Henry Dreyfuss,
FIDSA (1904-1972)
First President of the Industrial Designers Society of
America (IDSA), 1965
US industrial designer Henry Dreyfuss was born in Brooklyn, NY to a family in the theatrical materials supply business. Completed studies as an apprentice to Norman Bel Geddes in 1924, he produced 250 stage sets from 1924 to 1928. He opened his own office in 1929 for stage and industrial design activities.
In 1929, he won a "phone of the future" competition by Bell Laboratories and began work in collaboration with Bell staff resulting in the "300" tabletop telephone, with receiver and transmitter in a "combined handset" resting in a horizontal cradle. Molded in black phenolic, it was introduced in 1937 and produced until 1950.
In 1933 he designed GE's new "flat-top" deluxe refrigerator, eliminating the previously exposed refrigeration unit by placing it beneath the cabinet.
Henry was featured in a 1934 article in Fortune magazine, which had a dramatic impact on the new profession. An early client was Westclox, for whom he designed a 1935 alarm clock, and later their famous 1939 Big Ben alarm clock. In 1934 Henry was engaged by the Hoover Company, and designed its 1936 Model 150 upright vacuum cleaner. His retainer fee was $25,000 per year.
In 1936, his Mercury diesel locomotive for New York Central Railroad's Hudson Valley Line debuted. In 1938 NYC introduced 10 new engines and cars designed by Dreyfuss for its Twentieth Century Limited. An upgraded version of his Mercury design, the new Hudson locomotives featured finned bullet-noses reminiscent of ancient warrior helmets.
At the New York World's Fair in 1939, Dreyfuss designed the Democracity model in the Perisphere, representing an American city and its suburbs in 2039. The Society of Industrial Designers (SID) was established in 1944 by 15 practitioners including Dreyfuss, who served as its first Vice-President.
In 1949 the model 500 desk telephone debuted. Designed by Dreyfuss, it was the most commonly used model for 45 years. In 1959 Bell introduced the Princess phone, with hand/mouthpiece spanning the dial. Its petite size was designed by HDA to appeal to teen-age girls.
Dreyfuss appeared on the cover of Forbes Magazine in 1951 and in 1953 designed Minneapolis Honeywell's circular wall thermostat. In 1955 he published Designing for People, an autobiography that included his "Joe" and "Josephine" anthropological charts. Military data formed the basis of post-war design standards by Dreyfuss such as his later 1960 Measure of Man.
In 1965 The Industrial Design Society of America (IDSA) was formed by the merger of IDI, ASID and IDEA. Henry Dreyfuss was its first President.
Henry retired to Pasadena, CA in 1969, but continued to serve the profession. Representing the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) in 1971, he chaired the first meeting of the International Organization of Standards Technical Committee (ISO/TC) in Berlin which set international standards resulting in his 1972 Symbol Sourcebook: An Authoritative Guide to International Graphic Symbols.
In 1972, with his wife terminally ill, Henry designed their simultaneous death by carbon monoxide.