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Walter Dorwin Teague

Author: 
Carroll Gantz
Birth/Death Age: 
1883-1960
Walter Dorwin Teague image

US industrial designer, called the "dean of industrial design" by many. Born in Decatur, IN, he moved to New York in 1903 and studied at Art Students League of New York.

He established his own typographic studio in 1911, and by mid 1920s was involved in commercial packaging. He left advertising in 1926 to open an industrial design firm in New York City and added industrial design to his letterhead in 1927, receiving his first contract with Eastman Kodak effective January 1, 1928. For Kodak designed a number of well-known cameras, including an Art Deco gift camera (1928), Baby Brownie (1934), Bantam Special (1936), and the Brownie Hawkeye (1950). He designed the Marmon 16, introduced in 1932, and the trend-setting Texaco gas stations (1936).

He was on the Board of Design for the 1939 World's Fair, where he also designed the Ford and US Steel pavilions. He wrote his book, Design This Day" in 1940. In 1944, he became the first president of the Society of Industrial Designers (SID). In 1948 he designed the first Polaroid camera for Edwin Land. After the war, WDTA became a major consultant for Boeing, establishing a branch office in Seattle, WA and has designed interiors for them ever since, including the Stratocruiser (1946), the 707 (1958), 737 (1963), 747 (1969), 767 (1982) and 777 (1995). WDTA also designed the furnishings for the new Air Force Academy in 1958.

After his death, his son, Walter Dorwin Teague Jr., continued to run his consulting office, Walter Dorwin Teague Associates (WDTA).

Sources: 
100 Years of Design consists of excerpts from a book by Carroll M. Gantz, FIDSA, entitled, Design Chronicles: Significant Mass-produced Designs of the 20th Century, published August 2005 by Schiffer Publications, Ltd.
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