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  The Successful Design Business Practices of Walter Dorwin Teague Part 4 of 5  Design Research and Designer Cultural Sensitivity versus Market Surveys  ( click here for part 1 ,  part 2 ,  part 3 ) Designers at the boards in the New York Teague office. About 1940. Photo by Stowe Myers.     Teague believed in the designer’s intuitive sensitivity of culture and understanding of the client and end-user, to lead them to the best design solution.  Teague expresses the limitations of marketing and surveys in this speech in Detroit 1960: “These people can’t tell you what they are going to like three years from now- that’s been completely proven; but they can’t even tell you what they will like today if you’ve never seen it.   So the designer will learn next to nothing from the quiz programs some companies conduct at great expense.  But the designer should be aware of and sensitive to the trends that are moving in this small,...

Part 3 of 5: Office Atmosphere and Building Alliances with Clients ( click here for part 1 and part 2 ) Figure 1: Teague drafting room, New York City, circa 1938. photo by Stowe Myers. Office Atmosphere     How did Teague run his office?  What was it like to work at WDTA during its heyday?   In 16mm film shot by partner, Stowe Myers, the 1940’s staff of Teague is shown at work and at play in their New York office studio.  Drafting desks are arranged in two long rows, all facing the front of the room, where the most senior designer or architect would be working.  The film also shows office parties, which included drinks and group singing.  It also documents a casual office art exhibition, where staff could display their personal artistic works, painting, drawing, and watercolors.  Although everyone worked rigorously, he allowed occasions for staff to celebrate their hard work and talents with parties and other creative events. Stowe Mye...

The Successful Design Business Practices of Walter Dorwin Teague Part 2 of 5 Walter Dorwin Teague in his office-photo WDTA archives Gaining New Clients: Role Playing with Raymond Loewy and Walter D. Teague How did the early industrial designers sell themselves to new clients?  Raymond Loewy and Walter D. Teague answered this question during a conference in 1946 entitled “Industrial Design: A New Profession” held at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.  They demonstrated this by having a mock discussion between designer and client, with Teague acting as the potential client. What is interesting about this discussion is that much of the conversation sounds the same as our discussions with clients today with some notable exceptions.  Here is an excerpt: Raymond Loewy:  …Mr. Teague, let us try to discuss it together.  Would you like to take the part of the client? Walter Dorwin Teague:  All right, fine. Well, Mr. Loewy, I know that you ...

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 relation...

I just finished editing this video showing the designers and architects of Walter Dorwin Teague's New York office in 1940.  Shot by C. Stowe Myers and provided by his son Charlie Myers. I think that it's interesting seeing the air brushed renderings, scale truck models, drafting tables, cigarettes, alcohol and wild parties.  Sorry about the video quality, it wasn't transferred well, I hope to get a better digitization of the film soon. If you'd like to follow the progress of the Walter Dorwin Teague documentary, check back at this blog or Like the  Facebook Page.

These are recently discovered and digitized photographs of the design and construction of the Kodak Pavilion at the 1939 New York World's Fair. All photos by Stowe Myers, who played a key role in the design of this exhibition.  Provided by Charlie Myers. Airbrushed presentation renderings. Scale model of pavilion, done in 1938. Detail of scale model. Construction begins in Flushing Meadows, Queens, NYC. If you'd like to follow the progress of the Walter Dorwin Teague documentary, check back at this blog or Like the Facebook Page.

To continue my progress of the Teague documentary production process... Thursday, June 30th was a visit to the Brooklyn Museum , which has an impressive collection of Teague designed objects.  Then Friday I was shooting locations around the city, such the former office locations on Madison Ave, the Art Students League where he went to school, and his old home in Forest Hills .  I also photographed some key influential art deco architecture that was built in the 1930’s, including an incredible tour of Donald Deskey's Radio City Music Hall. The Art Students League 2011.  The same building the Teague attended 1902-1906. photo by J. Morris The former Teague family home in Forest Hills, New York. photo by J. Morris The Sparks - Sparton Table Radio- 1936 - designed by Teague. photographed in the Brooklyn Museum. Later this month I will be visiting architect and grandson, Harry Teague in Aspen, CO.  We will also visit Charlie Myers , ...

Teague and his team designed the interior of this elegant aircraft, the Boeing Stratocruiser. Here's some great old new reel footage...

Teague: will be a sixty-minute documentary about the life and work of the founding father of American industrial design, Walter Dorwin Teague (1883-1960) Walter Dorwin Teague is considered one of the founding fathers of industrial design as well as one of the most prolific American designers in history. His most notable design work includes the beloved Kodak cameras, the distinctive Marmon 16 automobile, Texaco’s art deco gas stations, the luxurious Boeing Stratocruiser aircraft interior, classic Steinway pianos, elegant Corning glassware, and the futuristic 1939 World's Fair in New York. Although his amazing career is known among designers, very little is known about who he was and how he became “the Dean of Design.” How did a poor pastor’s son from a rural Quaker town in Indiana transform into a celebrity designer in New York? How did he go from checking hats at the Manhattan YMCA to being a successful advertising illustrator? What led him to create a new modern profes...

1959 Cadillac Tailfin - photo by Christer Johansson I've been digging through the archives at the Teague Design office in Seattle, hoping to find the story of his life for a biography and documentary.  Once in  awhile I find some gems that are worth sharing.  This quote is from Teague's "The Responsibilities of the Industrial Designer," An Address by WDT to the Detroit Chapter, Industrial Designers Institute. Published in Road & Track, January 1960. In regards to american car styling of the late 1950's when the tail fins grew to extreme heights: "[I am] definitely and unreservedly hostile to recent trends in American automobile design... I agree heartily with millions of others that our characteristic car design has in recent years become lousy, ugly, vulgar, ostentatious, impractical, and excessively costly..."   "In my opinion, Detroit got into trouble because it got out of step with the rest of American industry and the taste of the ...

A Biographical Documentary about Walter Dorwin Teague begins Development. 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.  He established his design office in the late 1920’s, which continues today as one of the important design institutions in the world.  His most notable design work includes all of Kodak camera’s from 1927 to 1957, Texaco’s art deco gas stations in the1940’s, the Boeing Stratocruiser and the 707 aircraft.  His legacy led to the design all subsequent Boeing aircraft including today’s 787 Dreamliner.  He directed the design and architecture of the 1939 World Exposition.  He was also an architect whose work includes the Texaco exhibition hall at the 1935 Texas Centennial Exposition in Dallas, Texas, the Ford pavilion for the California Pacific International Exposition (1935) in Balboa Park in San Diego, and the 1961...