Eero Saarinen: A Reputation for Innovation is a retrospective of the renowned architect’s work and a study of the design principles he followed.

The exhibition pays tribute to Saarinen’s brief yet brilliant career, in which he designed numerous corporate, educational, cultural, public, and private buildings, including recognizable icons like the Saint Louis Gateway Arch, the TWA Terminal at New York’s JFK Airport, and Dulles Airport in Washington DC.

The exhibition also breaks new ground by shedding light on a little known chapter of Saarinen’s secret professional life during World War II, when he served in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the precursor of the CIA. This wartime experience helped establish Saarinen as a designer willing to break technological and aesthetic boundaries.

The exhibition is curated by Mina Marefat, Ph.D, an architect, architectural historian and professor at Georgetown University.

When did Modernism come to Atlanta? What local buildings were designed in this style and who were the clients and architects responsible for them?

On a tour led by Susan Sanders, Director of Development at Georgia Tech College of Architecture, we’ll learn the fascinating history of the 1939 Thomas P. Hinman Research Building, the first Modern building at Georgia Tech, from its initial use for the development of natural resources and agricultural products, to the 1947 installation of a ‘calculator’ that was a precursor to the computer, to its recent renovation by the Atlanta firm, Lord, Aeck, Sargent and the Boston firm, dA.

To purchase tickets in advance, click here.

A critical part of modern design is problem solving using available, affordable, and abundant materials.

After winning MOMA’s Organic Design in Home Furnishings Competition with Eero Saarinen, Charles and Ray Eames were really put to this test. While gathering the financial resources to make the mass-produced plywood chairs for which they are famous, they seated themselves on homemade constructions made of discarded pipes.

This workshop — which will be held during Drink in Design on Thursday, May 30 — encourages designers of all ages and experience to improvise chairs made out of PVC pipe. There will be competition between two industrial designers to create the best chair, and there will also be materials on hand so that everyone can participate in making smaller models.

This event will take place from 6pm – 8pm on Thursday, May 30.  Just purchase a regular admission ticket and you’ll be treated to a drink!  Admission is $10 for adults, $8 for seniors and military, and $5 for students and children over 5. Members are free and drinks are complimentary.  Advance tickets are available by clicking this link.

Did you love MODA’s critically-acclaimed exhibition, Eero Saarinen: A Reputation for Innovation, and the insight it provides about mid-century Modernism? 

Then join us on Saturday, June 29, for the “MODA Mad Men Party,” an evening of cocktails, canapés and modern design. It’s going to be a gas!

With cocktails in hand, you’ll enjoy 1950s and ‘60s lounge music, authentic mid-century party fare, a era-relevant door prizes and a chance to do the limbo on the plaza. Come in their best Mad Men wear and you might win the Best Dressed prize! 

Tickets are $20 for members and $25 for non-members and can be purchased by clicking this link.

Co-presented by MODA and Georgia Tech’s Digital Media Program, XYZ: Alternative Voices in Game Design is the first-ever exhibition that highlights the work of women as game designers and artists.

A response to the popular misconception that women neither play nor create video games, this interactive exhibition redefines viewers’ perceptions of what games are and can be. XYZ introduces guests to alternative games that are outside the mainstream and demonstrates their capacity to convey a diverse range of ideas, experiences and emotions.

Click here to make a donation in support of this exhibition.

For information about corporate donations, please contact Barbara Richardson, Director of Development at 404.856.5963 or brichardson@museumofdesign.org.

This exhibition spotlights a wine barrel (barrique) recycling project taking place at Europe’s largest residential treatment center for young men and women recovering from drug addiction and social exclusion. Located in San Patrignano, Italy, the 1,300 residents of this treatment center learn professional skills – including viticulture, wine making, and woodworking – and produce more than 450,000 liters of wine each year, aging it all in 230 liter French oak barrels.

The fact that these barrels can be used for only three years led the community of San Patrignano to develop an innovative design project for the recycling of old wine barrels. They reached out to thirty well-known designers and architects — including Marc Sadler, Karim Rashid, Angela Missoni, and Alessandro Mendini — asking each of them to design a piece of furniture using wood reclaimed from wine barrels. Then, the residents of San Patrignano crafted the pieces of furniture out of old barrels, effectively demonstrating how design innovation can be used to achieve social good.

The furniture crafted in this project was displayed to great critical acclaim at the Salone del Mobile in 2012 and will be on display at MODA in 2013 as part of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ “Year of Italian Culture” in the United States.

Join us on October 5, 2013 for Festa Italiana, a special evening celebrating this exhibition. Tickets are $50 / $40 for MODA members and can be purchased in advance by clicking this link.  Further information about this event will be forthcoming in July 2013.

American designer Paul Rand (1914 – 1996) defined design as a unified activity, based on analysis and governed by imagination. Throughout his lengthy career – in which he created some of world’s most successful and recognizable logos such as those for IBM, Westinghouse, UPS, and ABC – his design work was governed by fundamental principles that he identified in his writings, such as beauty, intelligence, repetition, symbol, and humor. Today, designers across the world derive influence and inspiration from Rand’s body of work, acknowledging that he set new standards for graphic design.

Paul Rand: Defining Design will examine the trajectory of Rand’s career in an entirely new way, juxtaposing his iconic designs with discussion of the design principles by which they were informed. In addition, short films, interviews, and examples of Rand’s persuasive writings will provide further illuminate this legendary designer’s thoughts on the design process.

The exhibition is curated by Daniel Lewandowski, creator of the website www.Paul-Rand.com.