An old map made new.

Massimo Vignelli's somewhat-forgotten 1972 New York Subway map has been given new life thanks to Men’s Vogue. The iconic designer and his design team have updated the changes made to the subway system within the last 30 years and a limited run of 500 posters have been printed. Each is signed by Vignelli and available through Condé Nast, with each sale benefiting Green Worker Cooperatives , a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating worker-owned and environmentally sound cooperatives in the South Bronx.

Trading Spaces at the Annex.

This Saturday, Goil Amornvivat, of TLC's Trading Spaces fame, will be at the Annex to create an exclusive window design that will remain on display for a month. A percentage of sales at the Annex from May 3–11 will be donated to the Asian American Writing Workshop (AAWW) – a nonprofit devoted to fostering creative writing by Asian Americans – in the form of furniture for their new office space. Goil’s class at Parsons the New School for Design is currently designing the new space as part of a class-wide project and DWR is happy to help. Stop by this Saturday from noon to 4pm to meet Amornvivat. He may be able to give you a few helpful hints for your home.

The future in wool and concrete.

Design Miami/Basel has announced their 2008 Designers of the Future. Martino Gamper (whose If Gio Only Knew, pictured above, was exhibited during last year's conference), Max Lamb, Julia Lohmann and the team of Clemens Weisshaar and Reed Kram will be tasked with creating “a new object, installation or series using concrete and wool,” and will also provide a video detailing their process. These will all be exhibited at the Design Miami/Basel show in Switzerland, June 3–5, 2008. Learn more here.

Get on board.

On Thursday, March 27, the DWR Denver Studio hosted our Second Annual Design the Modern Board event. More than 250 people were in attendance and we raised nearly $2,000 for Snowboard Outreach Society – a nonprofit that provides mentoring and snowboarding opportunities for underserved youth.

In partnership with K2 Snowboards, we invited graphic designers throughout the Rocky Mountain region to submit snowboard designs. The winner of the contest, Lucas Oxoteguy of Loxo Design, will receive a K2 board featuring his design (pictured above center). Runners up Leonardo de la Rocha (above left), a student at the Art Institute of Colorado, and Melissa Kendrick (above right) of Ebb and Flow Design, will receive top sheets of their designs and a pair of K2 bindings.

Hapa Sushi donated sushi, which was beautifully displayed on snowboards and skateboards. Vodka 14 donated cases of their organic goodness and Izze donated cases of their fizz. We also had an amazing group of DJs in the Studio, all of whom donated their time. We were so amazed by the generosity of our neighbors and by the talent of Colorado’s graphic artists.

Posted by Amy Marshall, Proprietor, Denver Studio

Destroying a classic.

The above image, I’ll admit, caused me to wince. I thought, “who would do such a thing to such a perfect design?” The answer is Mark Wentzel, an artist in Georgia represented by Project 4 Gallery in Washington, D.C.  His “XLounge” is a conceptual piece focusing on the “masterful design of the Eames Lounge Chair and its significance today.” It is a statement on the chair and America’s consumption of products.

Restoring a classic.

DWR staffers get asked all the time, “where can I find a good restorer for an original Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman?” Today’s New York Times asks that exact question and their answer is a great resource for those with chairs that are showing their age.

News on Nouvel.

French architect Jean Nouvel has been awarded the 2008 Pritzker Architecture Prize, the industry’s highest honor. Acknowledged for his “courageous pursuit of new ideas and his challenge of accepted norms in order to stretch the boundaries of the field,” the award is seen as a rebuke to his critics and a tribute to his unorthodox approach. Learn more about Nouvel’s notable and notorious career from this New York Times article.