 Hi, and welcome to the 21st annual National Design Awards Gala. I'm Bobby Burke, and it's great to be your host for the evening. The National Design Awards are presented annually by Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, to recognize innovation and impact of design. Tonight, you'll meet some of the best design minds of our time. A big warm welcome to all those first-timers here, and for those of you who attended the Gala in years past, like me, thanks for joining us again in this new virtual format. We're so excited that people from around the world are able to share this experience together. We'd love to hear from you and hear from where you are, so be sure to show us some love and your fellow design enthusiasts in the live chat box and on social media using the hashtag National Design Awards. If you haven't visited Cooper Hewitt in New York, definitely go to check it out once it reopens. The museum has amazing exhibitions, design resources, public programs, and an inspiring collection of over 215,000 designs, from ancient Egyptian pottery to contemporary 3D printed objects and digital code. I spend hours in the galleries when I'm lucky enough to get to visit. And if you're not in New York, not a problem. So much of what Cooper Hewitt has to offer is now available online. Tonight, we're kicking off the first National Design Month, which gives you access to free virtual programs throughout October. You'll learn more about the power of design through the eyes of the National Design Award winners who were available tonight. So to me, design is about making people happy and making their lives better. I still remember the first time I was inspired to be a designer. I was walking the aisles of a target and I saw their very first-ever collaboration with Michael Graves. And it made me think for the first time that a spoon isn't just a spoon you eat with. A spoon can not only help you eat, but make you happy when you look at it. Spark imagination, spark joy. So right then and there, I thought to myself, I want to have a part of that. I want to work in design and make people's lives better through design. So for me, what design is, is all about making the world a better place. On the Netflix show Queer Eye, and in my own practice, I've been able to improve people's lives through design, and it's been such a rewarding journey. That is why I recognize that celebrating and supporting design is so, so important. We need to be inspired and challenge ourselves to design for a better future. This is what tonight is all about. And we want to hear from you in the chat. So tell us, what does design mean to you? But right there in the chat, wherever it is right now on the screen, clear it. Cooper Hewitt impacts tens of thousands of people across the country every year. Through design education, focusing on empowering underserved communities to use design as a force for change. This event is Cooper Hewitt's main fundraising event of the year. Your support is so important in ensuring that the museum can continue to provide the essential design resources for everyone now and in the future. Please join me by clicking show your support at the upper right-hand corner anytime throughout the evening. A very special thank you to Facebook and Target for making the National Design Awards possible this year. And speaking of awards, thank you to the Corning Museum of Glass, who has handcrafted beautiful National Design Awards trophies since 2011. I'm so looking forward to recognizing the 21st Class of National Design Award winners and celebrating with you all this evening. To kick off the festivities, I'm honored to introduce Rem De Plessis, Group Creative Director at Apple and this year's Jury Chair. Hello and welcome to all. My name is Rem De Plessis and it was a great honor to serve as Jury Chair for Cooper Hewitt's 2020 National Design Awards. This year, for the first time in NDA history, the jury made their deliberations virtually. I'd like to acknowledge my fellow jurors, Siggy, Angie, Shane, Ben, Tony, and Jay for their dedication, thoughtfulness, and sense of humor that remained intact throughout the virtual jury process. We find ourselves in a generation-defining moment. With so many uncertainties ahead of us, one thing is for sure, the work we reviewed was amazing. On behalf of the jury, I want to congratulate the 2020 National Design Award winners. They are fearless, not afraid to challenge the status quo and push the boundaries of their practice. They are democratizing creativity and design, redefining innovation. They are poetic and powerful, and they are dedicated to designing a brighter, kinder, and more connected world for all of us. I can't wait for you to meet them tonight. Thanks, Rem. We're excited to meet them too. Can we please give the jury a round of applause, everybody? It's time for our first National Design Award of the evening. The inaugural Climate Action Award brought to you by Lower Carbon Capital is given in recognition of an individual, company, or organization who made a profound contribution in advancing the field. And the winner is Spongebark. Please welcome Susanna Drake to accept the Climate Action Award on behalf of the project. Hi, my name is Susanna Drake, and I'm the principal of D-Land Studio. I grew up in Vermont. So I spent a lot of time wandering around in the countryside and really looking at the way natural systems work. And I'm also the child of a geophysicist father. So I grew up in this atmosphere of idyllic nature and also a degree of explanation of the dynamics of how everything was working together. My definition of design has to do with sort of synthesizing a lot of the analytical skills that I have with the formal and artistic abilities that I have to really make the world work better. You're probably wondering, you know, what is a Spongebark and how does it work? Well, what