 Hi! Welcome to Design at Home. I'm Cecilia, an educator at Cooper Hewitt's Smithsonian Design Museum. Today we're going to be looking at how design plays a part in tradition and planning festive meals. And we'll use that as inspiration to create a mood board for our own dinner party design. Cooper Hewitt is a museum that's all about design. But what are some things that can be designed? Well, design is all around us and you can learn about design just by observing the tools and spaces that you use every day. You can design a utilitarian tool or object, something you use often like a fork or a knife. But design can also be decorative and for special occasions like wallpaper or a tablecloth or napkin. But did you know that experience can also be designed? Some of the most exciting and meaningful experiences can be during celebrations that take place through a shared meal. A great example of this are holidays. Many of which are celebrated through traditional meals that are held every year. Do you ever wish that you could create a new holiday or tradition? To help you get some ideas, I will walk you through how I built my new meal time tradition and I'll share some inspiration from the Cooper Hewitt's collection. Before we get started brainstorming, you'll want to have something to write with and something to write on. Use your writing tool to make four separate sections on your paper. One for each of the components. Let's start with the guests. These are the people who will be invited to our party. They can be friends and family you haven't seen in a while or we can get even more creative. What if you invited all the people in your town to have the same birthday as you and you all had a giant group birthday party? Or maybe you invite all the people who have the same name as you. I think for my dinner party, I'm going to invite all the people who are born under the sign of Scorpio. Supermodel Kendall Jenner meet former Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis. Now take a moment to brainstorm your ideas. Consider this and write it down. How many people would you like to attend? Who will these individuals be? What is the commonality between the people you might invite? For example, common beliefs, experiences, interests, etc. The second component to planning our festive occasion is the vibe. This can be where your party will take place, but also how the five senses interact with your celebration. What are you seeing around you? Is it at your grandma's house? Is it at the beach? Once you decide where this is taking place, think about what you're hearing. Is there music? A bit of jazz perhaps? Or maybe disco is more the vibe. What do you smell? Is the food going to be cooking on an open fire? Can you smell the firewood burning? I think my vibe is an evening at the beach, accompanied by a bit of bossa nova with the smell of the ocean in the air. Now take a moment to brainstorm your ideas. Write this down. What setting will your event take place in? What will the event look like? What will the event sound like? If you were to describe your event in three words, what would those words be? Now let's talk about the menu. What are we going to serve at this party? This depends on who your guests are and what you're celebrating. Do your guests have dietary restrictions such as being gluten-free, vegan, or maybe they keep kosher? My shindig will be a birthday party, so we're definitely going to have cake and ice cream. And since my guests are celebrities, we'll serve some fancy seafood or derbs like oysters and caviar followed by lobster. Now take a moment to brainstorm your ideas. Consider this and write it down. Think about your guests. Are there any dietary restrictions or preferences? How would you like your food to be served? Buffet style, formal sit down, or maybe something else? How many courses will there be? This brings us to the fourth and perhaps most exciting component to dive into. The objects and accessories you choose for your meal time celebration can be selected for many reasons. These accessories can be the silverware, the tablecloths, the napkins, or the glasses you use. Some objects can celebrate different cultures like these silver chopsticks that combine an Asian form with classical Western ornament. Some pieces are used for certain kinds of food. For example, these oyster forks, which are small with three prongs designed to extract the meat from a palm sized oyster. Or the ice cream knife, which is perfect for cutting gently through frozen treats. Others add color such as this picnic flatware set, or this napkin. Now take a moment to brainstorm your ideas. Consider this and write it down. What will your plate settings look like? In this, consider the design of the plates, utensils, and cups. What will the chairs and tables look like? Will the seating be low to the ground? High bar stools? A traditional chair? Maybe a picnic blanket? What other special design objects might you incorporate to bring your occasion to life? Now that we have our four components of our meal time celebration, let's put it all together in a mood board. Before we get started, what is a mood board? A mood board is a tool that many designers use to represent and communicate their ideas and designs. You can build a mood board using collaged images, multimedia materials, or even using digital tools or platforms. For mine, I'm going to build my mood board the old fashioned way by doing a paper collage. Now it's your turn. Using your four components that you brainstormed, create a mood board to communicate the overall feeling of your designed meal time celebration. Dive into Cooper Hewitt's collection to discover even more meal time treasures to inspire your celebration design. Once you've finished your mood board, you're ready to make your design for a meal time celebration a reality. We would love to see what you've designed. If you or an adult would like to share it with us on social media, use the hashtag Smithsonian EDU. Thank you so much for tuning in. For more ways to experience design at home, head over to our website, cooperhewitt.org, or check out our page on the Smithsonian Learning Lab. Thank you and we'll see you next time. Bye-bye.