Auburn University Launches Industrial Design History Website

Auburn University has launched a new website devoted to the history of the industrial design profession: www.industrialdesignhistory.com. The site, by Professor and Industrial Design Chair Bret H. Smith, features biographies of industrial designers, an index and timeline of historic products, print and online resources, and videotaped interviews with major designers.

This website is an outgrowth of Smith’s industrial design oral history research. He began collecting videotaped interviews with designers in 1995 to preserve the stories of how designs such as the playmate cooler, the John Deere 4020’s curved glass enclosure, the IBM Thinkpad and the IBM PC keyboard originated.

As Smith explains, “Many people know about the founding fathers of the industrial design profession — Henry Dreyfuss, Raymond Loewy and Walter Dorwin Teague — but the second generation of designers’ careers have not been well documented. Industrial Design in many ways is an anonymous profession. If the design solution is successful, then the client is successful. You never get to hear the story of the design itself, but it’s in these stories that industrial design history comes alive. These are stories of inventiveness, audacity, insight, design wisdom and judgment that help make us better designers. These stories can teach designers and non-designers alike, how to be better problem solvers and how to provide lasting value in the things we do.”

A peer-reviewed online journal that will contribute new scholarship to this type of history will launch next year.

The Auburn University College of Architecture, Design and Construction is one of Places' partner schools.

Share This Story

Subscribe to Comment Feed

Comments (1) | JUMP TO MOST RECENT >>

I graduated in Industrial Design from AU in 1958 and several of my friends graduated in 1957. We are all trying to find out when the ID program actually first started at AU? DO you know and who was the first instructor?

Larry Jones
03.14.11 at 04:05

LOG IN TO POST A COMMENT
Don't have an account? Create an account. Forgot your password? Click here.

|

Share This Story

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

The Auburn University College of Architecture, Design and Construction is one of Places' partner schools.
More Bio >>

DESIGN OBSERVER JOBS

MORE BY Auburn University

04.19.11: Vini Nathan Named Dean at Auburn University CADC
02.01.10: "Think Tall"
More by Auburn University >>

Recent Books from Partner Schools
A round-up of selected books on architecture, urban planning and design by faculty in Places' partner school network.

Mapping Spectral Traces Symposium Planned for October 2012
An international network of researchers and creative practitioners work with and in traumatized communities and contested lands to map unacknowledged histories.

Hill Country Fossils
On Places, a poem by Katherine L. Hester set in an exurban subdivision in the Texas Hill Country.

Pratt Pop-Up Showcases Work from Design Incubator for Sustainable Innovation
A pop-up store in a shipping container at the DeKalb Market in Brooklyn showcases the entrepreneurial talents of Pratt designers, artists and architects.

University of Toronto Announces Lecture Series
The Daniels 2011-2012 Public Lectures will feature Gregg Pasquarelli, Elizabeth Meyer, Catherine Mosbach, Finn Geipel, Didier Faustino, Fernando Romero, Jeanne Gang, David Gissen, William Morrish, Hrvoje Njiric and Liz Diller.

Places

Departments

Topics

Design Observer

Partner News: Auburn University

Auburn University Launches Industrial Design History Website

Comments (1) | JUMP TO MOST RECENT >>

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

DESIGN OBSERVER JOBS

MORE BY Auburn University

RELATED POSTS