This website celebrates the determination, audacity and ingenuity of the industrial design profession. Here you will find stories about the people who design products and systems for production, utility, comfort and beauty. These wide-ranging stories, often personal and humorous, provide a look into the rich history and socio-economic impact of industrial design.

User login

As a registered user, you may access certain parts of the site that are unavailable to anonymous users. Also, you may contribute to the site as a contributor once you are signed up.

Home

Founders of American Industrial Design, by Carroll Gantz

Publisher: 
McFarland
Publication Date: 
July 2014
ISBN: 
0786476869

About the Book: 
As the Great Depression started in 1929, several dozen creative individuals from a variety of artistic fields, including theatre, advertising, graphics, fashion and furniture design, pioneered a new profession. Responding to unprecedented public and industry demand for new styles, these artists entered the industrial world during what was called the “Machine Age,” to introduce “modern design” to the external appearance and form of mass-produced, functional, mechanical consumer products formerly not considered art.

The popular designs by these “machine designers” increased sales and profits dramatically for manufacturers, which helped the economy to recover; established a new profession, industrial design; and within a decade, changed American products from mechanical monstrosities into sleek, modern forms expressive of the future. This book is about those industrial designers and how they founded, developed, educated and organized today’s profession of more than 50,000 practitioners. Book published by McFarland & Company <www.mcfarlandpub.com>

Copyright Information: 
I either own or have obtained the rights to the image(s) included with this article and grant industrialdesignhistory.com the right to post it(them) on its website and make use of it(them) in print media with proper attribution, or believe this use of the image(s) falls under the fair use doctrine.
Final cover 442KB.jpg
Audience: 
Must have

Discovering Design: Peter Bressler

Sources: 
Oral history/personal interview conducted by Bret H. Smith. http://www.bresslergroup.com/. Popular Mechanics/Google Books.
Speaker: 
Peter Bressler
Copyright Information: 
I own or have obtained the rights to the video(s) included with this article and grant industrialdesignhistory.com the right to post it(them) on its website and make use of it(them) in print media with proper attribution.