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INDUSTRIAL DESIGNERS
Ramaa Narayanan , November 2008

Sources :

Hazel Conway: Design History Jonathan Woodham : Twentieth Cemtury Design Munari : Design As Art; Websites on designers

Industrial Design is concerned with machine-made objects and mass-production. The profession of industrial designer emerged in the twentieth century. Before this specialism developed, the function of design in industry was less well-defined and was performed by a variety of people. These more obscure and distant circumstances presented particular problems and challenges. Modern practice for industrial designers generally falls into two broad categories: the designer is either a direct employee of an organization and designing exclusively for it. Examples are the design groups employed by all major motorvehicle manufacturers, or by the giants of electrical goods manufacturers, such as the Dutch company Philips or Matsushita Electric of Japan. Such teams are responsible for translating the possibilities of scientific and technological invention into products that are appropriate and appealing to the buying public. Their success or failure can profoundly influence the performance of a company. The second category is that of an independent consultant who is commissioned to design for various clients. Consultants perform similar function as in-house designers but for a variety of clients and product types simultaneously. Kenneth Grange of the consultancy Pentagram has been responsible for a wide range of work. Michael Graves, for one, designed for Steuben, Alessi, Disney, Philips Electronics, etc.

Whatever the mode of employment, or type of product under consideration, the task of modern industrial designers is to produce a plan and specification of a form or mechanism for large-scale production. An essential feature of their work is the separation of concept from manufacturing context. IA In-house Company designers : Philips, Eindoven, Holland Matsushita Electric, Japan

2 MATSUSHITA ELECTRIC, founded by Konosuke Matsushita was the largest manufacturer of consuler electrical goods in the world. The company comprised of National, Panasonic, Technics, and Quasar brand names. Matsushita did much to establish the role of industrial designer in Japanese companies. He had been influenced by American practice before war, having in 1933 constituted the company on a divisional basis, similar to that introduced in the American automobile industry by Alfred P.Sloan at General motors in the 1920s. Although the extent of impact which the United States made on Matsushita by his 1951 visit has perhaps assumed something apocryphal dimension in the construction of twentieth century Japanese design history, he set up an industrial design department in his company, said to be the first in Japan. Initially consisting of a handful of designers, by the end of the decade it had grown to more than thirty. In the mid-fifties Matsushita had about 300 industrial designers, although they were decentralized across the various company divisions. This initiative was taken up by many other companies; Canon Company, Toshiba, Sharp Corporation, National Railways and Sony to name a few. PHILIPS, HOLLAND, the internationally renowned manufacturer of electrical products was founded in Eindhoven in 1891 as a manufacturer of electric bulbs, moving into radio valves in 1918 and diversifying into other radio components in the 1920s. By the late 1920s the firm became involved in the manufacture of consumer products with its first radio receiver of 1927. Working in partnership with another Dutch company NSF - a manufacturer of radio cabinets, Philips became increasingly involved with design. By the Second World War the company's products included radios, gramophones, televisions (introduced to Holland by Philips in 1938) and electric shavers. There design consciousness became alert in mid 1920s. It was particularly evident in terms of publicity, boosted by the appointment of architect Louis Kalff to the Advertising Department in 1925, first as a supervisor and then, in 1928, as the head of a new department of General Advertising. Louis Kalff was responsible for the design of exhibition stands, posters, and publicity as well as the design of showroom interiors. The company also opened its own design office; although the decisions about product appearance involved a number of departments with Kalff playing a key role in guiding policy as well as producing individual designs. However, despite the involvement of designers of the stature of Cassandre for posters advertising the company's radios there was no clear policy for shaping a distinctive brand aesthetic before the Second World War. IB Design advisor to Allgemeine Electrizitats Gesellschaft (AEG): Peter Behrens Peter Behrens - (1868-1940) was the appointed design advisor for the Allgemeine Electrizitats Gesellschaft (AEG) Peter Behrens, Germany is the inventor of corporate identity.

