Project files containmagazine and newspaper clippings, reviews, correspondence, renderings, floor plans, perspective drawings, site plans, sketches, preliminary drawings, patents, stationery, labels, and technical reports. There is an extensive collection of photographs and slides of many of Deskey's packaging designs, interiors, furnishings, and exhibition installations. The files of Donald Deskey Associates include organizational charts, client files, proposals, and financial records. Some of Deskey's personal correspondence, speeches, articles, and family photographs are included. Materials cover the period from 1927-1975.
Arrangement note:
Arranged into six records groups: 1) architecture/interiors projects; 2)Donald Deskey Associates; 3) industrial design projects; 4) reference; 5) Donald Deskey's personal papers; and 6) photographs. A special collection of more than one thousand slides of Deskey's work are boxed separately.
Biographical/Historical note:
Industrial, interior, and packaging designer. Born Blue Earth, Minnesota, November 23, 1894. By 1943, he had established Donald Deskey Associates in New York. Along with Dreyfuss, Bel Geddes, and Loewy, Deskey was one of the great industrial design pioneers in the 1930s.
He is best known for his designs for the furnishings and interiors of Radio City Music Hall in 1932, and for his work for companies such as: Widdicomb Furniture Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan; W & J Sloane, New York; and Estey Manufacturing Company, Owosso, Michigan. Deskey is also known for his familiar packaging designs for Procter & Gamble products, such as Crest toothpaste, Prell shampoo, and Tide detergent.
Donald Deskey Associates also was responsible for lamppost #10, the streetlight still in use today in New York City. Materials from this archival collection were featured in Cooper-Hewitt's 1994 exhibition and accompanying book, "Packaging the New: Design and the American Consumer, 1925- 1975."
Location of Other Archival Materials Note:
Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Drawings and Prints Department. Approximately 3,000 drawings for furniture and textile designs.
Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Applied Arts Department. Two tables, handles, and a glass bottle and box designed by Deskey.
Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Textiles Department. One textile designed by Deskey.
Other sources of archival information on Deskey include, the Procter & Gamble Archive, Cincinnati, Ohio, and Deskey Associates, New York City.
Provenance:
The Deskey collection was donated to the museum in three installments.
In 1975, Deskey deposited at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum,, hundreds of drawings, 3 four-drawer file cabinets of material, and several oversized packages comprising the bulk of his papers covering the period from 1927-1965. These items were officially donated to the museum in 1988.
In 1992, Deskey Associates of New York made an additional gift consisting of, approximately 1,000 35mm slides that documented projects from the 1960s through 1980s, and focused primarily on designs for packaging.
In 1994, Donald Deskey's nephew, Robert Deskey presented the Museum with, 120 postcards, letters, and family photographs.
Restrictions:
Unrestricted research use onsite by appointment. Permission of staff required to photograph materials.
3 Boxes (2 letter sized boxes, 1 legal sized box.)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Clippings
Press releases
Speeches
Photographs
Date:
[mid-1940s-early 1960s]
Summary:
This collection spans the period from the mid-1940s to the early-1960s and consists ofnewspaper and magazine articles by and about Loewy, including the 1949 TIME magazine on which he appeared on the cover. Extensive clippings exist pertaining to his designs for automobiles. Also includes many articles and speeches written by and about William Snaith, a partner in the firm which was renamed Raymond Loewy/William Snaith, Inc. in 1961. A catalog from the exhibition, "Ten Automobiles," which took place at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in 1953, is included. Other materials include brochures printed and designed by the firm, press releases, a listing of projects, honors, and membership. Some photographs of Loewy and his design team are included. The collection does not contain any original design materials or project files.
Arrangement note:
Unprocessed.
Biographical/Historical note:
Industrial Designer. Born Paris, France, November 8, 1893, Loewy initially studied electrical engineering, and by 1909, he has designed and sold a successful airplane model. He immigrated to the United States in 1919 and became a naturalized citizen in 1938. Loewy began working as a freelance window display designer for Macy's and Saks Fifth Avenue, and as an illustrator for Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, and others, from 1919.