it is, it's a landscape, it's a park, it's a planter, it's a piece of infrastructure, it's a lot of different things, and it's intended to be a public open space. But the great thing about the Spongebark is that it's a piece of nature-based design that absorbs dirty storm water and cleans it before it gets released into the Guanis canal. I think the Spongebark was a perfect example of how we approached a problem. And the problem seemed somewhat sort of scientific or almost kind of utilitarian on the surface. And it was an issue of, okay, how do we manage storm water in an area that was a swamp, that's now been paved, that is now, you know, increasingly attractive for development. But then it turned into something else. And through this research process and through a process of getting to know people in the neighborhood and getting to know different community groups and getting to understand the agendas of all different kinds of people that were going to use the space, we had to understand all of that. Well, I have to say, I am so incredibly honored to be the recipient of this award. And it's, you know, this award is not for me, it's for the Spongebark. So I want to thank the Cooper Hewitt for this incredible honor. And I want to thank the members of the jury for your work in deliberating what must have been a very challenging process. And I really am completely honored. I do want to recognize a few organizations who were critical to the success of this project. One was the Gowanus Canal Conservancy and the Gowanus Dredger's Boat Club, the Gowanus Canal Community Development Corporation, and the Center for Urban Pedagogy. And I want to thank my former colleague, Yong Kim, for development of the initial design work. And then also my business partner, Sandy Chuck, for making the project a reality. Congratulations to Susanna and Spongebark and everyone involved. I can't wait to get back to New York to see Spongebark in action. Next, the National Design Award for Architecture, given to an individual or firm for the design of public, commercial, and residential interior and exterior spaces. And the award goes to Snow Heta. My name is Elaine Molinar. I am an architect and a partner at Snow Heta. My name is Craig Dykers. I'm an architect also and I'm one of the founders together with Elaine and other partners in the studio. I grew up in the Southwest in El Paso, Texas. My early life was filled with dance, classical ballet, which broadened my spatial view of my existence and my relationship to space. My father was in the U.S. Army and I believe I lived in about 17 locations before the age of 20. We both lived in Norway for a number of years as we began the company with our Norwegian colleagues. So we are both American and Scandinavian. Beginning in architecture probably came somewhat accidentally for me. I wanted to be an artist. I wasn't really fully aware of architecture as a profession. I had a broad variety of interests in art and the performing arts as well in science and medicine, all sorts of things. And architecture has space to allow you to capture all of those variety of interests. As I began to study architecture, I very quickly realized that this is a larger commitment. It's a passion. It's a way of life. It's a sensibility. It has a larger impact on us as individuals as well as those who have to interact with the work we created. There are always new challenges, new things to learn. This is a vocation where the learning never stops. It's incredibly satisfying to build up skill and knowledge over the years, but to not know exactly how you're going to use it every day. We also strive to create places that people can form personal relationships with. The only way that you can make that successful is to make buildings that aren't a sense of canvas for other people to project their own feelings upon. A project that is successful allows people to feel that continuum in their lives. Design is the ability to forge memory in human life to create something that you can take with you that's not physical that only exists in your idea of the world as you move through it. This is the power of design. This significant award is so meaningful to us because it recognizes that design is not a luxury but rather an essential component needed for all of society to thrive. It is therefore with great pride that we thank the jurors and the Cooper Hewitt for giving us this award especially at a moment when it has never been more apparent that design has the power to and must forge change. We'd first like to dedicate this award to the staff in our studios. We are a collective and it is their care and commitment that gives quality to our work. We share the energy of this moment to build on our ongoing commitments to social and environmental justice causes. These include the support of the Black Lives Matter movements and similar actions worldwide. It will remind us to work together to find solutions that benefit the many rather than the few. And what we use the energy of this award gives us to help us dig deeper into bettering ourselves and the world around us. For over 30 years we've worked to address the challenges the world faces. From the time we began our practice by reviving the ancient library of Alexandria and its humanist vision to our current world where we focus on biodiversity and climate with greater understandings of ecosystems, society and connections between people. The road has been full of exploration. We are far from perfect, but we have never given up striving to create a just and sustainable place to call home on this little blue ball Mother Earth. Blessings and peace to everyone. Thank you. Congrats again to Elaine, Craig and the entire Snowhead team. You are doing such remarkable work for people and for the planet. Now the award for communication design which is given to an individual or firm for the design