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BACKGROUND AND HISTORY

                  American Product Design

Some of this material is covered in a book titled American Style:  Classic Product Design from Airstream to Zippo by Richard Sexton, 1987.

 

KEY ELEMENTS OF AMERICAN PRODUCT DESIGN:   

   
    Attributes:



    GENEROUS USE OF RAW MATERIALS WITH A CAREFREE QUALITY UNCONCERNED OF THE MATERIALS UTILIZED


    SIMPLE, LOGICAL DESIGN   


    FUNCTIONAL, SOLIDLY BUILT, DEPENDABLE AND DURABLE

           

    RADICAL REDESIGN RATHER THAN INCREMENTAL IMPROVEMENTS

 

    FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION-

            GERMAN BAUHAUS

            AMERICAN SHAKERS

 

 

 

    The following page has two sections.

1.  Product examples that do not generally feature outside influences and are pure American looking products.


2.  Below the first section are the original trailblazers of American Product design.  Many blended various outside influences and schools of design with the attributes listed above to create iconic products. 



Nothing States a product is Made In America as much as a Product which "Looks American", with true USA Archetypes and minimal design school influences .  This list with visuals offers some examples.

 


Section 1
Products that when viewed instantly evoke the the USA.



CompuServe  1979
                                                     
Shopping Cart

Quaker Oats Cereal cylinder packaging
(so product is differentiated from other cereals on the shelf)


Hershey Bar
Six Pack

Faberware Coffee Percolator- Model 142B


Hall Ceramics                                         


Tupperware

Wedgewood Stove  1930's and 1950's shown

    
Revereware                                                  

All American Pressure Cooker- No 907


Mason Jar


Eureka Mighty Mite- 1982


Hamilton Beach Drinkmaster- #30


Chromex Coffee Maker


Zeroll Ice Cream Scoop- #24

                  

Sunbeam Toaster- model 20030 and model I9; [slots]

  
Osterizer Blender- Model 403
Bloomfield Sugar Dispenser
Robertshaw Minute Minder
Metro Wire shelving system- Metropolitan Wire Goods Corp
Weber Grill
Acme Supreme Juicerator- Model 6001   

Vemcolite Task Light- VL-5; 1985


Kryptonite Bike Lock


Master padlock- #5

           

Hyde 5 in 1 Tool


Stanley Tools- utility knife and ratchet driver  

Maglight flashlight


Bell System #500 rotary telephone


Rural US Mailbox


Colt Revolver- SSA .45


John Deere Lawn Tractor- hydro 165


Lufkin Red End Extension Ruler- 6 feet

Milwaukee Magnum Hole Shooter Drill- ½” reversible 1974


Porter Cable Finishing Sander- 330 speed block


Rolodex- Model 5024x     

Stanley steel Thermos- No. A-943C


Eames / Evans Products / Charles Eames-
Molded Plywood Chair


Formica Decorative Laminate- white skylark

    
Bertoia Diamond Chair

Smokador Ash Stand- Servador table smoker ash stand

    

Fireplace designed by Wendell Lovett
made by Condon-King and also Majestic company

    

Philco- Predicta Television
TV as high tech instead of furniture

 

Holophane Prismatic Luminaire Light/lamp- #684
by Vearl Wince and Curt Franck

 

Abdite RLM Fixture- RD150


GRA-Lab Timer- #300


Panavision Panaflex golden movie camera  

Bell and Howell 8mm movie camera 1950's
Kodak Super8 movie camera
1960's

 

Kodak Carousel/Eketagraph AF2

  

US Navy G1 Aviation Jacket- WW2c


Bulova Accutron Watch
Brook Brother’s Diary

Halliburton Luggage- attaché case model 2H-1045  1938


Gillette swivel disposable razor  1981

   

