Inspired

A few weeks ago, Aaron Straup Cope at the Cooper-Hewitt blogged about a new feature they've added to the experimental version of their collection search: Albers boxes.

Albers boxes on the Cooper-Hewitt site

The boxes take the place of standard placeholder icons. As Aaron explains:

The outer ring of an Albers box represents the department that an object belongs to. The middle ring represents the period that an object is part of. The inner ring denotes the type of object. When you mouse over an Albers box we display a legend for each one of the colors.

Of course, you know what I immediately thought. That we need our own version. And we have exactly the right reference already.

Julian Dashper, Untitled, 1996. Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa

I have no idea if real people will find this helpful, but you know what I love about it? I love knowing that the team had fun, and felt satisfaction making this. The palpable sense of excited experimentation coming out of the Cooper-Hewitt is what makes them the most interesting museum to follow on the internet right now.