For a designer’s submission for a National Design Award in the category of “Design Mind,” I directed a short video portrait which captured the motivations and philosophy behind her life’s work. She subsequently won the award.
Role Director, Editor
For Cooper Hewitt National Design Awards
Date 2018
Type strategy, content, campaign
CONTEXT
How to you convey an entire career’s worth of work in 3 minutes?
The “Design Mind” award at the National Design Awards is granted “in recognition of a visionary...who has had a profound impact on design theory, practice, or public awareness." Anne Whiston Spirn had been nominated in this category previously, but had never won. As a scholar, photographer, and professional who has united restoration of the urban natural environment and inner-city community development into a single theory of practice, her work never conveniently fits into one box, and can thus present a perplexing picture to designers firmly rooted in narrowly-defined design practices.
Anne approached me in 2018 about creating a short video as part of her submission for this award.
APPROACH
In Her Element
To communicate decades of experience and a spirit of investigation in her work, we focused on shooting images of Anne “in her element,” such as navigating the shores of her hometown of Nahant, Massachusetts and at work in her home studio, and achieving a sense of reflection and spontaneity in her narration.
Impact
Anne won the award. In a conversation with the award’s sponsors, she learned that “it was the video” that clinched it. The video is currently displayed in many places that feature Anne’s work, including the International Federation of Landscape Architects, the American Society of Landscape Architects, and as a gateway to her own website.
“You have this really terrific conceptual ability and storytelling ability. But it’s married to a superb technical craftsmanship and artistic eye . . . Working with you I could relinquish the responsibility for all of it. Because you would come in with your own ideas that enriched the project. I just think that’s such a difficult thing to do in such a short time.”