Design in a Nutshell: American Industrial Design

The Great Depression of the late 1920s and 1930's in America had taken away consumer demand for materialistic products and struggling manufacturers needed to come up with new ideas of regaining their customers. Therefore, manufacturers reformed the design of many American objects by using new materials such as vinyl, chrome, aluminium and plywood (plywood was one of the materials used for the Eames Lounge Chair by Charles and Ray Eames; see previous post about Modernism) in order to rebuild the world of design and appeal to a new market. Even objects which had no real reason to be reformed were being modernised and made to look a lot more sleeker than they were previously design.


American industrial designers such as Norman Bel Geddes, the pioneer behind Utilitarian Art, started to introduce new forms and shapes which were streamlined and efficient, demonstrating the progress within design. During the world fair in New York in 1939, at Bel Geddes 'Futurama' exhibit where it was claimed that the aim of industrial designers was to 'build a new world for tomorrow',  he debuted a model of an automated highway system in 1959. Sponsored by the General Motors Corporation, Bel Geddes' wanted to combine streamlined style with the design of a highway to modernise the road system, the suburbs around and to minimalize traffic congestion. Therefore, industrial design was not just occurring within interior products but also on a larger, engineered scale.


Norman Bel Geddes' Futurama exhibit in New York 1939.
An intersection from the 'City of the Future'

American's found the new futuristic forms and shapes of regular objects to be positive and therefore, this increased their popularity and demand. Soon the way cars, kitchen appliances and hygiene products were all being reshaped to look more stylish. Although the consumption rate had plummeted this new industrialist technique of design not only benefitted the designers but it also gave advertisers more and more to talk about and allowed them to promote a 'desirable lifestyle'. Evening the packaging of tooth paste and washing up powder were both promoting something luxurious that everyone wanted such as sparking white teeth or immaculate clothing and therefore, shaping the tastes and ambitions of society.


American industrial design played a major role within America as it shaped the functions of society in terms of culture and intellect, changing the lives of Americans forever. Furthermore, although this movement was based in American, eventually the creations that were made in this origin would be spread globally having an effect on societies all around the world.


Another influential American industrial designer was Raymond Loewy who shot to fame through his debut on the cover of TIME magazine in October 1949 for shaping many designs such as the former BP logos, the Greyhound Scenicruiser bus, the Coca Cola Dole Deluxe Fountain Dispenser, the Lucky Strike package, Coldspot refrigerators, the Studebaker Avanti and the Air Force One livery.



Raymond Loewy on the cover of TIME magazine on October 31st 1949



Raymond Loewy (right) Sears "Coldspot" refrigerator, 1937



The Coca Cola Vending Machine, invented in 1947 by Raymond Loewy