John Vassos: Industrial Design for Modern Life
The first biography of a renowned industrial designer and illustrator who shaped the look of modern technology Danielle Shapiro is the first to examine the life and work of John Vassos, who was the Radio Corporation of America’s key consultant designer through the rise of radio and television and into the computer era. Replete with rich behind-the-product stories of America’s design culture in the 1930s through the 1950s, this volume also chronicles the emergence of what was to become the nation’s largest media company. John Vassos: Industrial Design for Modern Life (University of Minnesota Press, 2016) is now available on Amazon and at the University of Minnesota Press.
**Winner, American Library Association Choice Outstanding Academic Book, 2016 in the History of Science and Technology
**Winner, American Library Association Choice Outstanding Academic Book, 2016 in the History of Science and Technology
Praise for John Vassos: Industrial Design for Modern America
"John Vassos is a complex portrait of an artist and designer whose early illustration work criticized the tempo and commercialism of modern life but whose later design work took for granted those same qualities and attempted to accommodate people to them."—Jeffrey L. Meikle, University of Texas at Austin, Professor in the American Studies and American Civilization Programs of the University of Texas at Austin and author of Twentieth Century Limited: Industrial Design in America, 1925-1939 and American Plastic: A Cultural History; Design in the USA.
"Not simply the first biography of a designer who was a major contributor to the design of consumer electronics, but also a solid examination of the evolution of consumer and industrial design during Vassos's lifetime." Choice Magazine, a publication of the American Library Association
"John Vassos hastened the flow of products, people, and media with his streamlined designs for everything from kitchen appliances to turnstiles and radios. Danielle Shapiro has created an original portrait of this important designer and this key period in American design and popular culture.” Ellen Lupton, Curator of Contemporary Design at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York City and director of the Graphic Design MFA program at Maryland Institute College of Art and author of Thinking with Type and Design, Writing, Research
"In the first complete picture of John Vassos, Danielle Shapiro definitively captures an industrial designer of the first rank."— Russell Flinchum, associate professor of Graphic Design, Industrial Design, and Art+Design in the College of Design at North Carolina State University and author of Henry Dreyfuss, Industrial Designer: The Man in the Brown Suit
"I really enjoyed reading Danielle Shapiro's excellent book John Vassos: Industrial Design for Modern Life. In it, Shapiro makes a convincing case for Vassos's formerly unheralded, but highly significant, early contributions to the field now known as user interface (UI) design. I found the chapters about Vassos's design of knobs, dials, displays, and casings for RCA radios and studio recording machinery especially illuminating. Furthermore, the book is beautifully written; the illustrations are aptly chosen and almost all are "new"; and the footnotes are a rich source of information not only about Vassos but also about twentieth-century design, generally. It's a great book! Carma Gorman, Ph.D., Associate Professor and Assistant Chair, Department of Art and Art History, University of Texas, Austin and author of The Industrial Design Reader (2003)
"John Vassos is a complex portrait of an artist and designer whose early illustration work criticized the tempo and commercialism of modern life but whose later design work took for granted those same qualities and attempted to accommodate people to them."—Jeffrey L. Meikle, University of Texas at Austin, Professor in the American Studies and American Civilization Programs of the University of Texas at Austin and author of Twentieth Century Limited: Industrial Design in America, 1925-1939 and American Plastic: A Cultural History; Design in the USA.
"Not simply the first biography of a designer who was a major contributor to the design of consumer electronics, but also a solid examination of the evolution of consumer and industrial design during Vassos's lifetime." Choice Magazine, a publication of the American Library Association
"John Vassos hastened the flow of products, people, and media with his streamlined designs for everything from kitchen appliances to turnstiles and radios. Danielle Shapiro has created an original portrait of this important designer and this key period in American design and popular culture.” Ellen Lupton, Curator of Contemporary Design at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York City and director of the Graphic Design MFA program at Maryland Institute College of Art and author of Thinking with Type and Design, Writing, Research
"In the first complete picture of John Vassos, Danielle Shapiro definitively captures an industrial designer of the first rank."— Russell Flinchum, associate professor of Graphic Design, Industrial Design, and Art+Design in the College of Design at North Carolina State University and author of Henry Dreyfuss, Industrial Designer: The Man in the Brown Suit
"I really enjoyed reading Danielle Shapiro's excellent book John Vassos: Industrial Design for Modern Life. In it, Shapiro makes a convincing case for Vassos's formerly unheralded, but highly significant, early contributions to the field now known as user interface (UI) design. I found the chapters about Vassos's design of knobs, dials, displays, and casings for RCA radios and studio recording machinery especially illuminating. Furthermore, the book is beautifully written; the illustrations are aptly chosen and almost all are "new"; and the footnotes are a rich source of information not only about Vassos but also about twentieth-century design, generally. It's a great book! Carma Gorman, Ph.D., Associate Professor and Assistant Chair, Department of Art and Art History, University of Texas, Austin and author of The Industrial Design Reader (2003)
Above - John Vassos from Phobia (1929)
Danielle Shapiro speaking at the launch of John Vassos: Industrial Design for Modern Life on April 7, 2016 at the Ivy Bookshop in Baltimore, Maryland. (photo by Michael T. Davis)
Danielle Shapiro speaking at the launch of John Vassos: Industrial Design for Modern Life on April 7, 2016 at the Ivy Bookshop in Baltimore, Maryland. (photo by Michael T. Davis)
