resources of our planet.

And what about beauty? The Shakers thankfully gave us the greatest lesson on how to marry design and art: “Don’t make something unless it is both necessary and useful; but if it is both necessary and useful, don’t hesitate to make it beautiful.”

I am proud to count myself among the community of terminally curious, compulsive problem-solvers that make up the design world. And I look forward to watching new designers emerge in the years to come who will brazenly tackle the problems that, though we may not recognize today, will undoubtedly impact our future.

Margaret Gould Stewart
http://fountly.blogspot.com/
User Experience Manager, YouTube/Google
2009 National Design Awards Juror

Best Jury Duty Ever: White House celebration of the National Design Awards

Design: Creatvity in service of others