Roger Schneeman,
IDSA - August 25, 2001
I hesitate to reply to your request for biographies. Those who have replied so far are the high profile sages, those who are well known and respected in our profession. I am one of the great number of anonymous designers, of whom I hope it can be said, did good work year after year, perhaps many billions of dollars worth. The anonymous designer's work only rarely, as in my case, receives awards, but is the work that sustains a corporation and provides nearly everything they sell. Hopefully, most of it enriches the ultimate user in an important, if sometimes mundane, way. Perhaps my experience can encourage some students.
In grade school, I was a poor student; in high school only mediocre. Perhaps I had a learning disability or dyslexia or perhaps I was just a concrete - random thinker in an abstract - sequential world. After high school I wanted to be an automobile engineer, but was rejected by the universities to which I applied. After working a year and a serious illness, I went to night school at the U. of Cincinnati and achieved the prerequisites to enter their Engineering College. It was difficult attending class 8 hours a day and working all week end to pay my way. I did achieve a 1.4 on a 3. grade scale during the first year. During that year I discovered ID. While walking across campus, one day, I saw some students painting landscapes in water color. In my discussion with them I discovered they were ID students. Since from about the age of 7 or 8, I had liked to build model planes and cars, mostly from scratch of my own design, I was gratified to discover that there was a profession for someone with these interests. (I have found that high school advisors don't have the foggiest idea about ID.) After completing the first year in engineering and a summer working in an oil refinery I started over in ID. My interest was ignited; my grades improved, when in the third year of the five year course, I unexpectedly was awarded a scholastic scholarship. Gill Born, who just "retired" from teaching at Cincinnati, was a classmate. In class, I always admired his work. His students all say he is a great teacher. Lee Payne was also a classmate. He ran an office in Georgia, possibly still does... Jim Alexander was our teacher. Since slowly retiring from Thomson Multimedia, I have been teaching at Purdue and have found myself using many of the things Jim taught us. I fashioned my seminar for graduate students after his class in the history of design. I miss seeing him at the national conferences.
Of course the College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning has a 5 year co-op program. I worked in an oil refinery, a custom automobile manufacturer,(funeral cars and ambulances, armored cars, presidential parade cars, Cadillac station wagons etc.) two design offices and for a furniture manufacturer before graduation.
The economy was in recession in 1958 when I was graduated. I decided to stay on with the furniture company in Chattanooga Tennessee. Living with a couple other young guys on the side of Missionary Ridge was was great, but I considered home furniture design acceptable only until a "real" ID job was found.
I then went to work for Hamilton Cosco in Columbus Indiana. They manufactured steel and plastic juvenile furniture, occasional furniture, office furniture(for a while) and I explored other product ventures for them. One of the very low cost folding chairs I designed was in production for about 25 years. (When considering the work of the anonymous designer, one night ponder, which is the more difficult achievement, a simple good looking folding chair that retailed for $8 or beautiful chair that provides less function and sells for $800. Both have their place, but don't underestimate the talent behind the $8 chair.)
I thought I had finally gotten into the main stream of ID when I was hired by Tucker Madawick at RCA. Little did I know I was hired because of my furniture experience. I was soon made "group leader" of the wood cabinet group. Most of everything RCA made in the mid sixties, and for decades after, was in a wood cabinet (Some were great designs, others were contrived oldies). Later I became the manager of the group. I had the opportunity to occasionally work with Bill Goldsmith's (GYSA) people, and on a few occasions hear the adventures of John Vassos. Of course I also worked with Dave Tompkins and Lou Lenzi when they headed the RCA or Thomson design organization. I was sometimes criticized for being a manager and also working in the studio. I did not want to merely "manage". I enjoyed the creative studio work and believed it made me a better manager able to facilitate the work of others to achieve our goals.
As wood cabinets became far less important, I became involved in all the other products Thomson made. I was the Industrial Designer on the Direct Satellite Broadcast System, a rather simple looking product, but one extremely important to Thomson and the evolution of the industry and telecommunications. It was selected as a design of the decade.
Being an "old guy" who had not really kept up on the latest in computer aided design and feeling a little vulnerable, I took voluntary severance from Thomson when I was only 64. I continue to work for them rather intensely for a couple of years and still do a little for them. Since 1994, I have taught off and on at Purdue. Last year I taught full time as a Visiting Assistant Professor. This year I have a lesser class schedule. More recently, I was dragged from the woodwork to become the present IDSA Midwest District VP. For many years I have been associated with the American Society of Furniture Designers. It is a small, (about 200 member) group of home furnishings designers. I am now the President of that group.
It is great to preserve our history and the design documents from our past, but I think it is even more important to pass on the Sage's insight (dare I use the word wisdom) to the younger practitioners and students. There has been tremendous changes in only the time I have been around. We have gone from a few great names, in the infancy of Industrial Design, doing a few spectacular things to a large number of "anonymous" designers doing a great body of work for every important industry. We have gone from stylists aiding the marketing and sales effort to professionals involved in every phase of business, from market research, through all phases of design and engineering to resolving manufacturing questions. We don't just design products, we design systems, businesses and environments. We design experiences. We are jacks of all trades, but specialists in relating to the needs and desires of people and our environment. I often wonder if our concentration on studio skills and computers and neglect of the humanities and some technologies, in education, is missing something important.