SHAPING AMERICA'S PRODUCTS
Don Wallance
Don Wallance: SHAPING AMERICA'S PRODUCTS. New York: Reinhold Publishing Corp., 1956. First edition. Quarto. Tan cloth stamped in black. Photographically printed dust jacket. 193 pp. Black and white illustrations throughout. One corner gently bumped. Price-clipped jacket lightly chipped along top edge with a couple of short, closed tears. Interior unmarked and very clean. A very good or better copy of a very uncommon title.8.25 x 10.5 hardcover book with 193 pages and well illustrated with black and white photographs. The material for this book was obtained by Wallance while serving as a research consultant for the Walker Art Center and the American Craftsmen's Council of New York. Features 31 case studies demonstrating how good design has broadened markets and increased sales. Includes products of General Electric, Herman Miller Furniture Co, Corning Glass Works, Amelia Earhart Luggage, Jantzen, and Sitterle Ceramics.
SHAPING AMERICA'S PRODUCTS perfectly captures the "designer-crafsman" ideal in postwar America, the idea that craft should be integrated into manufacturing as a way of improving quality and functionality. Wallance offers a series of profiles, from George Nakashima and Ray and Charles Eames to manufacturers like Heath Ceramics, Corning Glass Works and Jantzen, with each presented as an exemplification of the integration of design and craft. While Wallance's ideas were not unusual -- clearly derived from the Bauhaus theories sweeping the country after the War -- his book was unique in providing concrete instances of the "designer-craftsman" ideal in action.
Contents:
Foreword
PART I. DESIGN AND CRAFTSMANSHIP IN AN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY
PART II. PATTERNS OF PRODUCT CREATION
Design and Crafstmanship in Large-Scale Industry
THE INDUSTRIAL DESIGNER AND LARGE-SCALE INDUSTRY:
- The Telephone [Bell Telephone Laboratories]: Henry Dreyfuss
- Cooking Utensils [Revere Copper and Brass Company]: W. Archibald Welden
- Radio Receivers [The Hallicrafters Company]: Raymond W. Loewy Associates
THE DESIGN DEPARTMENT IN LARGE-SCALE INDUSTRY:
- Glassware: Corning Glass Works
- Electrical Appliances: General Electric Company
- Swimming Garments: Jantzen, Inc.
Design and Craftsmanship In Small-Scale Industry:
THE SMALL MANUFACTURER AS DESIGNER-CRAFTSMAN
- Luggage: Amelia Earhart Luggage
- Cutlery: Gerber Legendary Blades
- Ceramic Tablewear: Heath Ceramics
- Woven Fabrics: Menlo Textiles
- Printed Fabrics: D.D. and Leslie Tillett
- Sports Clothing: White Stag Manufacturing Company
THE INDUSTRIAL DESIGNER AND SMALL-SCALE INDUSTRY
- Furniture [Herman Miller Furniture Company]: Gilbert Rohde, George Nelson, Charles Eames
- Offhand Blown Glass [Blenko Glass Company Inc.]: Winslow Anderson
- Stainless Steel Tableware [ H. E. Lauffer Company, Inc.]: Don Wallance
"Anonymous" Design
- Kitchen Tools: Ekco Products Company
- Chemical Porcelain: Coors Porcelain Company
- Glassware: The Federal Glass Company
- Work Clothing: Levi Strauss and Company
The Artist-Craftsman As Designer-Producer
- Furniture: George Nakashima
- Wood Turning: James Prestini
- Pottery: Marguerite Wildenhain
- Pottery: Gertrud and Otto Natzler
- Porcelain Tableware: Sitterle Ceramics
- Jewelry: Betty Cooke
- Jewelry: Margaret De Patta
- Wood Carving: Wharton Esherick
Craft Workshops Into Industrial Design Laboratories
- Handles: Thomas Lamb
- Furniture: Charles Eames
- Woven Fabric: Marianne Strengell
- Carpets: Leo J. Mahsoud
Bibliography
Index
Don Wallance [1909 - 1990] was an American Industrial Designer born in Queens who graduated from New York University and the Design Laboratory (1935-1939). In 1938, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) awarded him a prize for a chair he designed for its new building. During WW II he served with the Army Air Corps and researched mass-produced furniture for the Armed Forces. He conducted a study of plywood storage units that won a prize at MoMA's low-cost furniture competition in 1948.
He designed the original cantilever seats in Philharmonic Hall at Lincoln Center, which were mounted on horizontal tubular beams instead of legs to make moving and cleaning easier. He is most well-known for his sculptural stainless steel flatware designs for the H. E. Lauffer Company, made by Pott GmbH in Germany, including "Design 1" (1954), "Design Two" (1957), "Bedford" (1963), and "Design Three" (1964).
He was the author of the 1956 book, Shaping America's Products, and the founder and chairman of the Croton Visual Environmental Board from 1980 to 1989. He lived in Croton-on-Hudson, New York, where he died. His archives were donated to the Cooper-Hewitt Museum in Manhattan.
Spreads from this volume can be viewed here.
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