of information and messages. Let's meet our 2020 winner, Scott Dadditch. Hi, my name is Scott Dadditch. I'm the founder and co-CEO of Godfrey Dadditch Partners. I grew up in Lubbock, Texas. I went to school in mechanical engineering. I was miserable and so I dropped out of school and got a job as a baker at a bagel shop. I stayed up all night and I cranked up some music and I hand lettered all the menu boards and one of our regular customers admired the boards and she asked who had done them and Marion pointed at me in the back and I'm there making bagels and so Sonya went back to the back and introduced herself and gave me her business card and told me that she was an art director at a local communications agency and she offered me an internship and she said that she had gotten her start as a sign painter. I ended up accepting the internship and that was the beginning of my path in design communications. I got to do a number of things. I got to direct a TV commercial. I got to direct ad campaigns, design communications and brochures and design logos and all of it was hugely compelling to me. Design to me is about intentionality. It's about putting decisions together one after another and ultimately the best designs tell stories. I think the greatest contributions to design come from empathy. They come from listening, from researching, from seeking to understand another person's point of view and the stories that emerge from those connections. I am humbled by this recognition. My deepest thanks to the jurors and to the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum for recognizing, teaching and celebrating the power of design. I've been fortunate to collaborate with many remarkable visionaries who taught me how design empowers truth and were always willing to take a chance on me. I'm eternally grateful to Sonya Yuck before I even knew that design could be a career. She opened the first door that set me on my life's path to Evan Smith for my big break at Texas Monthly and Chris Anderson who asked me to write a new future for Wired as creative director to Tom Wallace for believing in my vision for digital journalism at Connie Nast and later naming me editor-in-chief of Wired to my dear friends, Dave O'Connor and Morgan Neville with whom I created abstract the art of design and so much appreciation to Netflix for believing in the power of design and sharing it with a worldwide audience and to the abstract designers many of whom are previous NDA winners who allowed the entire abstract team to tell their stories. You all taught me so much. To Keith Yamashita a hero of mine for more than a decade leading a business for impact and empathy now my colleague in the Q Collective. To my brother Patrick Godfrey our partners and the entire team at Godfrey Dadditch for their commitment to design excellence and problem solving on behalf of our clients and finally to my wife Amy none of this would have been possible without you as my partner my best friend and inspiration. I share this honor with my entire extended family of creative collaborators and dedicate the award to the next generation who will no doubt solve so many of the issues we face today through smart design. I hope this community can continue to inspire them and provide them with opportunities as a kind soul once did for this former bagel shop employee. Congratulations Scott. I am a huge abstract fan. I'm now honored to introduce Lonnie Bunch Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. Hello I'm Lonnie Bunch the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and I'm so pleased to be a part of tonight's festivities. I know that this was not an easy thing to pull off in the middle of a pandemic so thank you to all who made tonight possible. I've always said that one of the great strengths of museums is that we bring people together during the long separations of the past few months these moments have been fewer and farther between that's why tonight's celebration feels particularly poignant to me despite the challenges facing our country events like tonight anchor us in our communities they remind us to delight in each other and in each other's successes they remind us to celebrate the progress we have made and the change that we can make. The Cooper Hewitt has always embodied the spirit of innovation of optimism of creative impact these past months as the Smithsonian has raced to adapt to unforeseen and unprecedented challenges this museum has led the way. Cooper Hewitt staff work with doctors nurses designers architects and other professionals to understand how design thinking can boost pandemic response together with our partners this museum is reimagining and redesigning a post-covid world. Since the national design awards launched in 2000 it has celebrated the mission of Cooper Hewitt to educate inspire and empower through design tonight's program reminds us that innovation and impact go hand in hand the national design awards ask us to expand our vision to reach for the creative solution that is why we're so delighted to honor the 2020 national design award winners tonight's awardees prove the power that design has to change the world in the midst of extraordinary adversity they are leading us forward so on behalf of the entire Smithsonian let me say congratulations thank you and have a wonderful evening thank you secretary bunch and welcome back now the award for digital design given to an individual or a firm for the design of interactive digital products environments systems experiences and services the 2020 award goes to design IO hi my name is emily gobiel and i'm the co-founder and creative director of design IO and my name is thea whatson and i'm also a co-founder of design IO i would spend my time and on a very rainy cold coast in in england routing water at the beach growing up i spent a lot of time outside in the woods exploring