MEMPHIS, TENN.- From ski boots to toys, posters to blueprints, garbage cans to Web sites, US DESIGN, 1975-2000 celebrates - and critically assesses - some of the most exciting work produced by American-based designers during the past 25 years. On display from December 7, 2003 to February 29, 2004 at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, US DESIGN showcases more than 250 objects and images, representing architecture, decorative design, graphics, and industrial design.

The show is one of the first efforts to demonstrate the United States’ important contribution to international design. It is an interactive experience that presents many of the major theoretical and cultural issues that shaped the design arts during the last quarter century and documents the accomplishments of three generations of seminal American designers.

This exhibition celebrates the resulting diversity of expression of contemporary design and presents it in a magnificent show that promises to please all. "US DESIGN is a very exciting and fun exhibition," said Chief Curator, Marina Pacini. "Intrigued with working on everyday objects, architects and designers often take toothbrushes, coffee pots, sneakers, and sunglasses, to name a few things, and create functional objects that make us smile or catch our breath."

One can’t help but grin at Ralph No’s Big Spring Frog stool, a concrete block on wheels with a huge spring supporting the concrete seat. In contrast is the breathtaking Space Chaise by Karim Rashid. The graphic design objects are equally intriguing. Paula Scher and Lisa Mazur’s poster for Bring in ’da Noise, Bring in ’da Funk uses a jazzy mixture of font sizes, types, and colors to mimic the excitement of the performance being advertised.

With the success of Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim in Bilbao and the competition for the World Trade Center, the public’s awareness of architecture has soared. US DESIGN includes models by Peter Eisenman and Bart Prince, as well as photographs and drawings of buildings by Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, and Michael Graves.

Instead of proceeding chronologically, the objects of the show have been organized according to four dominant visual strains in the furnishings of the past quarter-century. "Inventing Traditions" explores the attempt of American designers in the late 1970s and 80s to present reinterpretations of highbrow motifs. The result was a rich visual vocabulary that was readily accessible to the public. This movement is often referred to as Postmodernism.

"Celebrating the Everyday" documents the efforts of designers reacting to the prevailing modernism of the 1960s and 70s. These artists took their inspiration from popular culture. They employed ’found’ objects and everyday materials and forms, often using their work as a means of addressing crucial environmental, political, and social issues.

"Redefining Expressionism" focuses upon American designers whose works are characterized by complex sculptural and layered forms that in many cases can only be achieved by new computer technology. The work-such as wraparound eyewear and toothbrushes with thumb grips-is often highly personal in nature.

Finally, a younger generation of designers drew inspiration from earlier Modernist work but from a broader, more encompassing perspective. They employ new technology, color, materials, and even ornament in a minimalist, poetic manner, and are considered in the fourth concept, "Expanding Modernism."

US DESIGN highlights works by internationally recognized American designers such as Robert Venturi, Frank Gehry and Deborah Sussman; a middle generation including artists such as Thom Mayne, Steven Holl and Katherine McCoy; and exceptional younger designers just now emerging to prominence, including Karim Rashid, Christopher Dean and Ross Meduez.

The Brooks is the last stop of a traveling series for US DESIGN from the Denver Art Museum, to the Bass Museum of Art, Miami, Florida, and the American Craft Museum, New York, New York.

A fully illustrated 256-page catalogue co-published by Prestel will be available in the Museum Store in paperback form. The catalogue includes 100 color and 180 black and white photographs of the objects in the exhibition and essays by the previously discussed team of scholars. The hardcover catalogue is available at fine bookstores across the country and through Prestel worldwide.