One of the most prestigious design awards of the year is the National Design Award bestowed by the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. Although the official ceremony doesn’t happen until fall (October 9), the award recipients have been announced.

This year’s recipients include Roman and Williams for Interior Design; Brooks + Scarpa for Architecture Design; Andrea Cochran Landscape Architecture for Landscape Architecture; Witold Rybczynski for Design Mind; Etsy for Corporate & Institutional Achievement; Office for Communication Design; Narciso Rodriguez for Fashion Design; Aaron Koblin for Interaction Design; LUNAR for Product Design; and Ivan Chermayeff and Tom Geismar for Lifetime Achievement.

2014 National Design Award winners

“As we celebrate the 15th anniversary of the program, I am delighted to welcome this new class of extraordinary designers, each of whom represent the very best in their discipline and demonstrate design’s power to affect the quality of our life, community, economy and environment,” said director Caroline Baumann.

A jury of design leaders reviewed submissions from nominations submitted by the general public. Individual nominees must have been practicing professionally for a minimum of seven years; Lifetime Achievement nominees must have been practicing professionally for a minimum of 20 years. Winners are selected based on the level of excellence, innovation and public impact of their body of work.

Here’s a bit more information on the interior design and architecture winners:

New York-based Roman and Williams was founded in 1998 by Hollywood set designers Robin Standefer and Stephen Alesch. The pair began by designing celebrity residences. In 2009, the firm completed the award-winning Ace and Standard Hotels in New York as well as the notable residential building at 211 Elizabeth Street. Their lauded projects include The Dutch and Lafayette with chef Andrew Carmellini, the Freehand Hotel in Miami, the 30-story Viceroy Hotel in New York and a product line with Waterworks and Lalique. Recent projects include an eatery for Facebook, a restaurant with Alain Ducasse and the newsroom and set for Huffington Post Live. Each Roman Williams project demonstrates a comprehensive design vision, marking their work as a unique user experience.

Angela Brooks and Lawrence Scarpa are partners in the Los Angeles-based architecture firm Brooks + Scarpa. The firm has garnered international acclaim for its success in marrying an innovative aesthetic with leadership in sustainable and socially progressive design, ingenious applications of building materials and the incorporation of unique ideas about tactility and spatial experiences in design. The firm has received numerous honors, including awards for such noteworthy Los Angeles projects as the Solar Umbrella House, Cherokee Mixed-Use Lofts, Colorado Court, the first affordable housing project in the country to be LEED-Gold certified, and Step Up on 5th, which provides a home, support services and rehabilitation for the homeless and special-needs population.

For a full look at the National Design Award winners' projects, click here.

First launched at the White House in 2000 as a project of the White House Millennium Council, the National Design Awards were established to promote design as a vital humanistic tool in shaping the world. The awards are accompanied each year by a variety of public education programs, including special events, panel discussions and workshops. First Lady Michelle Obama serves as the Honorary Patron for this year’s National Design Awards.