the work that we're creating now is recreating those experiences that i had as a child when we were both studying in the design technology program at parton school of design i was working on uh children's media and thinking about ways that interactivity could be used to enhance storytelling and learning and thea was working more on computer vision systems and and more in this intersection of code and art and sound design and it was kind of the work that we were pursuing in school and our shared passion for creating experiences that elicit the sense of wonder and delight through interaction that really brought us together and and led to the work that we're creating today we came together and created this space that was the intersection between design and technology especially kind of around immersive experiences specifically my role is sort of thinking more about the technological integration design is an experience that is seamless what's being felt what's being shown around you there's no break in that experience it's just absolutely true i really kind of enjoy thinking about what's missing kind of what's lacking either in a particular context or just in the world in general and thinking about what could we do individually and collectively to sort of fix that or address that we'd like to thank the National Design Award jury the Smithsonian and the Cooper Hewitt for this amazing honor we feel so delighted to be recognized for doing work that we love and are passionate about and we'd like to thank our amazing team Nicholas Hardiman and Anna Kataldo youtube role thank you so much and i would also like to thank Sven Travis and Colleen Macklin who led the program with Possum School of Design where Emily and I studied it had just the right balance of chaos and opportunity to explore the unexplored i'd also like to thank Zach Lieberman and Golan Levin for shaping the world of code and art and being so generous with their time and opportunities all the people and clients over the years who've patiently listened to us explained our harebrained ideas and given us the go ahead anyway and finally i'd like to thank the open frameworks community and other open source creative coding communities whose members all over the world contribute to improving the tools we use for our work and helping us solve seemingly impossible problems thank you so much play is so important and Design IO looks like they're exploring the world like no other congrats to Emily Theo and the entire design team next the National Design Award for fashion design given to an individual or firm for the design of apparel accessory jewelry footwear and textiles this year's winner is tel far hi my name is tel far clements and i am the designer and founder and face of tel far at the bar back rat boy i'm the artistic director business partner and friend of tel far i started making clothes basically because i couldn't find the ones that i wanted to wear in stores and the ones that i wanted to wear in stores i wasn't allowed to buy so i'm so i began making my own clothes um at the age of 15 i was making them for classmates and i continued doing that when i went on to college so i basically only had one job in my entire career a lot of the clothes are based on a certain take or attitude on and commentary on the way how people dress you know so when you see a thing that's out of place or thing that's new or thing that's shifted it sometimes will make you like it makes you feel something so that's like the i think the connection that runs through the clothes you know my definition of design is anything that makes living easier and actually like you know creating things for people that are from all different types of places i mean i think that that's the big thing that's changing in terms of design or that needs to be considered i think for a long time designers thought of as ending in a form and i think it's becoming really evident that it doesn't end in the form the mode of distribution determines the form the person making it and who it's intended for it it's social dynamic what it actually does within the fabric of social life are part of the form they're not just like an afterlife you have to start to reconsider the thing itself as including all of that i'm just working in a way that's like making me happy and is making the environment around me happy i want to say thank you to the smithsonian and the national design award for this acknowledgement of the work and contributions that we've made to fashion i'd like to thank my team at tell far and that's it congrats once again tell far but back and everyone at tell far yes design for everyone the 2020 national design award for landscape architecture given to an individual or firm for the design of outdoor environments and urban planning goes to ojb landscape architecture congratulations and welcome to the founder jim Bernad hi my name is jim Bernad i'm the founder and president of ojb landscape architecture i have seven amazing partners and 90 team members five offices across the country we're designers of many things but most importantly we designed cities and that includes streets parks gardens all spaces within the public realm i always like to create things i wanted to be an architect originally and in college i found landscape architecture at lshu it felt like it was more of a collaboration with nature which was more fluid and more dynamic and that felt better to me after college i worked for a large firm and there was a lot of little puzzles to be solved and it was a very inspiring and uplifting place but ultimately i realized that it was time for me to kind of forge my own path i started the practice in 89 and it started my own deal for our team it is a promise that we can make transformations that affect those who experience the spaces we design we can change cities and the way people interact with them