Industrial Strength Design

How Brooks Stevens Shaped Your World

Glenn Adamson, David Gordon (Director, Milwaukee Art Museum), John Heskett , Kristina Wilson

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English

MIT Press
14 January 2005

Individual artists, art monographs; Individual designers; Product design; Technical design; Materials science

Series: The MIT Press

The first publication documenting the work of Brooks Stevens, one of America's most influential twentieth-century designers.

Industrial Strength Design- How Brooks Stevens Shaped Your World is a long overdue introduction to the work of visionary industrial designer Brooks Stevens (1911-1995). Believing that an industrial designer ""should be a businessman, an engineer, and a stylist, in that order,"" Stevens created thousands of ingenious and beautiful designs for industrial and household products-including a clothes dryer with a window in the front, a wide-mouthed peanut butter jar, and the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile. (""There's nothing more aerodynamic than a wiener,"" he explained.) He invented a precursor to the SUV by turning a Jeep into a station wagon after World War II, and streamlined steam irons so that they resembled aircraft. It was Brooks Stevens who, in 1954, coined the phrase ""planned obsolescence,"" defining it as ""instilling in the buyer the desire to own something a little newer, a little better, a little sooner than is necessary."" This concept has since been blamed for everything from toasters that stop working to today's throwaway culture, but Stevens was simply recognizing the intentionally ephemeral nature of a designer's work. Asked once to name his favorite design, he replied, ""none, because every one would have to be restudied for the tastes of tomorrow.""

This book, which accompanied an exhibit at the Milwaukee Art Museum (the repository for Stevens's papers), includes 250 illustrations of designs by Stevens and his firm, many in color. Glenn Adamson, exhibition curator, contributes detailed studies of individual designs. John Heskett, Kristina Wilson, and Jody Clowes contribute interpretive essays. Also included are a description of the Brooks Stevens Archive and several key writings by Brooks Stevens.

By: Glenn Adamson
Preface by: David Gordon (Director Milwaukee Art Museum)
Contributions by: John Heskett, Kristina Wilson, Jody Clowes
Imprint: MIT Press
Country of Publication: United States
Edition: New edition
Dimensions: Height: 279mm, Width: 241mm, Spine: 19mm
Weight: 1.225kg
ISBN: 9780262511865
ISBN 10: 026251186X
Series: The MIT Press
Pages: 300
Publication Date: 14 January 2005
Recommended Age: From 18
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Glenn Adamson is curator at the Chipstone Foundation, Milwaukee.

Reviews for Industrial Strength Design: How Brooks Stevens Shaped Your World

Fascinating not only for its display of the products of Stevens's fertile mind but also for its drawing out of the implications his work had for social life. Nancy Tousley Calgary Herald A level of scholarship and editorial skill rare in design books from any source. Martin Pawley The Architect's Journal A level of scholarship and editorial skill rare in design books from any source. Martin Pawley The Architect's Journal ...the story of a man, a time and the emergence of an idea--the 20th-century American concept of innovation. Craig M. Vogel American Scientist ...the story of a man, a time and the emergence of an idea the 20th-century American concept of innovation. Craig M. Vogel American Scientist