James Franklin Fulton , FIDSA (1930-2003)
President of the Industrial Designers Society of America
(IDSA), 1975-1976
Jim Fulton was born in Cincinnati, Ohio and was a 1951 graduate of industrial design with honors from Pratt Institute. He worked for Towle Silver Company in Newburyport, Massachusetts in 1951, and the same year joined Owens-Corning Fiberglass Corporation in Toledo as their first staff designer. He worked from 1953 to 1958 as senior designer with the office of Harley Earl Inc.
In 1958 he was appointed design director with Raymond Loewy's Paris office and in 1960 became director of product design and transportation with Loewy/Snaith Inc. in New York, becoming VP in 1962 and senior VP in 1964. He established his own office in New York, Fulton + Partners, Inc. in 1966 and added a Paris affiliate, Endt + Fulton in 1975. Among his clients were Hess Oil and Owens-Corning Fiberglas, a client of 25 years whose company logo he designed.
He was president of IDSA 1975-1976, spearheading the move from part-time staff to two permanent employees of IDSA. He was Chairman of Design Publications, Inc., which he co-founded in 1977 to rescue and publish ID Magazine, which was at the time faltering. In 1969 he became a trustee of Pratt Institute and served as its chairman from 1991 until 2001. In 1987 he helped form the Design History Foundation to acquire materials of the Loewy estate for donation to the Library of Congress. He worked with Places magazine, a Journal of Environmental Design.
In 2003 he was honored with the Rowena Reed Kostellow Award on behalf of Pratt Institute and for his many years of statesmanship in the profession. An avid sailor, Fulton resided in Mamaroneck, New York until 1999, then relocated to Charlestown, Rhode Island.