Awards: Communication Arts 2009 Design Annual

From cycles to sweeteners, stars to stripes: Nine outstanding projects from our portfolio have been selected to appear in the Communication Arts 2009 Design Annual.

The work covers five categories within the competition. The Harley-Davidson Museum is represented twice in the environmental graphics category, for Abbott Miller’s permanent exhibitions and for Michael Bierut’s signage for the museum. Also honored in the category are Miller’s design for the exhibition Brno Echo: Ornament and Crime from Adolf Loos to Now at the Moravian Gallery and Kit Hinrichs’ exhibition Long May She Wave at the Nevada Museum.

Bierut’s identities for Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) and The Oak Room have been selected in the integrated branding category. Paula Scher’s work for Truvia sweetens the packaging category, where Bierut’s ream wrap for Strathmore Paper (with Marian Bantjes) is also highlighted. Michael Gericke’s design of “A Number of Numbers”, our 2008 holiday card, is a winner in the self-promotion category.

The Design Annual is due out at the end of the year in the November/December issue of Communication Arts. It is an honor to be recognized by CA and we are extremely proud of the brilliant work put forth by our teams.

Museum of Arts and Design Media Installations Win IDEA Award

The suite of dynamic informational and interpretive media installations at the Museum of Arts and Design.

Our program of dynamic informational and interpretive media for the Museum of Arts and Design in New York has won a Bronze in the Environments category of the prestigious International Design Excellence Awards, announced today. The awards are co-sponsored by the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA), BusinessWeek, Target and Autodesk.

The IDSA jury recognized the project for its use of dynamic and interactive technologies in a museum environment. Designed by Lisa Strausfeld and her team, the media were developed as an integral part of MAD’s new home at 2 Columbus Circle and include animated directory and wayfinding displays and interpretive installations that let visitors explore the museum’s permanent collection. The program was developed in conjunction with the identity we designed for the museum.

Abbott Miller’s exhibition design for the Harley-Davidson Museum was a Finalist in the Environments category of the awards.

Harley-Davidson Museum in Architectural Lighting

Quick Link: Harley-Davidson Museum in Architectural Lighting

New Work: ‘Harley-Davidson: Designing Customs’

Lorenzo Apicella has added to the growing list of Pentagram projects designed for Harley-Davidson. Together with his team in San Francisco and independent curator Ileen Gallagher, Apicella designed Harley-Davidson: Designing Customs, an exhibition showcasing Harley’s famed design, research and development process. The exhibition was staged in Milwaukee as part of Harley-Davidson’s 105th Anniversary Celebration in August, coinciding with the opening of the new Harley-Davidson Museum designed by James Biber with exhibitions designed by Abbott Miller.

A look inside the exhibition after the jump.

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James Biber, Abbott Miller and the Harley-Davidson Museum at the Architectural League

Get your motor running: Next Friday, 19 September, James Biber and Abbott Miller bring “The Ride: Designing the Harley-Davidson Museum” to the Architectural League in New York in a discussion moderated by Phil Patton. Biber will talk about the architecture and Miller the exhibition design of this structurally innovative museum that presents a new paradigm for the integration of a corporate museum into its local community. The museum has been called an “engaging and entertaining homage to an American icon” by The Wall Street Journal and a “fascinating survey of lifestyle branding, connoisseurship and pop culture” by T: The New York Times Style Magazine. Friday, 19 September from 7 pm at the Urban Center, 457 Madison Avenue in New York. Tickets for Architectural League members are free and available now; non-member tickets are $10 and available from Friday, 12 September. Information here.

James Biber and Abbott Miller at the Harley-Davidson Museum

AIA Milwaukee and AIGA Wisconsin will present a special on-site lecture by James Biber and Abbott Miller at the Harley-Davidson Museum in Milwaukee on Wednesday, 24 September. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to visit the museum with its designers! Biber and Miller will be joined by museum director Stacey Schiesl, and attendees will receive a limited edition poster specially created by Miller for the event. Wednesday, 24 September from 6 pm at the Harley-Davidson Museum, 400 Canal Street in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Registration information here (AIA) and here (AIGA).

New Work: Harley-Davidson Museum

Harley-Davidson kicks off a four day celebration of its 105th anniversary tomorrow as riders and Harley enthusiasts from all over the country converge on Milwaukee. Concerts, street parties and organized rides will be taking place throughout the city, with many of the events being held at the Pentagram-designed Harley-Davidson Museum. Having only opened in mid-July, celebrants will be some of the first to experience the museum’s permanent exhibition, designed by Abbott Miller and his team, as they have the opportunity to explore the history, engineering and cultural impact of this American icon.

Developed in close coordination with the building’s design, and working closely with the museum’s curatorial staff, Miller developed an exhibit design narrative that conveyed the stories the curatorial staff wanted to tell. These stories were best told through both a chronological and thematic narrative that unfolds within the building — and through the display of 145 bikes from the company’s extensive archive.

A tour of the exhibition after the jump.

Continue reading "New Work: Harley-Davidson Museum"

New Work: Harley-Davidson Museum

Listen closely this weekend and you may hear a rumble coming from Milwaukee, where the Harley-Davidson Museum opens on Saturday. Designed by Pentagram Architects' James Biber with his team and associate Michael Zweck-Bronner, the $75 million, 130,000-square-foot museum complex showcases the history, culture and engineering of this American icon.

The museum sits on a twenty-acre reclaimed industrial site directly across the Menomonee River from downtown Milwaukee and has been conceived as an urban factory ready-made for spontaneous motorcycle rallies. The three-building campus includes space for permanent and temporary exhibitions, the company's archives, a restaurant and café, and a retail shop, as well as a generous amount of event and waterfront recreational space. The museum's indoor and outdoor components were inspired by the spirit of Harley rallies in towns like Sturgis and Laconia, where thousands of riders congregate every year.

Creating a museum for an icon is an enormous challenge, and Pentagram conducted a massive amount of research to gain a thorough understanding of the complex cultural phenomena that revolve around the company. We even became Harley riders ourselves. The story of how we designed this major new museum after the jump.

Continue reading "New Work: Harley-Davidson Museum"