we can unite communities we can conserve and shine a light on our valuable natural resources and we can create environments that inspire people to change their perspective i think that we have better chances of tackling the higher order types of challenges that are happening with climate with social issues and cultural issues i think that we we really are looking at things in a broader perspective now so we're not making judgments as quick as we used to bringing in experts we're looking at the sciences in a much more in-depth way design is the chance for change it is the analysis and understanding of a condition along with solutions to make change we live a very design life and most things we interact with are part of the design realm so good design translates to a better life better systems better comfort and even better beauty and inspiration we make meaningful contributions to design by inspiring others to look beyond the obvious solution we consider a lot of forces including the cultural social environmental and economic impact of our work we're thrilled to be receiving this award tonight the company of designers forging innovation across all disciplines this award from Cooper Q it is especially meaningful because it affirms the power of design and that is what our practice is about Steadfast believes that design can and should change the world now more than ever we have a responsibility to address the issues of access equity and health in our shared public spaces these are not static ideas they are living growing and changing spaces that are essential to our well-being I'd like to think our amazing team our talented collaborators and especially our clients who have given us the opportunity to make the unseen seen their faith has given us freedom to explore and create moments of beauty which are the goals of every designer thank you to the design jury for recognizing our aspirations and to the Cooper Hewitt for encouraging designers to make an impact in the world we're honored and challenged to continue this final shared mission I'm constantly marveled by all the public spaces congrats again to Jim and everyone at OJB it's now my pleasure to welcome John Davis interim director of Cooper Hewitt to share a bit more about the museum thank you everyone for joining us tonight my name is John Davis and I'm the interim director of Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum I'm truly delighted that we are able to come together to celebrate the power of design to build a better future for us all I want to offer my congratulations to all of tonight's winners you have inspired viewers around the world with your extraordinary work I also want to thank our esteemed jury for their thoughtfulness and invaluable expertise in selecting this year's winners as part of the Smithsonian Cooper Hewitt is here to serve the nation even as our campus in New York City remains closed we continue to connect people everywhere with meaningful design and the opportunity to learn from it tonight we kick off National Design Month which is Cooper Hewitt's flagship education program we are happy to offer many ways for audiences everywhere to learn from this year's award winners and other distinguished designers please visit our website to explore four weeks of free virtual workshops talks tours and much more none of this would be possible without the dedication and passion of our board of trustees staff and supporters like you thank you all for helping us move forward our mission to educate inspire and empower people through design for those of you who are not familiar with Cooper Hewitt or if you simply miss roaming through the galleries please enjoy the following snapshot of the place we call home thank you john I know I speak for everyone in saying that we cannot wait to explore the galleries again soon and the national design award for product design this award is given to an individual or a firm for the design of goods furniture lighting and materials please join me in welcoming this year's winner catapult design hi i'm angela harish i'm the CEO of catapult design my name is heather phleming and i'm one of the co-founders of catapult design i'm no wilson i'm an industrial designer i'm mademore brinsky i'm a product designer my name is carin carter i am a product designer i am a designer i'm a design engineer i'm nadine foick i'm a design manager i'm charlie cellars i'm a technical specialist myself and four other co-founders created catapult design in san francisco back in 2008 all of us were craving more meaningful work i was born and grew up on the navajo nation i would say from a pretty early age i recognized social injustice and wanted to figure out a way that i could tackle that in my career we created this design team that developed new products and new technologies for engineers without borders projects and also nonprofits around the globe what is design it's uh getting people to imagine something with you design allows us to add a human element to some of the scientists that may have lost this to me design is about connecting people connecting ideas in order to allow people to live a more fulfilled life through products and services that actually work for them designers holistic thinking holistic means that we look at a big picture when we develop institutions the picture means that it's a multidisciplinary multidisciplinary means that we work with lots of people with different specialities and different levels of focus within those specialties we come and do a project not knowing about a topic but we leave an expert and that to me that's really exciting because you're constantly changing we just have to dive in if we're feeling a little bit queasy at the beginning that's perfectly normal and then we do become experts and the field grows catapult design is a a very small firm that just won a very very big award