As designers, we are empowered by knowledge of the world around us and the people that inhabit it. At MGA&D we believe that persistent learning is one of the many practices that help us create enduring, humanistic design solutions. That is why we are thrilled to have been asked to contribute content to the Smithsonian Learning Lab, a new digital platform that is allowing educators to utilize online resources for instruction and professional development in a whole new way.
Launched in 2016, the Smithsonian Learning Lab is a collection of more than two million digital resources including images, recordings, videos, and texts from across the Smithsonian’s 19 museums, 9 major research centers, the National Zoo, and more. The Learning Lab offers free access to all these diverse resources combined with tools that allow users to organize, supplement, and personalize the assets to facilitate learning in a non-traditional approach.
MGA&D has contributed two collections to the platform to provide its users some insights into how we approach design from start to finish. The first collection focuses on the history and foundation of our company, and our unique perspective as a truly multidisciplinary practice. The second collection is a case study on the Prime TC, which takes a full dive into the project from conception through production, and shows some of the tools we use to transform research findings into thoughtful, fully developed designs.
Here you can find our collections and explore the rest of the Smithsonian Learning Lab.
About Cooper Hewitt:
Founded in 1897, Cooper Hewitt is the only museum in the United States devoted exclusively to historic and contemporary design. Housed in the renovated and restored Carnegie Mansion, Cooper Hewitt showcases one of the most diverse and comprehensive collections of design works in existence. The museum’s restoration, modernization and expansion has won numerous awards and honors, including a Lucy G. Moses Preservation Award from the New York Landmarks Conservancy, a Gold Pencil Award for Best in Responsive Environments and LEED Silver certification. Cooper Hewitt offers a full range of interactive capabilities and immersive creative experiences, including the Cooper Hewitt Pen that allows visitors to “collect” and “save” objects from around the galleries, the opportunity to explore the collection digitally on ultra-high-definition touch-screen tables, and draw and project their own wallpaper designs in the Immersion Room.
For further information, call (212) 849-8400, visit Cooper Hewitt’s website here.