The Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum is a great destination for holiday museum hopping on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Currently on view through mid-January is How Posters Work, which explores the ways designers see--and produce--the medium beloved by graphic designers inventing and sharing new visual languages.

Organized by Ellen Lupton, the museum's senior curator of contemporary design, the show features more than 125 pieces by design pioneers like Herbert Matter, Paul Rand, and Philippe Apeloig, and shows how the principles of composition, perception and storytelling convey ideas and shape experiences. 

Lupton, a graphic designer and educator, identified 14 principles of communication design that can be seen in great posters, grouping the works in thematic sections. Focus the eye; Overwhelm the eye; Assault the surface; Simplify; and Amplify, are just a few of the ways in which designers have created memorable, large-format pages that sell a product, promote an event, or provoke an argument for social change.

In addition, there is a section devoted to the nuts and bolts of production--an aspect of design generally hidden from view. The printing arts are explained in a nutshell, from letterpress and woodcuts to offset and digital printing.

Because the Cooper Hewitt is also a teaching institution, the exhibition design is geared to making vast amounts of information accessible, without detracting from an exciting visual experience. In addition, the museum's mini-website for the show presents 172 of the posters, grouped under the 14 organizing themes. Open any object in the show and you'll get details about the designer and publisher, together with tags linking to similar objects in the collection. You can also join a one-hour online class with Ellen Lupton on How Posters Work. Info

How Posters Work continues through January 17 at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, 2 East 91st Street, NY, NY. Info. The 224-page exhibit catalog is available here. Also on view in the Process Lab: Pixar | The Design of Story. Info. And don't miss the Immersion Room, where everyone can be a designer with work to prove it. Info. Photos: Peggy Roalf