second year we are very humbled and in fact it's it's rather difficult to think of a of a bigger honor actually um so we want to thank you to um Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian um thank you to all of the um wonderful designers um past and present um who have worked on all the wonderful projects uh thank you to the board to our advisors to our clients and our partners past and present we would really like to dedicate um this award to all of the underserved populations around the world that are not getting the recognition that they deserve for their expertise and their capabilities but we see that changing uh catapult season every day we feel it every day and we design for it every day so thank you so much to um Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian for this wonderful award we appreciate it to have people all over the world contributing perspective and sharing ideas can only lead to great design congrats to Angela and the entire catapult design team now we look to the future with the national design award for emerging designer given a recognition of a designer who has demonstrated profound talent in the early stages of their career the 2020 winner is Studio 189 I am Abrema Urria I co-founded Studio 189 with Rosario in 2013 and um we are both creative directors well we first met when we were teenagers we became a bit closer in our 20s and um collaborated together quite a lot Abrema approached me about an idea of wanting to work in Africa and specifically saying why is it you know she's working for all these major brands out of Europe and why is something made in Italy valued just because of the label made in Italy and not the same thing happening for the different countries doing the exact same kind of handwork and why is that why is made in Africa considered charity and I invited her to the democratic republic of Congo for the opening of the city of joy rehabilitation center for women who've been affected by violence these were women who were the most marginalized in that country who are now recognizing they're no less Congolese just because they're women and that they have rights and they have power and they they're working with each other and we've got thousands of graduates now and it's just to see transformation that's possible when you invest in people and you empower people to recognize their own power and we were just really moved and just being empowered ourselves to go well we could go into business we could create a company we could work with these women there came the birth of Studio 189 our last collection was called heritage you know very intentionally because we wanted to really take a moment to recognize we come from cultures that are very steeped in storytelling and narration and the more you learn that the history of making textiles and making clothing the more you realize how culture is migrated and that happened with our clothes indigo you know indigo from west Africa the indigo plantations that were part of the slave train it is very powerful so by kind of taking back indigo and putting it in our supply chain and working with the artisans that have been doing it for generations it feels like we're kind of re-empowering these messages can we make the invisible visible can we make the impossible can we encourage you to dream bigger than you thought you could dream I think humanity is a huge part of our design process design is art um creativity made manifest something that can be an expression of your values we don't just make things to make things and we don't make excessive things because we know that there is too much of that already in the world together we can make something really really beautiful and really powerful that you want to have that you feel really good about having that has an energy itself because so many people touched it and loved it before you bought it and brought it home with you thank you to Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum for this emerging designer award we are so thrilled I mean this has been a huge highlight for us with the pandemic and all of the everything that's going on in the world to get that phone call really gave us the motivation and the the support that we needed to remind us that we were on the right path we're honored that you saw our design and that you recognized it and valued it and on behalf of all the people we work with in West Africa and the U.S. and overall our families we're humbled and thank you for this award and I want to say I thank you so much Abrima for loving me and for bringing me on this journey and so that I can I can you know retire at some point in life knowing that I got to be a business woman and and something that I hadn't maybe ever thought of myself really being and it's been an honor and a privilege to work with you and create with you and design with you I love you I love you too thank you so much I'm so glad we got to do this together and thanks to the jury that's yeah thank you so much we know it's all about voting all the time always we vote with our dollar we vote with our time we vote with our energy and you voted for us to get this award and we cannot say thank you enough for this recognition yeah Abrima Rosario we can't wait to see where studio 189 goes from here congrats and with that we've come to the final award of the evening the national design award for design visionary given a recognition of an individual company organization who has made a profound contribution in advancing the field and the 2020 winner is Kickstarter please welcome CEO Aziz Azan. Hi I'm Aziz Azan the CEO of Kickstarter I've been a Kickstarter for a little over two and a half years now but the company itself was founded you know back in 2009 I think what was really interesting at that time was the need for creative work obviously is really clear what's just amazing about just the need