The Successful Design Business Practices of Walter Dorwin Teague

Part 1 of 5

Walter Dorwin Teague on Madison Avenue (Teague archives)

  

Walter Dorwin Teague (1883 - 1960) is considered one of the founding fathers of industrial design as well as one of the most prolific American industrial designers in history.  Among his contemporaries, Henry Dreyfuss, Norman Bel Geddes, and Raymond Loewy, he stands out as a professional leader and influential businessman.  His clients were the largest and most prominent corporations in the United States. 

From the start of his industrial design business in 1928 the office grew from a staff of two to fifty-five by 1938, which included architects, engineers, accountants, model makers, and industrial designers. (Teague, W. D. Jr. 52)  At this time his client list included: Ford, Texaco, US Steel, DuPont, National Cash Register, Eastman-Kodak, Steinway and Sons, A.B. Dick, Consolidated Edison, and New Haven Railroad among others.   Teague maintained long relationships with these clients, some spanning over 20 years, designing iconic products, buildings and exhibits for over 3 generations.  Says partner Stowe Myers:  “By this time [1940], Walter Dorwin Teague’s prestige at the top of his profession was well established.” (Myers)  He later expanded his firm to offices in Los Angeles and Seattle, and today his prestigious design firm continues to thrive 84 years later. 

Industrial design principals and consultants today can learn from how Teague ran his design business, how he dealt with clients, how he approached projects, and how he treated his staff. This article intends to reveal these century old lessons from the grandfather and “the Dean” of industrial design.

A Packard Ad designed and illustrated by  Teague in 1915 (Hornung) 

Learning from the Business of Advertising

Before transforming into an industrial designer, Teague had been doing advertising art illustrations for over 20 years.  He took night classes at the Art Students League in New York City, and was an extremely talented illustrator.  He worked with the advertising agency Calkins-Holden as an illustrator and typographer.  This is where he learned how to do business with prominent clients.  Earnest Calkins was an advocate of using form, visualization, design and art to modern advertising, and wrote what is considered the first textbook of the field, Modern Advertising. Ralph Holden was experienced at bringing in new clients, forming relationships and holding onto them.

Calkins and Holden became very successful with a number of high-profile clients including: Pierce-Arrow, H.J. Heinz, Ingersoll Watch, Thomas A. Edison Industries, Beech-Nut, and E. R. Squibb.   Teague learned how to nurture relationships with prominent clients through Ralph Holden and how to demonstrate the value of their work through sales figures before and after an ad was published.  Here Teague learned to have the experience and social tact for dealing with the clients that he was targeting.

“The value of this association was only equaled by the experience of observing at first hand the methods of Earnest Elmo Calkins and Ralph Holden, whose high ethical and professional standards have never been surpassed, he thinks, in his experience.” (WDTA)

Teague’s value proposition to his clients was simple and effective.  That industrial design will improve their products appearance, function, sales, and potentially reduce manufacturing costs and strengthen the company’s brand.  Being a student of the advertising firm, he would produce case-studies of before-and-after sales figures, with which he could justify the cost of his services and clearly present the potential value.   

Coming up next: How did the early industrial designers sell themselves to new clients? 

Works Cited

Myers, Stowe. "Living Legend of Industrial Design: Stowe Myers." Living Legends Meeting, Association of Professional Design Firms. Whitehall Hotel, Chicago. 5 June 1987. Speech, Audio Recording.

Teague, W. Dorwin Jr. Industrial Designer: the Artist as Engineer. Lancaster, PA: Armstrong World Industries, 1998. Print.

WDTA. Walter D. Teague Biographical Notes. New York. 1951. Print, Teague Archives.

Hornung, Clarence P., Advertising Designs of Walter Dorwin Teague. Art Direction Book Co. 1991.