Henry Dreyfuss is the designer that I choose to talk about. I had never heard of Henry Dreyfuss until starting this assignment. I grab a book flipped through it and saw a John Deere tractor. Henry Dreyfuss was the designer of it. This sparked my curiosity to find out more about his career and design.
In 1937 Henry Dreyfuss change the face of farm equipment for John Deere (Phaidon 264). I grow up with John Deere tractors. My grandpa had both unstyled and styled Model Bs. In the agricultural world John Deere before Henry Dreyfuss design are known as unstyled because they look more mechanical. John Deere built after Henry Dreyfuss are known as styled because they had body panels. I like both types of John Deere tractors. I believe that the styled models had a long lasting effect on all John Deere products because even new model today have similar lines on the body panels.
In 1938 Henry Dreyfuss designed the Hudson J-3 locomotive (Phaidon 276). The Hudson J-3 increased the top speed because of the sleek shape. I think the Hudson J-3 design played a major role in how today’s bullet trains were designed.
("locomotive")
Henry Dreyfuss also designed products for around the house. Henry Dreyfuss worked for Hoover while there he designed the 150 vacuum cleaner in 1936 (Phaidon 249). This changed the face of the vacuum cleaner by hiding the mechanical pieces with covers that made the vacuum look more appealing to consumers (Phaidon 249). I think it is cool how over the year the vacuum cleaner has changed from using bags and hiding components. To using bag-less designed vacuums where we can see the dirt collect.
Round thermostat produced by Honeywell Regulator Company was designed by Henry Dreyfuss in 1941 (Phaidon 294). The round thermostat was introduced to the market in 1953 and is still on the market today (Phaidon 294). It is amazing that a design form pre WW II is still in production today. That to me speaks values about a product, design, and the designer because most designs normally have to change over time.
Henry Dreyfuss designed three telephones during his career. The first in 1937 was the Model 300 Telephone which put the microphone and ear speaker in to same piece (Phaidon 261). The Princess Telephone was design in 1959 to widen the market of user (Phaidon 543). The Trimline Telephone another design from Henry Dreyfuss that really changed the phone. The Trimline had all the components to make a call from the receiver (Phaidon 548). I believe Henry Dreyfuss work with the telephone show that if you think outside the box that you will come up with designs pushes technology forward. I think that Henry Dreyfuss built a strong foundation for the phone to be developed further.
("Trimline")
Henry Dreyfuss did not just design products he was also an author of four books. The titles of the books are as fallows “Design for People (1955), Industrial Design a Pictorial Accounting 1927-1957 (1957), The Measure of Man: Human Factors in Design (1960), Symbol Sourcebook: An Authoritative Guide to International Graphic Symbols (1972)” (“NNDB”). The Society of Industrial Design was founded by Henry Dreyfuss (Phaidon 276). I think that Henry Dreyfuss’ career was very impressive and changed the world with his designs. I hope that I can get time to read some of his books when I get a chance. I also wish that I could have half the amount of great designs that Henry Dreyfuss did in his career.
Work Sited
(Phaidon 249,261,264,276,294)
Phaidon, Editors. "Henry Dreyfuss." Pioneers Products from Phaidon Design Classics. 1st. Vol1. New York, NY: Phaidon Press Limited, 2006. Print.
(Phaidon 543,548,652)
Phaidon, Editors. "Henry Dreyfuss." Mass Production Products from Phaidon Design Classics. 1st. Vol 2. New York, NY: Phaidon Press Limited, 2006. Print.
("Industrialchic")
"Henry Dreyfuss." Industrialchic. Copyright 2008 Ergoiamtoo, Inc., n.d. Web. 20 Jan 2011. <http://www.industrialchic.net/henrydreyfuss.htm>.
("NNDB")
"Henry Dreyfuss." NNDB. Copyright ©2011 Soylent Communications, n.d. Web. 20 Jan 2011. <http://www.nndb.com/people/793/000097502/>.
locomotive: Dreyfuss design. Photograph. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Web. 23 Jan. 2011. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/media/95014/Locomotive-designed-by-Henry-Dreyfuss-1938>.
("Trimline")
"Trimline." Ide Virtual Design Museum Henry Dreyfuss. Web. 23 Jan 2011. <http://vdm.io.tudelft.nl/fda/dreyfuss/drey64.htm>.
("1951 John Deere Model A")
"1951 John Deere Model A." The Tractors. Web. 23 Jan 2011. <http://greenbeltequipment.com/Pages/tractors.html>.
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