for art and creative expression in general is that that need is so human and it's so tied to who we are that it actually just never goes away any creative project or any idea that you have has a lot of the core elements of just design in general and so when I think about you know maybe on a macro level all the projects that show up on Kickstarter every one of them has a facet of design and thinking in this way built into it knowing that kind of no matter what happens I think in the world around us this connection and this need to create remains ever present you know really keeps us excited we are a platform and a vehicle for all these ideas to come to life but it is the totality of all those ideas and the volume that we've seen over the last decade this is meaningful work and I think a recognition like this I'm really humbled to accept because it proves to all those creators that it's worth it when I think about all the designers who are out there thinking about if their idea is worth it should they take the risk should they try it is it even any good I want to tell each of you you should definitely take the shot these ideas are what society thrives on it's how we see beauty it's how we see curiosity it's how we explore the world around us and so in these moments especially when right now I think it's so hard to choose if you really should launch your idea into the world I want to tell you you should there's a group of people out there who are curious about similar things like you who want to see your idea come to life they may not know you and you may not know them yet but there's an opportunity for you to bring that idea to them and get that support and I think the world is better because of it it's an honor to be here with you and accept this award on behalf of Kickstarter and our team we have a very simple mission we help bring creative projects to life and we exist to help the artists the filmmakers the musicians and creators from all walks of life bring their ideas to reality every creator on our platform gets to retain their creative control to have their creative independence and actually find support in people in funds and build a community around them that's exceptionally vibrant and curious I also want to thank the National Design Award judges you've recognized the intrinsic value that we've always known in our hearts so important for the world to see that these projects these ideas these designs really make an impact on society and I also want to thank the passion and dedication of our staff today and the staff that has been with us over the past decade your blood sweat and tears have gone on to bring all these ideas to life and to the creators who trust us with their ideas it's always inspiring and it gives me hope to see that these types of ideas can exist and they can flourish in the world around us and the backers that are out there I appreciate the fact that your curiosity seems to know no bounds you want to see these ideas you want to support them and at the end of the day you want to help bring these ideas to life it's an honor to be here with you all and thank you so much for this award we've come full circle one more huge round of applause for this powerful group of 2020 national design award winners sponge park snow head up scott daddage design i o tell bar ojp landscape architecture catapult design studio 189 and Kickstarter before we close this evening i'd like to welcome Cooper Hewitt trustee chairman john awada to say a few words good evening i'm john awada and i'm the chairman of the cooper hewitt board of trustees it has been a wonderful evening and let me congratulate our honorees from social impact to climate action your work is a testament to the power of design to shape the world to say the least 2020 has been an unforgettable year and it's not even over yet now more than ever we are asking ourselves what kind of world do we want to live in what do we value how can we create a healthier more equitable and regenerative society tonight we've seen how some of the best design minds of our time create solutions to the challenges we face today and we'll face tomorrow design is not a luxury it is a skill for problem solving and improving lives and it's never been more important that's why my fellow trustees and i are asking for your support cooper hewitt is more than a museum it's a design resource for the nation our cutting edge exhibitions learning tools virtual talks and workshops and national design month programs all work together to build and activate your design knowledge cooper hewitt inspires students educators designers and lifelong learners everywhere and empowers us all to design a better future your help is crucial in ensuring that cooper hewitt continues to offer these resources for future generations so please click the button on your screen right now to show your support i believe in the transformative power of design i've seen this proven over and over again in my career and in my life and right here with tonight's winners please join me in supporting this essential cause thank you for celebrating the national design awards and thank you for being an advocate for design thank you john and thank you all for coming together for tonight's celebration remember to click show your support to support cooper hewitt's mission to educate inspire and power through design design doesn't end here be sure to check out the free virtual programs throughout national design month to learn more from the national design award winners and talks workshops career fairs and more sign up at cooper hewitt dot work what a night i'm already looking forward to next year's program if you know a person or organization who deserves to be recognized with the national design award let us know by clicking nominate in the site menu on behalf of the entire cooper hewitt team thank you and have a good night