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The Valley of Heart’s Delight

Barry M. Katz

in Make It New: The History of Silicon Valley Design

Chapter One traces the Silicon Valley design community back to its origins in the 1950s, when a small number of technology companies first began to put “designers" on their staffs. Drawing upon ... More

Chapter One traces the Silicon Valley design community back to its origins in the 1950s, when a small number of technology companies first began to put “designers" on their staffs. Drawing upon corporate and archival records, interviews, and surviving artifacts, this chapter describes the campaigns of the first generation of designers as they sought to demonstrate to a skeptical engineering audience that “design” could improve not just the appearance but the functionality and marketability of a company’s products. The example of two companies in particular—Hewlett Packard and Ampex—reveals the stages by which designers achieved a hard-won credibility as they advanced from fitting electronic components into sheet metal enclosures to helping to define brands.Less

Sea Change

Barry M. Katz

in Make It New: The History of Silicon Valley Design

The 1979 Palo Alto telephone directory lists exactly 9 “design” firms-squeezed between “detective agencies” and “diaper services.” Today there are, arguably, more designers working in the San ... More

The 1979 Palo Alto telephone directory lists exactly 9 “design” firms-squeezed between “detective agencies” and “diaper services.” Today there are, arguably, more designers working in the San Francisco Bay Area than anywhere else in the world. This chapter traces the further evolution of professional practice, but also the formation of a professional design community and the “sea change” that resulted in, literally, the fusion of European design and American engineering. By the mid-1970s a small but growing number of technology companies had created internal design groups, several independent consultancies had been formed, and this nascent community had begun to contribute a distinctive voice to the national professional societies. The passage of computing out of the laboratory and into the office, the classroom, and ultimately the home, proved to be the decisive catalyst.Less

The Designed Object: Commercial Culture and the Global Market

Maiken Umbach

in German Cities and Bourgeois Modernism, 1890-1924

Chapter 5 analyses how modern mass‐produced objects, especially the products manufactured and promoted by the German Werkbund, incorporated notions of place, memory and nature. The first wave of ... More

Chapter 5 analyses how modern mass‐produced objects, especially the products manufactured and promoted by the German Werkbund, incorporated notions of place, memory and nature. The first wave of globalization, while giving rise to a marked cultural imperialism, also fostered a new preoccupation with cultural specificity in Germany. Vernacular prototypes and Arts and Crafts inspirations informed a new industrial commodity culture, and underpinned the success story of goods ‘made in Germany’. Challenging existing accounts of the Werkbund controversy (Werkbundstreit) of 1914, which have focused on the conflict between art and economics, the chapter draws attention to a subtly different rivalry between Muthesius, who saw authentic and rooted design as the cure for the loss of identity in modernism, and Osthaus, who saw the commercialization of culture as a way of democratizing modernity, and whose aesthetic programme took its inspiration from advertising and shop window displays.Less

Eliot Noyes, Paul Rand, and the Beginnings of the IBM Design Program

John Harwood

in The Interface: IBM and the Transformation of Corporate Design, 1945-1976

This chapter discusses the beginning of Eliot Noyes’ association with IBM. It initially presents a background of Noyes’ architectural work, noting his compound methods to design—a combination of ... More

This chapter discusses the beginning of Eliot Noyes’ association with IBM. It initially presents a background of Noyes’ architectural work, noting his compound methods to design—a combination of traditional techniques and high modernism. Noyes was strongly influenced by Peter Behrens, a prominent member of Werkbund and pioneer of corporate design. Behrens’ ideologies were passed on to Noyes through his professor, Walter Gropius, founder of the Bauhaus school and proponent of modern and industrial design. The chapter then discusses Noyes’ conception of “organic design”, which can be interpreted as the link between the characteristic of being organic and the harmonious organization of different parts. It also recounts Noyes’ and eventually Paul Rand’s involvement in the reinvention of the IBM graphics.Less

The Designer as Marketing Expert: European Immigrants and the Professionalization of Industrial and Graphic Design in the United States

Jan L. Logemann

in Engineered to Sell: European Émigrés and the Making of Consumer Capitalism

While the rise of “styling,” “streamlining,” and specialized industrial design offices has been typically described as a specifically American response to the expansion of consumer markets and the ... More

While the rise of “styling,” “streamlining,” and specialized industrial design offices has been typically described as a specifically American response to the expansion of consumer markets and the challenges of the Great Depression, artists born and educated in Europe played a significant role in this process. This chapter sets out to trace rise of commercial dersign while systematically highlighting the contributions of European émigrés. Aside from work on individual immigrant artists, there is no comprehensive account of the impact European émigrés on commercial design in the United States. Yet, transatlantic exchanges significantly shaped the appearance of American consumer goods and commercial aesthetics by mid-century. Much like Loewy, moreover, some of the émigrés became prominent champions of a “new type of artist” with little inhibition in engaging in commercial art. The resulting “romance of commerce and culture” (James Sloan Allen) became a crucial aspect of modern consumer capitalism.Less

