Today, the icons of Modernism are visible everywhere. Eliel Saarinen’s Tulip Chair, the Diamond by Harry Bertoia, Marcel Breuer’s Wassily Chair, and Isamo Noguchi’s coffee table are eternally with us as are the designs of Saarinen’s fellow Cranbrook students Charles and Ray Eames. Where are the incubators for the designers of our decade? Which of their works will become icons treasured by the next generation?

Organized by the Museum of Craft and Design with guest curators Kathleen Hanna and Ted Cohen, New West Coast Design 2 (NWCD2) was inspired by the initial 2008 exhibition New West Coast Design which highlighted experimental works in traditional and new materials by artists working in California, Oregon and Washington.

NWCD2 will feature dozens of works chosen for the significant contribution they make to the world of design by expanding on the idea of function, exploiting materials, innovative techniques, or pioneering applications of new technology.

From skateboards and single speed bikes to fashionable water bottles and drinking vessels, furniture, toy houses, 3D designs and lighting fixtures, NWCD2 focuses on the design process itself and how this impulse is manifested by a wide variety of individuals – architects, industrial designers, interior designers, studio craft artists and design groups working with the advanced digital technologies.

Whether inspiration comes from a perceived problem to be solved, a client commission, a new material to be explored or digital design program to be exploited, the drive is there and the upshots endless.NWCD2 explores the many facets of contemporary West Coast Design, its artists’ intentions, influences and myriad directions.

Image: Brandon Adams, Stools, 2013, Museum of Craft and Design 2013-2014. Image courtesy of Matthew Millman.

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