Architectural, industrial, and graphic design in the United States from the 1950s through to the 1970s - generally known as Mid-century Modern - is now perceived as a golden era, with artists such as Charles and Ray Eames, Eero Saarinen, and Eliot Noyes having become household names. This volume looks at the relationship between these designers and the companies who employed them, highlighting the political, social and cultural circumstances in which seminal design icons such as the Selectric Typewriter for IBM and the distinctive Westinghouse Electric Manufacturing Company logo were created. It not only reveals why corporations during this post WWII period needed graphic, industrial and architectural designers more than ever before, but also why designers felt ambivalent about their work for these large businesses. In doing so, it sheds new light on the changing self-image of the designer and on these famous midcentury graphic, product, and furniture designs. Beautifully illustrated with 50 colour plates and 65 black and white illustrations of the designs, the volume features four essays: Establishment Modernism and its Discontents: The IDCA in the "Long 'Sixties", by Greg Castillo, University of California, Berkeley; Building modernist but not quite: Corporate Designs in the Postwar Suburb, by Louise Mozingo; The Early Years of Product Design at Stanford, an Interview with Bob McKim, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Emeritus, and founder in 1958 of Stanford's Product Design program. In this interview, McKim describes how in the mid-1960s, he created this acclaimed program, combining engineering, art, and creative problem solving, which made a tremendous contribution to Stanford University's longstanding leadership position in Silicon Valley.publiarq.com
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