Intellectual Property Law

Stephen Zamora, José RamlÓN CossÍO, Lenone Pereznieto, José Roldá n-Xopa, and David Lopez

in Mexican Law

This chapter discusses the rights and obligations of the creators of artistic, literary, scientific, industrial, and commercial works. It focuses on patents and copyrights, and touches on other forms ... More

This chapter discusses the rights and obligations of the creators of artistic, literary, scientific, industrial, and commercial works. It focuses on patents and copyrights, and touches on other forms of intellectual property rights, such as utility models, industrial designs, industrial secrets, commercial advertisements, trade names, and appellations of origin.Less

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

Graeme Dinwoodie and William Cornish

in English Private Law

This chapter begins with a general discussion of intellectual property, covering the range of the subject, intellectual property and monopoly, legal sources, European Union policies, international ... More

This chapter begins with a general discussion of intellectual property, covering the range of the subject, intellectual property and monopoly, legal sources, European Union policies, international oversight, actions against unconnected infringers, and parallel importation of connected goods. It then deals with patents for inventions, confidential information, copyright, industrial designs, trademarks and names, and registered trademarks.Less

John Vassos in Postwar America

Danielle Shapiro

in John Vassos: Industrial Design for Modern Life

This chapter brings together all the elements of his career in the postwar era as he and the industrial design field matured. It concludes with an analysis of Vassos’s contribution and avenues for ... More

This chapter brings together all the elements of his career in the postwar era as he and the industrial design field matured. It concludes with an analysis of Vassos’s contribution and avenues for further study.Less

Of Spoons and Other Political Things: The Design of Socialist Citizenship

Camilo D. Trumper

in Ephemeral Histories: Public Art, Politics, and the Struggle for the Streets in Chile

Chapter 1 examines the connections between urban planning and political theory, with particular attention to how the state’s urbanization and industrial design programs of the 1960s and 1970s shed ... More

Chapter 1 examines the connections between urban planning and political theory, with particular attention to how the state’s urbanization and industrial design programs of the 1960s and 1970s shed light on the era’s political debates over citizenship. It looks especially closely at the work of the state-sponsored industrial design team that was charged with reshaping both everyday objects like spoons, plates, and chairs, and the larger processes that underwrote the integration of industry into a national socialist economy. This chapter examines the connections between seemingly mundane or innocuous everyday objects, and the era’s most ambitious projects. It ends with a study of the building designed for and built to host the Third United Nations Congress on Trade and Development (UNCTAD III), which acted as a symbol of Popular Unity socialist modernity and a stage upon which its residents and visitors could practice an inclusive vision of Popular Unity socialism. The UNCTAD building was, in short, a public sphere rooted or grounded in public space and action. This chapter offers a unique view into multilayered visions for an “ideal” socialist city, and a model for the practice of a particular, modern socialist citizenship.Less

Styling for the Modern Age

Christopher Innes

in Designing Modern America: Broadway to Main Street

This chapter discusses the “style” of twentieth-century America, which was deliberately designed and created by specific individuals. The particular cultural shift followed by this style, copied ... More

This chapter discusses the “style” of twentieth-century America, which was deliberately designed and created by specific individuals. The particular cultural shift followed by this style, copied around the world, marks the start of industrial design in a modern sense. Perhaps surprisingly, this type of design came out of theater. In fact, the magic of the stage turns out to be crucial to its development, since the people who led the way in consciously designing a new lifestyle for America made their reputations on Broadway and carried its theatricality over into everything they did. The objects and styles created by these individuals, or by their descendants in the industrial process, surround us still and continue to condition the way we live.Less

Life in the Cybernetic Bedsit: Interior Design and the Homosexual Self

Richard Hornsey

in The Spiv and the Architect: Unruly Life in Postwar London

This chapter looks at the postwar importance of the home and widespread deployment of “contemporary” interior design as an indirect method of domestic social management. It compares the public design ... More

This chapter looks at the postwar importance of the home and widespread deployment of “contemporary” interior design as an indirect method of domestic social management. It compares the public design advice of the Council of Industrial Design (COID) to the theoretical writings of the queer computer scientist Alan Turing, which reveals the computational logics within the color schemes and contrasting textures of the contemporary style. The chapter also considers the impact of Do-It-Yourself (DIY), focusing on the DIY magazines, such as The Practical Householder, which adhered to the modish vision of interior design propagated by the COID.Less

Designs

Eran Liss and Dan Adin

in Intellectual Property Law and Practice in Israel

This chapter focuses on the role of industrial design within the entire spectrum of intellectual property laws in Israel. It first considers the main prerequisites that require analysis of industrial ... More

