ID [PNW]

The Teague: Design & Beauty DVD is ready! Available first on Amazon CreateSpace. It contains 10 minutes of extra interview footage of Bill Moggridge, Harry Teague, and Craig Vogel. Click the link below to order: https://www.createspace.com/449285 A biography of the life and work of the American designer, Walter Dorwin Teague (1883-1960). A documentary by Jason A. Morris As a determined and ambitious man from a tiny rural town in Indiana, Walter Dorwin Teague struck out on his own to find his dream in New York City. After developing a career as an illustrator, he found himself bored in an unfulfilling career. After a trip to Europe, Teague found inspiration in modern art, design and architecture and he decided to create a new profession: industrial design. This decision led to the design of many great items such as the classic Kodak camera, Steinway pianos, Steuben glassware, Boeing Aircraft and more. Selected for the Newport Beach Film Festival, San Diego Design Film Fe...

Teague: Design & Beauty is being screened at museums, universities and film festivals across the country, and this week has been selected for the Newport Beach Film Festival .  This film is a feature length biographical documentary about the life and work of the American designer Walter Dorwin Teague (1883-1960). Written, directed and produced by Jason A. Morris , filmmaker, industrial designer and professor of ID at Western Washington University . Teague: Design & Beauty IMDB page The first private screening at the Seattle Art Museum for TEAGUE staff. The lobby for Trail Dance 2015. Jason A. Morris at the San Diego Design Film Festival Recent Screenings: IDSA International Conference, Austin, Texas. August 2014 San Diego Design Film Festival, San Diego, October 2014 Metropolitan State University of Denver, CO, November 2014 Trail Dance Film Festival 2015 . January 23, 2015 North Carolina State University, January 30, 2015 Indianapol...

The Trail Dance Film Festival is coming up, and with 100 films to pick from, which ones should you see?  Well here's one if you're into design, architecture, art, products, illustration and art deco... I'm very excited to announce that Teague: Design & Beauty as been selected for the Trail Dance Film Festival 2015.  And it has a sweet screening time of 8:00PM - Friday, January 23, 2015 - Palace Theatre Screen 1.  I will be flying to Oklahoma to attend and answer questions, so maybe I'll see you there! - JM About the documentary: Walter Dorwin Teague was one of greatest American designers of the machine age. Among his hundreds of designs, were the Kodak Brownie cameras, the Kodak Bantam Special, Texaco's art deco gas stations, the Polaroid desk lamp, Steuben glassware, the Marmon 16 automobile, Sparton radios, and pavilions of the 1939 New York World's Fair.Through hand-drawn illustrations, photographs, product designs, interviews, nar...

See Teague: Design + Beauty at the San Diego Design Film Festival this weekend! The only screening will be on Saturday, October 11, 2014 at 2pm at the Reading Cinemas Gaslamp 15 Theater, 701 5th Ave, San Diego, CA 92101 .  Buy your tickets in advance since it only holds 130!  I... I mean... the filmmaker/director/writer will be there for a Q + A session. Teague: Design + Beauty is a biography of the life and work of the American designer, Walter Dorwin Teague.   Walter Dorwin Teague was one of greatest American designers of the machine age. Among his hundreds of designs, were the Kodak Brownie cameras, the Kodak Bantam Special, Texaco’s art deco gas stations, the Polaroid desk lamp, Steuben glassware, the Marmon 16 automobile, Sparton radios, and pavilions of the 1939 New York World's Fair. Through hand-drawn illustrations, photographs, product designs, interviews, narrative, animation and film, Morris’ historical documentary uncovers the mysteries of...

The Alamo Drafthouse Ritz in Austin Texas. Photo by J. Morris The documentary about Walter Dorwin Teague, titled “Teague: Design & Beauty,” debuted on Thursday, Aug. 14 at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Austin, Texas as part of the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) International Conference. IDSA took over the theatre that night.  photo by Tim Adkins. Entering in the lobby. The poster looked sweet printed, by the way. Photo by Tim Adkins.  Four screenings were held on two different screens, with an estimated 400 in attendance! Answering question after the show.  Photo by Tim Adkins.  After each showing, I had time to answer questions about the movie. It was an even better response than I thought!  Two writers posted reviews the next day: "Live a Great Story" by Chris Ross "Teague thought big and wasn’t afraid of change. He paved his own path and didn’t compromise. " New Biographical Documentary Captures the Spirit ...