3 Before 1914, Germany witnessed an active field of design debates concerning issues, and positions of traditional arts and crafts on the one hand and design and industry on the other. The debates pivoted around the need to establish a link between the two. There were some instances where a progressive design outlook was adopted in German industry of the time, most significantly in relation to the newly established electricity industry for which consumer products were not unduly tied to traditional formats. Manufacturers Siemens and AEG (Allgemeine Electrizitats Gesellschaft) were the leaders in the field, being involved in all aspects of electricity from construction of power stations to the manufacture of light bulbs. In keeping with the companys enlightened policy in the employment of a number of leading architects and designers, Peter Behrens was appointed as a design advisor to the AEG Company in 1907. Peter Behrens was an influential architect and designer who combined art, industry, and technology to create objects for everyday use. In early days a "bohemian", Behrens dabbled in various artistic design enterprises particularly in applied arts, including constructing typefaces and designing ceramics and magazine covers. He designed buildings too with some success. Behrenss earliest product design for the company was centered on the design of arc lamps. He gave them clean lines, an approach he carried through into other product ranges such as electric kettles, fans, clocks, and domestic heaters. Because of the scale, its manufacturing base and the fact that AEGs products were being developed for new markets which were not dominated by design precedents, the company was able to impose its aesthetics upon consumers in ways that older craft-based industries were unable to do because their products had strong roots in traditional forms and decoration. Soon after Behrens was appointed the design advisor of AEG, he imposed a strong visual coherence for the company. This commenced with the graphics, but further evolved through AEG buildings, appliances, shops, workers housing, and other elements, which resulted in a strikingly modern corporate identity. The emphasis was on a coherent aesthetic which was manifest in all aspects of the companys work was an important ingredient in market penetration at home and abroad. For them, he re-formed the company's image and create a corporate identity, a first for the time -- designing its trademark, stationery and catalogues, apart from the key products of the company. II Independent consultant : Raymond Loewy : An American Industrial Designer Raymond Fernand Loewy (1893-1986) was one of the best known industrial designers of the twentieth century. Born in France he spent most of his professional career in the United States. Raymond Loewy was educated in the University of Paris and further obtained his degree in engineering at Paris. He immigrated to the United States in 1938, after serving in the French army for some years.

4 Loewy settled in Manhattan and developed himself as a commercial illustrator. From this he gained a very strong understanding of the advertising process and began to learn how to sell things to the American consumer. The reason that he was so successful in this endeavor was that he appealed to his market by using logic within his campaigns. He recognized the useful elements of a product and would appeal to the consumers needs. In the 1930s, he survived the great American depression and started a design agency where he convinced companies that product prestige and investing in high quality design was good for corporate image, profits and would benefit the consumer. In 1944, Raymond Loewy formed Raymond Loewy Associates which became the largest design firm in the world. Subsequently, Loewy founded three design companies, in all. During the Forties when World War II happened, he was asked by Washington to help maintain the morale of the American woman. So he designed the first cardboard swivel lipstick which avoided the use any critical war metals; the lipsticks sold in there millions. Loewy reached his peak following the Second World War; in a period marked by explosive consumption. New household formation took off with the postwar baby boom and the expansion of the suburbs. Raymond Loewy Associates created many of the eras products, particularly appliances and kitchen requisite, as well as containers and packages for food and beverages. He also designed a kitchen interior. Furthermore he designed transport systems for General Motors, United Airlines the Greyhound Bus System his firm also re-branded for the like of Coca-Cola, Shell the list goes on. In the Fifties The Loewy organization branched further into modern transportation and he started to work on projects for BMW and the French helicopter Alouette. By the Sixties he was designing the exterior graphic for Air Force One and his company took on a lot of government based projects, including the human factor design for the Skylab system which was a NASA project they were going to used to enter into space with. In the Seventies he established a new design agency in Europe which acted as a think tank for his corporate clients, his agency specialized in new technology and innovational design. His studio still continued to work on transportation and re-branding projects for some of his American clients. He won many awards and prizes for his achievements in the field of design. Loewys business success permitted him a life of celebrity and luxury, with a shifting array of customized cars, yachts, and glamorous homes in Manhattan, and other places in the US, and manor outside the French capital. His lifestyle led to many business contacts. Raymond Lowey was a self-styled publicist. He was often portrayed in photographs standing on Lowey-designed railway locomotives, seated in Lowey designed automobiles, or nonchalantly posed in a fictive, laboratory-like, industrial designers studio. Raymond Lowey was accorded celebrity status after Second World War through his appearance on the cover of TIME magazine of 1949. The cover shows his bust, surrounded by many of his key products designed in his offices, promoted him as an individual who altered single-handedly the visible form of the material environment of North America.