Hobie Cat cameron - #16


Frisbee

Airstream Trailer


Buck Knife- model #110


Coleman Lantern model 201- from Hydrocarbon Light Company

Head tennis racquet- Edge Composite version


Tinker Toys- set # 330 from Toy Tinkers
 
Gibson Les Paul- cherry sunburst

Fender Telecaster Bass- 1972 model


Steinberger Bass- XL-2


Advent Radio- Model 400


Mcintosh Amp


Acoustic Research turntable  1957        

Corvette String Ray- 1964


Ford Thunderbird- 1957 gun metal grey     

Chris Craft Motorboat- Capri 19  1956


Learjet- 250


Mercury Outboard- Mercury 20


Jeep Cherokee- 1974


Videoconferencing 1968

Computer Mouse
Computer Graphics, CAD and CAM  1960's

Graphic User Interface  Xerox Parc  1970's   
Graphic User Interface  1980's 








Section 2

Classic American Designers.  Although their work is deemed classic American Style they were highly influenced by prevailing trends
as noted by each of their names

Walter Dorwin Teagure
Bauhaus, Art Deco, Modernism
                                                      

                                                                           1934  Radio
  

   
Raymond Lowery
Streamline Moderne

                                                                                          Radio


Donald Deskey
Art Deco, Streamline Moderne
        



Henry Dreyfuss
Streamline Moderne

     

       
Gilbert Rohde
Streamline Moderne, Bauhaus, Surrealism, Modernism

                            


Norman Bel Geddes
Streamline Moderne


      

     
Geddes in 1939 forecast the future using a 1 acre model


 

Buckminster Fuller was an American architect, systems theorist, author, and designer. Between stints at Harvard, Fuller worked in Canada as a mechanic in a textile mill, and later as a laborer in the meat-packing industry. He also served in the U.S. Navy in World War I, as a shipboard radio operator, as an editor of a publication, and as a crash rescue boat commander. After discharge, he worked again in the meat packing industry, acquiring management experience. Fuller taught at Black Mountain College in North Carolina during the summers of 1948 and 1949, serving as its Summer Institute director in 1949. There, with the support of a group of professors and students, he began reinventing a project that would make him famous: the geodesic dome. Although the geodesic dome had been created some 30 years earlier by Dr. Walther Bauersfeld, Fuller was awarded United States patents. He is credited for popularizing this type of structure.

In 1949, he erected his first geodesic dome building that could sustain its own weight with no practical limits. It was 4.3 meters (14 feet) in diameter and constructed of aluminum aircraft tubing and a vinyl-plastic skin, in the form of an icosahedron. To prove his design, Fuller suspended from the structure's framework several students who had helped him build it. The U.S. government recognized the importance of his work, and employed his firm Geodesics, Inc. in Raleigh, North Carolina to make small domes for the Marines. Within a few years there were thousands of these domes around the world.

Fuller's first "continuous tension – discontinuous compression" geodesic dome (full sphere in this case) was constructed at the University of Oregon Architecture School in 1959 with the help of students. These continuous tension – discontinuous compression structures featured single force compression members (no flexure or bending moments) that did not touch each other and were 'suspended' by the tensional members.

For half of a century, Fuller developed many ideas, designs and inventions, particularly regarding practical, inexpensive shelter and transportation. He documented his life, philosophy and ideas scrupulously by a daily diary (later called the Dymaxion Chronofile), and by twenty-eight publications. Fuller financed some of his experiments with inherited funds, sometimes augmented by funds invested by his collaborators, one example being the Dymaxion car project. Fuller was awarded 28 United States patents.









Italian-American architect, Paolo Soleri (1919–2013) unified the concerrent Arts and Crafts with Modernisme exemplified by Antoni Gaudí.  Soleri worked under Frank Lloyd Wright while instilling many concepts of Modernisme under his banner named Arcology using a Frank Lloyd Wright American spin.

Arcosanti, wth construction since 1970  is located 70 mi north of Phoenix, AZ. His arcology concepts dictated use of design pragmatically within the site conditions and available construction skill set, thus Arcosanti features a  very functionalist design.   In a different location using different local resources, the design would apprear completely different.



  
      Spain's Modernisme via Antoni Gaudí's            Italian-American architect Paolo Soleri's Arcosanti
              Sagrada Família in Barcelona                                                             Arizona



Where Science Meets Art