Henry Dreyfuss

Henry was a leading industrial designer of USA in 1930s and 1940s. His style of designing products was quite in contrast with that of Loewy or other contemporary designers. Henry was not a stylist, but he insisted on a scientific approach to design. He successfully improve the looks, feel and usability of dozens of products. Some of Henry’s most remarkable projects include the ‘western electric 302’ table top phone for Bell Laboratories, Hoover vacuum cleaner,

Locomotive for New York rail road, and the ‘500 desk telephone’, which had remained the Bell standard for 45 years. The entire community of industrial designers, for all times to come will be indebted to Henry Dreyfuss for his unique contribution in the field of man- machine relationship. He did considerable research in ergonomics, anthropometrics and human factors involved in use of a machine. His publication, “ The Measure of Man’, is an invaluable ergonomic guide for all industrial designers. ( Henry Dreyfuss)

Walter Teague ( 1883 – 1960 ) Walter Teague was another pioneer who demonstrated the strength of industrial design to product manufacturers. He associated himself with products which are more technical in nature. He has to his credit the design of cold war missiles also. His association with Kodak and Boeing were as good as life long associations, which gave him an opportunity to design many cameras and jet planes. ( Walter Teague ) Teague is best known for his ability to integrate design solutions into manufacturing process.

Teague’s ability to take production and technical constraints and then turn them into design solutions landed him in a j ob at Kodak for life. (Weed Brad). All these three pioneering industrial designers have made a unique contribution to the profession of design. Loewy was good at incorporating marketing constraints and making products desirable. Dreyfuss was good at incorporating human constraints and make the products more usable. Teague excelled in interpreting engineering constraints and making products more useful.

These three elements of desirability, usefulness and usability lead to creation of great consumer products. ( Weed Brad ). Conclusion All students of industrial design must be exposed to the genesis of this profession and the pioneering personalities who demonstrated the strength of creative thinking and contributed to the spread of the profession. There was a small ideological spark in the middle of the 19th century in Europe, and the three pioneers in USA demonstrated the efficacy of industrial

design. It can help in creating an exponential graph in the sales of a consumer product and it can also help astronauts feel comfortable in space, in an environment where gravity is absent !!

Works-cited page

1) Giard Jacques, industrial design, The Canadian Encyclopedia Historica, Retrieved on 16-03-07 from : < http:// www. thecanadianencyclopedia. com/index. cfm? PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ART00033985 > 2) William Morris, wikipedia the free encyclopedia, 14 –03-07, Retrieved on 16-03-07 < http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/William_Morris >3) Henry Cole, wikipedia the free encyclopedia, 9-03-07, Retrieved on 16-03-07 from: < http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Henry_Cole > 4) Raymond Loewy, Biography, The Father of Industrial Design, Retrieved on 16-03-07 from : < http://www. raymonfloewy. com/about/bio. html > 5) Henry Dreyfuss, wikipedia the free encyclopedia, 20-12-2006, Retrieved on 16-03-07 from : < http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Henry_Dreyfuss> 6) Weed Brad, visual interaction design: the industrial design of the software industry, SIGCHI, Vol. 28, No. 3, July 1996, Retrieved on 16-03-07