Last year, after being asked for the umpteenth time to share our take on who the key players are in the American design scene, we decided to launch the first annual American Design Hot List — an unapologetically subjective editorial award for the names to know now in American design. We intended for the list to act as Sight Unseen’s guide to those emerging and mid-career talents influencing the design landscape in any given year, whether through standout launches, must-see exhibitions, or just our innate sense that they’d be ones to watch. But when we thought about the fact that no one else was doing anything remotely similar, we realized that the American Design Hot List could play a wonderful ongoing role in spotlighting the hard work and superior skill of a group of creatives who we believe deserves recognition.

We’re devoting the entire upcoming week to interviews with and social media coverage of our 2014 honorees, complete with graphics by another great up-and-coming American design talent: Benjamin Critton. Critton created our new identity for the awards, including the GIF above, which incorporates background imagery honoring all five regions of the United States. We hope you’ll follow along on the site this week — where we’ll be featuring five designers per day — then hop over to our Pinterest and Instagram pages for even more coverage. Without further ado, the 2014 honorees are…

AMMA Studio
Anna Karlin
Assembly
Atelier de Troupe
AQQ
Bower
CHIAOZZA
DAMM Design
Egg Collective
Field Experiments
hOmE
Ian Stell
John Hogan
Jonathan Muecke
Jonathan Nesci
Karl Zahn
Leon Ransmeier
LUUR Design
Misha Kahn
Moving Mountains
RO/LU
Steven Haulenbeek
Thaddeus Wolfe
Visibility
Vonnegut/Kraft