I just launched the Kickstarter fund raising campaign to complete the Teague documentary . Here is a short video describing the story and a preview of some the clips. This feature length documentary will tell the story of his life, his rise to prominence, his turbulent relationship with his rebellious son, and the stories behind some of his greatest designs.  The inspiring story is told through hand-drawn illustrations, photographs, product designs, interviews, narrative, animation and film. Only $3500 left to go! And 29 days to raise it. What does my contribution go towards? Everything to complete the movie and get it out to the audience. Such as voice overs, music, printing, DVDs, and film festivals. Production, I’m happy to say, is finished. And I just completed the rough cut. So, I need your help to get these last post-production tasks complete. Some of the rewards include a DVD of the movie, illustration stills, and posters. Designed by Ronald Paul Vie...

The first issue of the iconic Time Magazine- March 3rd, 1923 During my research of Walter D. Teague, I have read that he designed the first cover of Time magazine (1923) with the decorative border.   The border does look like Teague's work, although it is not as elaborate. See example of Teague's work below for the Japan Paper Company in 1913: Advertisement for Japan Paper Company 1913 by Walter Dorwin Teague   However, I was doubtful, and was looking for more evidence than just a rumor. My doubt was confirmed when I met Aric Mayer who formerly worked at Time who connected with someone who contacted Bill Hooper of the Time Archives.  And here's what he found: "The art director, who came up with the design/format of TIME’s first cover, actually worked for J. Walter Thompson.  Here’s an excerpt from an article that ran in the December 1971 issue of TIME/PIECES (“An Occasional Journal About TIME and Its Staff”):      ...

TEAGUE  (the design company) had this Polaroid Lamp (1937) hidden away in storage, thought to have been lost. During their recent move, it was found! And here's one of the photos that I got of it. It's doesn't light up, but was in great condition. Notice the specked brown of the Bakelite plastic. Photo by Jason Morris. Much progress has been made on the production of the Teague documentary this past summer! Production is nearly complete and editing will begin this fall.  Watch out for a Kickstarter project soon. Check out this beautiful concept rendering of the Ford exhibition for the New York World's Fair 1939. This hand done, airbrush rendering was done 1937 by staff artist George Rudolph. Scan courtesy TEAGUE. Here's to all of the great designers, architects and staff that worked behind the scenes at the Teague office in the early days. This is C. Stowe Myers, architect, rendering expert, photographer and partner who worked for Teague from 1934 t...

The Walter D. Teague documentary is moving right along!  My last update was in October of 2012 and much has been accomplished since then. Writing and Story Structure Through October, November and December was focused work on writing the script.   In the midst of this process I was alerted to a new discovery. Grandson, Walter D. Teague III, just found and digitized 35 personal letters written by WDT Sr. dating from 1917 to 1942! Most were written to his wife Cecil about his time in a small community in Woodstock, NY where he concentrated on his illustration projects.   With this new information and after many weeks of continuous writing, multiple revisions and reviews, I completed a finished script in December 2012. Visual Evidence With the script in place, I then created a master list of all of the visual evidence that would be needed to communicate his story.  For a 90 minute film, this means about 1300 images and clips of video....

The Polaroid Desk Lamp No. 114 - 1937 - photo courtesy TEAGUE Although today we associate Polaroid with instant photographs, the company was originally was founded on the invention of polarized film. Edwin Land worked with researchers to develop applications for his new film in the 1930's and were striving to find a successful product. They developed a polarizing lens filter for Eastman Kodak in 1933, which is likely how they connected with Walter Dorwin Teague.   One of those experimental products was a desk lamp that emitted polarized light, reducing the reflective glare and easing eye strain. The first product was a blocky chunk of Bakelite, largely dictated by engineering constraints.  Teague, with staff designer Frank Del Giudice, took those constraints and imagined a new form, the Polaroid Desk Lamp No 114.  Frank was the first Teague designer to have a formal education in industrial design. (The others either came from architecture, engineering, or ...

The Vanity Kodak of 1928. owned and photographed by Ralph London. It's time for an update on the progress of the   Walter D. Teague documentary . My last update was July 2011 when I returned from my research trips to New York City, Aspen, Oregon and Denver.  Well, the reality is that when classes start in September (being a full-time professor) I don't have much time to work on the doc at all.  But, in the fall, I worked with my industrial design students to recreate, digital models of some of Teague's greatest designs.  They painstakingly studied photographs and patent drawings to make these designs with Solidworks software. Kodak cameras, Steuben glass, and Sparton radios were re-created so that we can show them 3 dimensionally and animate them for the film!  It's going to look amazing! The raw, unrendered Solidworks model of the Sparton Sled radio model 557 1936. Modeled by Sean Missal.         ...