This chapter focuses on the role of industrial design within the entire spectrum of intellectual property laws in Israel. It first considers the main prerequisites that require analysis of industrial designs, namely: novelty and non-functionality. In particular, it examines what constitutes prior “publication” that bars novelty and what level of difference from the prior art is required to meet the novelty requirement. It then turns to the non-functionality requirement, with particular reference to registration procedure, the registration process, the so-called supplementary designs, and cancellation of a registered design. It also discusses what constitutes infringement of a registered design, defenses against infringement claims, remedies in infringement proceedings, and the principle of parallel importation.Less

Collecting for Art as Experience, or Why Millais Trumps Rembrandt

in Transformative Beauty: Art Museums in Industrial Britain

This chapter discusses the contested development of the museums' art collections, showing that the museums of Birmingham, Liverpool, and Manchester collected art with the understanding that they were ... More

This chapter discusses the contested development of the museums' art collections, showing that the museums of Birmingham, Liverpool, and Manchester collected art with the understanding that they were providing essential experiences rather than representative historical or educational collections. The municipal art museums in these cities opened in purpose-built galleries with intact permanent collections, although of varying quality, representativeness, and scope. The municipal art museum in Birmingham had been both an “art gallery” and an “industrial museum.” Representations of the naked human form have been disputed in the municipal art museums in Liverpool. The battle between reformers and the “popular party” played out in the conflict over the place of applied art in the Manchester collection. For all three museums, art was socially significant and potentially beneficial due to its ability to represent the experience of beauty, and applied art could be a vital means for enhancing industrial design.Less

Modernism on Main Street

in Modernizing Main Street: Architecture and Consumer Culture in the New Deal

In a 1937 Sky Line column, critic Lewis Mumford described the modernized storefronts and refurbished commercial exteriors that were appearing regularly on the streets of New York City for nearly a ... More

In a 1937 Sky Line column, critic Lewis Mumford described the modernized storefronts and refurbished commercial exteriors that were appearing regularly on the streets of New York City for nearly a decade. As Mumford realized, by the end of the decade what was true of Fifth Avenue was also true of Main Street, and his observations would have accurately characterized virtually every commercial corridor in the United States in the later 1930s. One of the things Mumford appreciated about the new storefronts—and that was valid whether they appeared in big cities or small towns—was that they were helping to disseminate European modernist architecture in the United States. When chain and independent retailers with stores lining U.S. Main Streets embraced Mumford's “blatant” modernism as their own, they did so in conscious emulation of urban prototypes that had been among the earliest buildings in the country to reflect architectural trends emanating from Europe and stylistic trends emanating from the discipline of industrial design.Less

Innovation Policy Failures in the Manufacturing of Drugs

W. Nicholson Price

in FDA in the Twenty-First Century: The Challenges of Regulating Drugs and New Technologies

Drug manufacturing today is both high cost and poor quality, due largely to stagnant technological development. Improving innovation incentives and decreasing regulatory hurdles could lead to ... More

Drug manufacturing today is both high cost and poor quality, due largely to stagnant technological development. Improving innovation incentives and decreasing regulatory hurdles could lead to significant positive change.Less

The Open BoxAchille Castiglioni and the Architecture of Television

Sylvia Lavin

in The Moving Eye: Film, Television, Architecture, Visual Art and the Modern

This chapter explores the exhibition design and architecture that Achille Castiglioni completed in the 1950s and 1960s for the Italian television network RAI. The author demonstrates how these ... More

This chapter explores the exhibition design and architecture that Achille Castiglioni completed in the 1950s and 1960s for the Italian television network RAI. The author demonstrates how these projects adumbrate the elements of a design culture uniquely suited to the speed and rapid change of the television medium. She explicates the work of Castiglioni in relation to the contemporaneous discussion of media by semiotician Umberto Eco. Castiglioni’s television sets were just some of the many objects he designed to fill a well-appointed interior. Yet his way of working and thinking about design in the era of information also laid the foundation for developing a radically social and participatory understanding of the end user, one that ultimately made it possible to assign architecture new forms of value, even in the context of consumer society. The most acute transformations to architecture in the era of television did not result in a reconfigured window or facilitate the domestication of a new optical toy replete with reality effects, although both of those things certainly took place. Instead, television triggered a wave of thinking about the emergence of a communications environment that recalibrated the speed, recalculated the membership, and redefined the “nature” of architecture as a world space and an open work.Less

Constructing Green: Challenging Conventional Building Practices

Monica Ponce de Leon

in Constructing Green: The Social Structures of Sustainability

From the onset of industrialization, material production in the various design fields—from industrial design to the design of environments and buildings—has had and continues to have a devastating ... More

From the onset of industrialization, material production in the various design fields—from industrial design to the design of environments and buildings—has had and continues to have a devastating effect on the planet. Given the magnitude and complexity of the problem, this chapter asks, how can designers participate in the solution? The answer to this question is complex and the chapter investigates this. Voluntary programs are not enough; regulatory mechanisms that ensure change in the marketplace are needed. Access to innovation and information is critical so that building designers, owners, and users can make informed choices. The technology and capacity exist, but we are not moving fast enough. A design and construction revolution is necessary to move our society quickly to the next level of sustainability.Less