“We have not the slightest doubt that we are adding something of positive value to the American way of life. We are even augmenting the sum of total beauty in our world, and extending the appreciation of beauty into those realms where it is most vitally effective-the home, the factory, the shop and the street.”
--Walter Dorwin Teague
Industrial design, the design of things manufactured on an assembly line, did not exist until the late 1920s. Early mass produced goods , such as refrigerators, irons, toasters and of course, radios, tended to be crude and visually gaudy, but consumers didn't mind. In fact, they were delighted. The fact that these new products were available at reasonable prices and offered benefits that never existed before was most important, but when industrial design came on the scene mass produced items became easier to manufacture and use, and sometimes, just plain sexy.
John Okolowicz takes us on an exploration of the intersection of industrial design and radio manufacturing in the twentieth century.
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