The New School News

Destination NYC


As part of the city’s inaugural design week, NYCxDESIGN, Rama Chorpash, a noted designer and the Director of Product Design at Parsons, will have his latest work showcased in the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) Design Store. The beautifully fluid bit of metal, pictured above, is called Spiraloop, and on one level is simply a potato masher. Of course, it’s also much more. It connects a global spring manufacturer that was established in Brooklyn nearly a century ago (Lee Spring) back to the city where it still maintains its headquarters today. It’s being feature at the MoMA Design Store as part of the 11th incarnation of the Destination: Design series, this one focused on New York.

The collection features approximately 200 lifestyle products by New York designers including home accessories, furniture, paper goods and jewelry. All products are designed in one of the five boroughs of New York City and manufactured in the United States.

For Chorpash, Spiraloop was an opportunity to “manufacture in place” — creating a product that shortened the supply chain between industry and consumer. Chorpash has committed his creative practice to developing products that enable positive social change. His motto, “the way we make, makes the world,” challenges consumers to consider how and where products are produced.

Also included in Destination NYC is Blokket, a project from a team including Ingrid Zweifel, a 2010 graduate of the BFA Product Design program. As Fast Company explains in an article on the device, Blokket, which began as Zweifel’s thesis project, is a soft fabric sleeve that blocks cellular signals. It’s designed for users to slip their mobile devices into while on dates, at films, or in any other situation where checking your phone is frowned upon, but usually irresistible. It “helps people engage in the present moment by providing interludes of relief from technology,” team member and fellow Parsons grad Chelsea Briganti told Fast Company. Leigh Ann Tucker, is the project’s third designer, and final member of their design collective The Way We See The World, which has also worked with Pepsi and Waterford Crystal.

“In New York City, we are fortunate to be surrounded by design that represents a wide range of backgrounds, ideas, and passions,” says Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator of Architecture and Design and Director of Research and Development at MoMA, and a member of the design jury that curated this collection. “We’re thrilled to offer a direct connection to these designers through Destination: NYC, and hope the project will inspire both New Yorkers and guests to think critically about innovative design and its role in our everyday life.”

The Destination: NYC product collection will be available in MoMA Design Stores in New York City (11 West 53 Street, 44 West 53 Street, 81 Spring Street) and Tokyo and at MoMAstore.org, MoMAonlinestore.co.kr, and MoMAstore.jp beginning in May 15.

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