Issues in the History of Industrial Design

Catalog description

One of the most momentous occurrences of the 20th and 21st Centuries has received surprisingly little attention: the transformation in how nearly everything around us is designed and made. Chairs, desks, pens, cars, stoves, refrigerators, printing presses, lighting fixtures, and children's toys all look very different than they did a century ago, and often are made through manufacturing process and out of materials that did not exist then. The history of industrial design can be traced back to the 19th century, and to the writings of social reformers such as William Morris and the teachings of progressive art schools such as the Bauhaus, which introduced a machine-made look and many classic modern designs, such as the Wassily Chair by Marcel Breuer. But the term industrial design was only coined in 1929, and modern industrial design, which brought together careful analysis of engineering, manufacturing, marketing, styling, branding and streamlining--really dates from that period through the creations of a group of pioneering, unheralded American geniuses, such as Raymond Lowie, Norman Bel Geddes, Henry Dreyfuss, Walter Dorwin Teague, Brooks Stevens, Russel Wright, Eliot Noyes, Viktor Schreckengost, and Harley Earl. In broad strokes, this class will lay out a history of industrial design from its origins until today. It will combine discussion of the work of historically significant figures, who established the basic framework of the field, with analysis of products being made today, by figures such as Dieter Rams, Jony Ive, and Philippe Starck. The class will also include a tour of and introduction to the Industrial Design program of the Cleveland Institute of Art, established by the great industrial designer and artist Viktor Schreckengost in 1933. The class will also view objects from the collections of the Western Reserve Historical Society, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and other arts institutions in the Greater Cleveland area. Offered as ARTH 385 and ARTH 485 .