5 Examples : Trains for Pennysylvania Railroad : S1 steam locomotive. Automobiles : Raymond Loewy is one of those industrial design legends who maintained a spot in the pantheon of automotive history. The design lead for Studebaker during the post war years, Loewy and Virgil Exner, another luminary, were responsible for some of the most forward thinking and trend setting designs of the time. Loewy did not just do work for a broad range of customers, he also did design specifically for himself, too. His selfcommissioned 1959 Cadillac Eldorado is one such product. A much-lamented American vehicle is the Studebaker. This one is an early Raymond Loewy design, and the joke about the car was that you couldnt tell whether it was coming or going, because of its long tail which resembles the bonnet. Station wagon :. In the 1930s and 40s, resort hotels relied on vehicles of this sort to greet newly arriving guests. The station wagon body mounted on this 1946 or '47 Dodge, and called a "Highlander it was designed by Loewy. The BMW 507 is a legendary vehicle and the custom-built by Loewy for his personal use. A short wave receiver: A post war replacement to Sky Buddy - a bargain shortwave receiver marketed to the troops during war was given a new appearance. The company EKOPHONE brought in Loewy to refresh and modernize their product line. He responded with green back lit half moon dials. The cameras designed by Loewy are beautiful; the Anscoflex II is an example Desks The Raymond Loewy jet age streamlined pencil sharpener is a great example. The streamlining is superfluous but make the design look modern. Kitchen : Raymond Loewy Associates' "Look" kitchen from 1951 Loewy designed the Lucky Strike cigarette logo and the the cigarette package; designed logo for Shell. Coca Cola : Established 1886, Coca-Cola is the most recognized brand in the world and has been closely identified with notions of consumption and democracy in the United States. So commercially successful was Coca-Cola over the following decades that by the time of the Second World War it was seen as such an evocative symbol of the American way of life that the company undertook to supply American troops with the drink wherever they

6 were, thus maintaining morale. A similar strategy was repeated in the Korean and Vietnam Wars. Loewy was a consultant with the Coca Cola company. After the war the Loewy designed the distinctive streamlined red Dole Deluxe Coca-Cola dispenser in 1947, the Dole Super dispenser in 1951, and a Coca-Cola bottle opener in 1956. In 1954 Loewy also turned his attention to a redesign of the distinctive bottle (redesigned several times in its long history), although he acknowledged that the original was the most perfectly designed package in the world. Loewy's brief was to give the bottle a more refined silhouette. Other ideas that Raymond Loewy Associates worked on for Coca-Cola included a drinks cooler (1945) and a truck design (1946). Loewy was a revolutionary in the design world, but he was also responsible for many of its problems. His role in the convergence of advertising, fashion, consumerism and design ideas has contributed to the way in which many people misinterpret the world around them. Raymond Lowey transformed countless items by streamlining, a concept he originated. He described it as "beauty through function and simplification". His simple shapes, uplifting curves, chrome metal and bright colours all are evocative, indeed. Kenneth Grange :English Industrial designer of great talent and renown and designed products as diverse in nature and scale as the front-end and cab of British Rails HighSpeed 125 train, kitchen appliances for Kenwood and disposable razors for Wilkinsons Sword. The legendary product designer Kenneth Grange, co-founder of Pentagram and designer of modern icons such as the new London black cabs and the Kenwood Chef, explains that a life in design means being constantly inquisitive. 'I'm always asking how things are made. You're never too old for that.' He believes that a love of the job is an absolute prerequisite. He says: 'I love construction. I love making things. It's incredibly liberating to make things yourself. Designer of : front and cab of Intercity 150 London Kenwood Chef 1950 Kodak Instamatic camera the Aura Note by April Music slick music hub Signature Diamond Speakers from B & W Bower and Wilkins floor lamps and pendent lamps , Wilkins razor blades and Parker51 _______________________________________________________________________