He designed the trademark for Neiman-Marcus in 1923. Loewy is identified as one of the founding fathers of industrial design. In 1929, he started Raymond Loewy Associates in New York, and by 1947, he appeared on the cover of TIME magazine. Loewy's designs always stressed the importance of the clean, functional, dynamic design of products. His schooling in electrical engineering translated into his designs for automobiles, trains, airplanes, ships, and spacecraft for NASA. He also designed interiors for many hotels, offices, and supermarkets. He is best known for his designs for the 1947 Studebaker Starlight Coupe; the 1953 Starliner Coupe; the 1961 Avanti; the 1947 line of Hallicrafter radio recievers; the 1929 Gestetner duplicating machine; the 1934 Sears Coldspot refrigerator; and the S-I steam locomotive for the Pennsylvania Railroad.
He also designed logos for Exxon and Shell oil companies, and bottles and refrigerated vending machines for Coca Cola. He became President of the American Society of Industrial Designers in 1946. Loewy established Compagnie de l'Esthetique Industrielle in Paris in 1952. His work has been featured in many exhibitions, including: "An Exhibition for Modern Living", Detroit Institute of Arts, 1949; "The Designs of Raymond Loewy", Renwick Gallery of the National Collection of Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., 1975; and "The Machine Age in America", Brooklyn Museum, 1986, among others. He authored, "The Locomotive: Its Esthetics", 1937; "Never Leave Well Enough Alone", 1951; and "Industrial Design", 1979. In 1961, Loewy went into semi-retirement, became partners with William Snaith, and renamed the company Raymond Loewy/William Snaith, Inc. Loewy died in Monte Carlo, July 14, 1986.
Location of Other Archival Materials Note:
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. The Raymond Loewy Collection. Drawings, blueprints, sketches, phtographs, slides, and audio and video recordings, covering the period from 1929-1988.
Canadian Center for Architecture, Special Collections. Vertical file docmenting Loewy's work.
Provenance:
The materials in this collection were donated to Cooper-Hewitt by Betty Reese, Loewy's publicist.
Restrictions:
Unprocessed; access is limited. Permission of Library Director required for use.
1935 ; provides industrial business services for product development, such as handling patents and copyrights, package design, formulation and development of the product, production, packing, shipping, and sales and advertising ; "The Eye of the Earth"
Includes:
Trade catalog
Black and white images
Physical description:
1 piece; 1 box
Language:
English
Type of material:
Trade catalogs
Trade literature
Place:
Brooklyn, New York, United States
Date:
1900s
Topic (Romaine term):
Business services (advertising; marketing; organizational management; etc.) Search this
Nihon no pakkēji dezain : Yōroppa to no taihi = Package design in Japan : a comparison with package design in Europe / [henshū Nippon Pakkēji Dezain Kyōkai]
Title:
日本のパッケ－ジデザイン : ヨ－ロッパとの対比 = Package design in Japan : a comparison with package design in Europe / [編集日本パッケ－ジ協会]
Package design in Japan : a comparison with package design in Europe
Nihon no pakkēji dezain : Yōroppa to no taihi = Package design in Japan : a comparison with package design in Europe / [henshū Nippon Pakkēji Dezain Kyōkai]
Title:
日本のパッケージデザイン : ヨーロッパとの対比 = Package design in Japan : a comparison with package design in Europe / [編集日本パッケージ協会]
Package design in Japan : a comparison with package design in Europe
Nihon no pakkēji dezain : sono ayumi, sono hyōjō = Package design in Japan its history and its expressions / [henshū Nihon Pakkēji Dezain Kyōkai]
Title:
日本のハッケーシテサイン : その步み・その表情 = Package design in Japan its history and its expressions / [編集日本ハッケーシテサイン協会]
Package design in Japan : its history and its expressions
