NEW YORK.- The Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum announced the initial winners and finalists of the sixth annual National Design Awards, honoring the most outstanding contributions from the design world in 2005, including the winners of Lifetime Achievement, Corporate Achievement, Design Mind and Design Patron, as well as the three finalists for each of the other six awards for architecture, communications, landscape design, interior design, product and fashion.

First launched at the White House in 2000 as an official project of the White House Millennium Council, the annual Awards program celebrates design in various disciplines as a vital humanistic tool in shaping the world and seeks to increase national awareness of design by educating the public and promoting excellence, innovation and lasting achievement. Reflecting the ever-growing scope of design, the Awards program has expanded this year to include three new categories—landscape design, interior design and design mind—for a total of 10 awards. The six Design Award winners will be announced, and the Lifetime Achievement, Corporate Achievement, Design Mind and Design Patron award recipients will be honored at the Oct. 20 gala, which will be held at Cooper-Hewitt's landmark headquarters on Fifth Avenue in New York. The proceeds from the gala will benefit the museum, its exhibitions and public programs. The Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes the work of a distinguished individual who has made a profound and long-term contribution to the contemporary practice of design. This year, the award is bestowed upon celebrated design legend Eva Zeisel. Born in Budapest, Hungary, Zeisel’s career is international in scope and spans more than 75 years. Known for lyrical and shapely ceramics, she has produced more than 100,000 objects. At the age of 98, Zeisel is still designing for manufacturers, including Nambé; KleinReid; Acme; The Imperial Porcelain Factory, St. Petersburg, Russia; and, Royal Stafford for Crate & Barrel.

The Corporate Achievement Award recognizes a corporation that uses design as a strategic tool of its mission and exhibits ingenuity and insight in helping to advance the relationship between design and quality of life in the United States. The 2005 Corporate Achievement Award is presented to Patagonia, a sports apparel company, based in Ventura, Calif. Founded in 1973, the company creates high-quality outdoor sportswear for mountaineering, skiing and extreme sports, with a focus on functionality.

Patagonia works with manufacturers to develop new fabrics, such as Capilene and H2No Strom, which meet athletes’ strict demands, and implements numerous environmental initiatives, including producing clothes out of soda bottles, recycling scraps before they hit the cutting room floor and harnessing wind for fuel. The first ever Design Mind Award, created to recognize a visionary who has affected a paradigm shift in design thinking or practice through writing, research and scholarship, is awarded jointly to Michael and Katherine McCoy. The McCoys are internationally recognized for their unique multidisciplinary design education methods, which provide designers the tools to collaborate in creating compelling design experiences. The McCoy’s lecture on design theory at conferences around the world and their writings and work have been widely published and exhibited. Collectively, they have received more than 200 awards for their work in graphic, product, furniture, signage, exhibit and interior design, and numerous awards for their pioneering methods in design education including honorary doctorates from Kansas City Art Institute.

The 2005 National Design Awards jury also chose to grant a Special Jury Commendation to Sergio A. Palleroni, a research fellow at the Center for Sustainable Development at University of Texas at Austin, who runs 10-week-long design/build studios around the world in marginalized communities. Established in 1995 at the University of Washington, these pioneering design/build programs combine innovative architectural training with cross-cultural immersion, social activism and environmental science.

Design Award Finalists - Eighteen finalists will compete for the six National Design Awards in the categories of architecture, communications, landscape design, interior design, product and fashion. Finalists for the category of architecture design (commercial, public or residential) are: Diller, Scofidio + Renfro—DS+R is an interdisciplinary studio that fuses architecture with the visual and performing arts. The work of DS+R includes architectural commissions, temporary and permanent site-specific installations, multimedia theater, electronic media and print. The New York-based firm integrates architecture with new technologies, implements new materials and construction processes in its projects and appropriates materials from unlikely sources such as the military, aerospace and medical fields.

Tom Kundig—Partner of Seattle-based architecture firm Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects, Kundig has gained national notoriety for his poetic, elemental and intuitive treatment of projects. Kundig creates buildings that are experienced as a journey, a series of vignettes that coalesce into a coherent narrative. With respect for the environment, Kundig’s projects reveal his reverence for materials, while combining art, craft and the experience of built space. In 2004, he was selected as one of eight North American Emerging Architects by the Architectural League of New York.

Antoine Predock—Drawing from the pulse of the land, Antoine Predock’s work embraces the uniqueness of a site, its history, culture and people. Predock’s signature working method includes sketches to capture initial immersion, collage as a mosaic translation into a visual plane and clay modeling to shape bold, three-dimensional forms. He founded Antoine Predock Architect in Albuquerque, N.M., which soon will celebrate its fourth decade in practice.

Finalists for the category of communications design (graphic and multimedia) are: 2x4—Founded in 1993 by Michael Rock, Susan Sellers and Georgie Stout, 2x4 works in print, film/video, web and environment design for clients ranging from Vitra, Knoll Textiles and Prada to the Guggenheim Vegas, Museo Picasso Malaga and the Dia:Beacon. The New York-based design firm develops unexpected content for art, design, architecture and cultural clients, following a rigorous analysis of message, program, context and audience.

Stefan Sagmeister—A major force in the design world since arriving in New York on a Fulbright grant in 1987, Austria-born Stefan Sagmeister strives to create design that has the ability to touch the viewer’s heart. He established Sagmeister Inc. in 1993, with an emphasis on concept over style, and his work is primarily based in the entertainment, art and culture industries. Clients have included legends such as the Rolling Stones, Lou Reed and The Talking Heads.

Paula Scher—Paula Scher has been a principal in the New York office of the distinguished international design consultancy Pentagram since 1991. She began her career as an art director in the 1970s and early 1980s, when her eclectic period-oriented typography for records and books became highly influential. At Pentagram she designs identities, packaging, publications and environments for a broad range of clients that include The Public Theater, Citibank, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Tiffany & Co., and the Daily Show with Jon Stewart.