Roaming By Design

Lisa S. Roberts at the Cooper Hewitt event

The Cooper Hewitt was buzzing on August 16th when Lisa S. Roberts' show "My Design Life" was screened for an elite audience of design devotees. The docuseries premieres tonight with two back-to-back episodes on the Ovation network at 8:00 pm ET. The show, which will consist of ten thirty-minute episodes airing on consecutive Wednesdays at 8:00 and 8:30 pm ET/PT, follows Roberts and her team as they visit museum exhibitions, trade shows, retail stores and designers’ studios in order to gather ideas and inspiration for her upcoming book DesignPOP: Popular Trends in Contemporary Product Design. The new book explores the trends taking place in contemporary design throughout the past 30 years.

Highlights from the show include visits to the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum and the Philadelphia Museum of Art; the design studios of Harry Allen and Tony Wurman; retail stores such as Design Within Reach and Moss; and restaurants, including David Rockwell’s Pod and Christine Liaigre’s Buddakan. Viewers will learn about the history behind the featured designs, as well as back stories of the designers and manufacturers who created them. The aim of Roberts and her team is to educate their audience about the importance of contemporary design while adding an air of whimsy and accessibility at the same time. 

Lisa Roberts began her career as an architect. After six years, she left the field to pursue her professional interests in product and graphic design. Most recently, she has designed products for museum stores, such as the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum, among others. In the early 1980’s Roberts began collecting contemporary product design objects, which she calls “Antiques of the Future.” In 2006, Roberts published a book by the same title and, since that time, has traveled throughout the country speaking on the subject of design. She has been featured on HGTV, The Today Show, and the Early Show, and Antiques of the Future was reviewed in Time, USA Today, Parade, Dwell, and local publications. In addition, Roberts serves on the executive committee and as a trustee of the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, and as a trustee of the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA), where she is a longstanding member of the museum’s contemporary design group, Collab.  

Tune in design fans for a vivid romp through the contemporary design world; you'll love the full-on, behind-the-sceens access!

So we're saying goodbye to May, marvelous month that it was, and stepping into June with our eyes on tweetups and junkets that will serve as great roaming opportunities, and we'll definitely be reporting back (be sure to check out our sister site adroyt for some of the fun--okay, so she's the smarter sister but we're still cute here at RBD!).

We had a blast at Alessi and once again Marcel was on the scene, um, actually, he was the scene! A group of bloggers gathered to tweet what the Maestro of Moooi had to say about his designing mind. 

A fab time was had by all at the Museum of Art and Design as we hosted a Tweetup during the opening party of MAD's exhibition "Are You A Hybrid," curated by Stephen Burks. 

GD Cucine was hopping with a hip vibe as design devotees feasted on freshly prepared Italian fare and on Cleto Munari's vision, which was sprinkled around the showroom in the form of the "Il Magnifici 7," a colorful collection of furnishings that popped within the serene backdrop of sleek kitchen charisma.

Our Tweetup during Moss Gallery's Fraternal Twins event was packed!

Soho was one rocking nabe during much of the week, our Moss tweetup being a highlight. We hit so many showrooms on Monday night that we stumbled around in sensory overload, ending the evening at Scavolini's showroom with its lively atmosphere, fantabulous food and hip crowd.

There were so many events, so little time, which is about how we always describe ICFF week in New York City; that said, we did our stellar best to make it to some of the hottest parties and unearth the best in design offerings. Oh yes; there was the show itself! Here's one of our favorite offerings: James DeWulf's Ping Pong table, in concrete, which can also serve as a dining room table.

@SarahFrazier @SaxonHenry and @concretedetail at #TheArthurShow tweetup @Moss_Online

Roaming by Design has been on the road a bit lately (uh, I guess that's what we're supposed to be doing when we promise roaming, huh?)! We've been around town (and across the pond, actually) gathering tweeps around us for some excellent partying. Recently, we had a highly successful tweetup at Moss Gallery in Soho during their #TheArthurShow, joined there by @abcddesigns @StudioBrinson @williambrinson @goodwithstyle @RMManhattanEd @sarahfrazier @concretedetail @RodRuizPhoto @MelissaCantor @DESIGNCOMMOTION and (yours truly) @SaxonHenry to name a few.

@WilliamBrinson asked to snap a shot? Nooo!

At the sexy rooftop lounge at the Gansevoort Park Avenue recently, we gathered a good group of tweeps around us to celebrate #PlungeWeekend. Keeping it cool that night were @Joeod3 @SusanWilber @concretedetail @GansevoortPark and @SaxonHenry. Where are we next? Well, Vegas, baby--we'll be cozying up to @Paul_Anater and a long list of tweeps he'll be gathering at the #Coverings2011 show (which includes the divine @jolocktov)! And at the #ADshow2011 in NYC late next week, there will be a large gathering of twitterati (a little birdie tells us @Modenus @AndieDay @SabrinaInc @troynyc @Tim_ModenusUK and @gwphoto38 will be there!). If you want a twitvite, leave a comment and we'll make sure you are in the know! Happy Tweeting everyone!

Plunge at the Gansevoort Park Avenue