Henry Dreyfuss - Streamlining : Task 2

Henry Dreyfuss

Henry Dreyfuss was an American industrial designer born in Brooklyn 1904. After he finished studying he started to work as an apprentice with Norman Bel Geddes in 1924 and he produced 250 stage sets for a number of theatres before 1928. After he opened his  own office in 1929 , in 1929 he even won a competition ‘‘phone of the future’’ by Bell Laboratories. The year after he started to work with Bell Staff.  

The Great Depression 

In 1937 the tabletop telephone in black moulded phenolic plastic was introduced to the market. In 1933 he designed a new deluxe refrigerator ‘‘flat top’’ and it was introduced by General Electric. He had a great impact on the new fields of Industrial design because shown on the Fortune Magazine by George Nelson. He designed the famous Big Ben clock in 1939. In 1934 he started to work with the Hoover.Co and he designed Model 150 vacuum cleaner with the plastic hood in Bakelite. He even designed a bottle for the American Thermos Bottle.Co 1936.  

Flat top telephone by Henry Dreyfuss

Model 150 vacuum cleaner

This design of the Mercury featured a white walled driver wheel, it even had spotlights at night. Henry designed 10 new streamline steam engines and car designed by Dreyfuss for the Twentieth Century limited New York-Chicago. It was an upgrade version of his Mercury. The J34-6-4 Hudson had featured finned bullet-noses reminiscent of ancient warrior helmets.

J34-6-4 Hudson train by Henry Dreyfuss 

 Recent / Nowadays train

In 1938 Henry Dreyfuss introduced John Deere Model A tractor. In 1939 Henry Dreyfuss designed the Democracity model in the Perisphere, he even designed the AT&T pavilion, featuring Vodar, it was a voice synthesiser. 

When the war started 1942 Henry Dreyfuss, Raymond Loewy and Walter Dorwin Teague had design strategy rooms globes for Joint Chefs and Staff. Henry built four 13-foot rotating globes. The four globes were for Roosevelt, Stalin, Churchill and the Joint Chefs. In 1949 he designed the model 500 desk telephone it was put to service bt the AT&T. The model was the first model that came in black only it was very famous an even till 1995 it was still being used in the US. 

Streamlined Iron by Henry Dreyfuss Electric Iron

This electric iron has an organic shape because it is ergonomic friendly.

In 1951 Henry Dreyfuss appeared on the cover of Forbes Magazine. In 1955 Herny Dreyfuss published Designing for People it was an auto biography where he focused an design problems related to the human figure, working on problems from the ‘inside out’. He believed that mechanise would can the world and it would be more easier to live, this began during in the war and results to the military equipment. The term ergonomics was added up in the early 1950´s this meant to describe the product being in a good scales to human. In 1954 Dreyfuss was discharged from the Hoover Company but in 1955 they introduced Model 82 Constellation Vacum. 

Henry went back to his office in 1967 and organised it. Henry Dreyfuss Associates, naming  

Donald M. Genaro, James M.Conner and Niels Diffrient as associates. In 1969 he retired to Pasadena, CA and continued to serve the profession. In 1971 he set a meeting with the International Organisation of Standard Technical Committiee  (ISO/TC) in Berlin, it had set 145 sign and symbols for International Standard. MC-Graw Hill published his symbol Sourcebook Henry Dreyfuss died in 1972.

Citroen GT

How streamlining is used today it also called the studied of aerodynamics, today trend of designing streamlined products are useless because air would not effect them if they are moving vehicles. Although we are seing that architects are usinging many organic forms in there buildings like Zaha Hadid.  

Zaha Hadid architectures 

Referencing : 

Idsa. 2010. Henry Dreyfuss. [ONLINE] Available at: http://idsa.org/henry-dreyfuss. [Accessed 04 January 14].

Fumio Enomoto. 2008. Daily Icon. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.dailyicon.net/2008/09/icon-streamline-iron-by-henry-dreyfuss/. [Accessed 04 January 14].

mebel-v-minsk. 2013. Henry Dreyfuss. [ONLINE] Available at: http://mebel-v-minsk.blog.tut.by/2013/07/22/henry-dreyfuss/. [Accessed 04 January 14].

Mogul Media Group. . 2013. Concept Cars of future. [ONLINE] Available at: http://mogultheory.com/2012/05/concept-cars-of-the-future/. [Accessed 04 January 14].

MEREDITH GALANTE. 2012. Business Insiders . [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.businessinsider.com/zaha-hadids-beko-building-in-belgrade-2012-11. [Accessed 04 January 14].