Walter Dorwin Teague

(b Decatur, IN, 18 Dec 1883; d Flemington, NJ, 5 Dec 1960). American industrial designer and writer. Between 1903 and 1907 he studied at evening classes at the Art Students League in New York, while working as a sign-painter. He then worked as an advertising illustrator, in particular for Calkins & Holden, a pioneering agency that specialized in the use of art for illustrations and in advising clients on the appearance of their products. Between 1911 and 1928 Teague worked as a freelance illustrator and commercial artist and became known for his use of classical typography and decorative borders, as in the layout and borders for Time magazine (1923). In 1926, while travelling in Europe, he discovered the work of Le Corbusier and in particular his book Vers une architecture (1923). On his return to New York that year he decided to pursue a career in designing or restyling products and packages for manufacturers. In New York at that time a group of individuals including Teague, Norman Bel Geddes, Raymond Loewy and Henry Dreyfuss (1904-72) began to establish industrial design as an independent occupation, promoted by the foundation of the American Union of Decorative Artists and Craftsmen in 1927. Later, in 1944, the Society of Industrial Designers was founded with Teague as its first President.

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A leading luminary of the new breed of industrial designer that emerged in the United States in the interwar years, Teague designed for many major American corporations during his long and distinguished career. From 1903 to 1907 he studied at the Art Students League in New York, specializing in typography and lithography. After a brief spell in a publicity agency, he went on to work from 1908 to 1911 in the art department of Calkins and Holden, a leading New York advertising agency, before setting up as a freelance typographic and advertising designer. By the mid-1920s he had expanded his services to include packaging and industrial design. However, it was not until after 1926 when he visited Europe and experienced at first hand the work of Le Corbusier and other avant-garde designers that he began working in an unambiguously modern manner. One of Teague's most important commissions at this time was for the redesign of the Box Brownie for Eastman Kodak (1927), a company with which he enjoyed a good working relationship over many years. He also designed the plastic Baby Brownie (1933) and streamlined Kodak Bantam (1936) cameras. Teague's many clients included Steuben Glass, for whom he designed glass tableware and decorative objects. Transport design was a particular strength of the Teague consultancy's output, with automobiles for Marmon, streamlined petrol stations for Texaco, coaches for the New Haven Railroad Company, and, from 1944 onwards, offices and airline interiors for the Boeing Company. These included the Boeing 707 and 747 jetliners. Teague also designed a number of displays for the Ford Motor Company including those at the Chicago Century of Progress Exposition of 1933 and the New York World's Fair (NYWF) of 1939-40. Indeed he played a seminal role at the NYWF, having chaired its Board of Design from 1936 in addition to designing the Ford Motor Company Pavilion, as well as work for several other leading corporations including Du Pont, Kodak Eastman, Consolidated Edison, and US Steel. His early thinking on design was contained in his book Design This Day: The Technique of Order in the Machine Age (1940). His position as a major figure in the industrial design profession was recognized in 1944, when he became the first president of the Society of Industrial Designers (see Industrial Designers Society of America). His reputation was also sufficient to be recognized in Europe, being made an honorary Royal Designer for Industry in 1951, the year in which the consultancy became known as Walter Dorwin Teague Associates.

Teague, Walter Dorwin (1883-1960), American industrial designer, celebrated for art deco petrol stations and radio sets, and for a series of camera designs for Eastman Kodak 1928-c.1938. The earliest were essentially fashion products: the 1928 Kodak Vanity Ensemble, for example, which repackaged a Model B Vest Pocket Kodak for sale with a lipstick holder, compact, and purse. The 1930 Beau Brownie was a box design with a modernistically decorated face-plate available in six colours, and the 1934 Baby Brownie was the first plastic-moulded camera. Teague also styled the successful Bantam Special (1936) and the very advanced, semi-automatic Super Kodak Six-20 (1938).

— Robin Lenman

Walter Dorwin Teague
Personal information
Name	Walter Dorwin Teague
Nationality	United States
Birth date	December 18, 1883
Birth place	Pendleton, Indiana
Date of death	December 5, 1960
Work
Significant buildings

Walter Dorwin Teague (December 18, 1883 - December 5, 1960) was an American architect, designer and one of the most prolific American industrial designers in terms of volume of completed work.

"Beau Brownie"

Contents 1 Biography 2 Teague 3 References 4 External links

Biography

Teague was raised in Pendleton, Indiana, the son of a Methodist minister, and left for New York City in 1902. For five years he painted signs and drew for mail-order catalogues while he attended the Art Students League of New York at night with the idea of pursuing a career in magazine illustration.^[1] He then joined the art department of Calkins and Holden and produced commercial magazine illustration. In 1926, while in Europe, he discovered the work of Le Corbusier and decided to design or restyle products for manufacturers. Returning to New York, he joined a group of individuals interested in establishing industrial design as a separate occupation.^[2]

In 1927, he was contracted by Eastman Kodak to design cameras. Kodak would remain his client for 30 years. Between 1934 and 1937 Teague designed several models of streamlined Texaco gas stations, and the company had built 500 of these buildings by 1940. These porcelain-clad Texaco stations became an Art Deco icon of war-era America, as much as the original Polaroid Land Camera. Over 20,000 of the stations had been built worldwide by 1960.^[2]

His company's work with Boeing began in 1946 with the design of the Stratocruiser's passenger aircraft interior. This relationship with Boeing has lasted more than 60 years with Teague's Aviation Studios work on every Boeing aircraft including the 707, 737, 747, 777 and 787.

Ford Pavilion for the California Pacific International Exposition (1935), now the San Diego Aerospace Museum, Balboa Park, San Diego

Teague's son, Walter Dorwin Teague, Jr. (1910 - 2004), joined his father's firm in 1934. Together they made contributions to many basic industrial and consumer products, including the A.B. Dick Mimeograph to Cold War missiles like the Lark and Loki. Teague's son won an award from the Industrial Designers Institute for a fully-reclinable dentist's chair, which allowed dentists to sit while working on patients. His firm's Steinway Peace Piano, built for the 1939 New York World's Fair, is now at the Smithsonian.

Teague's architecture work included the Texaco exhibition hall at the 1935 Texas Centennial Exposition in Dallas, Texas, the Ford pavilion for the California Pacific International Exposition (1935) in Balboa Park in San Diego, structures in the Soviet Union for the United States Information Agency, and the 1961 Civil War Centennial Dome in Richmond, Virginia. In 1940 he articulated his own view of the industrial design profession, Design This Day.

Teague

Teague's legacy continues today as his company Teague remains an important industrial design consultancy. Based in Seattle, Washington, Teague has worked with clients such as Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft and Boeing.

Teague's product designs are in major museums around the world including the Wolfsonian and Cooper-Hewitt. In Virginia Roanoke’s Art Museum of Western Virginia held an exhibition, sponsored by Norfolk Southern, that included the firm’s work.

References

1. ^ Meikle, Jeffrey L. (2001). Twentieth Century Limited: Industrial Design in America, 1925-1939, pp. 43-44. Temple University Press. ISBN 1566398932.
2. ^ ^{a b} Campbell, Gordon (ed.) (2006). The Grove Encyclopedia of Decorative Arts, Vol. 2, p. 437. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195189485.

External links

• on Teague's Kodak camera designs

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