Tucker Viemeister Receives 2023 Rowena Reed Kostellow Award

Tucker’s father, Read Viemeister, was an early Pratt Industrial Design program graduate. Thirty years later, Viemeister also graduated from the program, and in 2018, he was honored with Pratt’s Alumni Achievement Award. His designs are in the permanent collections of MoMA and the Smithsonian, and he holds 32 US utility patents. The press has described him as a “Wiz-kid,“ “Guru,” and “industrial demigod.” 2016, the IDSA voted him one of the 50 “most notable” industrial designers. 

Viemeister is most famous for creating the OXO GoodGrips with his partners at Smart Design in 1986. The famous handle design started as a vegetable peeler for people with arthritic hands. The form evolved from his simple question, “Why does design for older people always look frumpy?” This provocation was the starting point for his pioneering work in the Universal Design movement. Over his career, Viemeister’s designs have ranged from voting machines (Microsoft) to exhibitions (Shanghai Planetarium), and he contributed to the HyperloopTT project. He was EVP of Razorfish, opened Frogdesign’s NY office, and founded “the LAB” at RockwellGroup. Viemeister’s latest product is for Loliware - a sustainably designed, single-use flatware made from seaweed, an earth-friendly material that dissolves after use. 

Viemeister has been an outspoken ambassador for innovation and aesthetics in industrial design. A fellow of the IDSA, he just received the Lifetime Achievement Award. He is also the VP of the Architectural Society and a prolific writer, lecturer, and professor.