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General Vintage Technology Discussions For general discussions about vintage radio and other vintage electronics etc.

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Old 11th Jul 2018, 8:14 pm   #1
G6Tanuki
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Default Radio/TV/electronics stylists/designers.

Spawned from this thread:

https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...83#post1057983

where the stylists/designers of TV 'Outside Broadcast' vehicles was included, I wonder - who were your favourite designers/stylists.

In times-past there was the purely 'utilitarian' market:

"My radio/TV has broken and so I need to buy a new one".

Then the "Aspirational" market:

"Our TV/radio is still working, but it's three years old and daughter's just come home and said the neighbours have got a new one and they can get a second ITV-channel/BBC2/Colour on theirs so let's go and see what we can buy; we can afford something better, my manager's said I'm due for a bonus next month!".

A 'new' cabinet/style round well-established [OK, last-year's] electronics would sell; wrapping leading-edge circuitry in a dowdy case would guarantee failure.

Tom Karen/Ogle Design would be my #1 designer from the 1960s/1970s: the Bush TR130 was a truly big-seller.

Back a decade and Robin Day [no, not the bowtied political-show presenter] did a lot of good design for Pye in the 'Festival of Britain" 1951 zeitgeist - his 'clean' edgy style using light-finished plywood [rather than the old-fashioned WWII-era dull-and-heavy walnut veneer] was something like 50 years ahead of the current fad for 'IKEA' Scandi-style.

OK: so who are the designers you like?

[Must admit, I'd have loved it if Eero Aarnio

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eero_Aarnio

designer of the famous 'Ball Chair' which featured in plenty of episodes of ~~The Prisoner~~ had got seriously into radio/TV designs]

Last edited by G6Tanuki; 11th Jul 2018 at 8:26 pm.
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Old 12th Jul 2018, 12:52 pm   #2
Brigham
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Default Re: Radio/TV/electronics stylists/designers.

Raymond Loewy was the leader in industrial design, in my view.
In which case, I think Arlen Ness or Randy Grubb ought to design some radio/TV-related items.
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Old 12th Jul 2018, 2:30 pm   #3
G6Tanuki
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Default Re: Radio/TV/electronics stylists/designers.

Sadly, Loewy only did a few radios/domestic-appliances: planes/trains/automobiles were very much more his focus.

My favourite US designer was Henry Dreyfuss, who designed the "Big Ben" alarm clock, the Hoover 'Constellation' vacuum-cleaner, as well as a number of the 1940s-90s "Bell System" telephones.
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Old 17th Jul 2018, 9:40 pm   #4
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Default Re: Radio/TV/electronics stylists/designers.

Dick Russell, Eden Minns, James Reeve, in fact any of Murphy's cabinet designers.
For some manufacturers, design was a major part of the product, for others, it was secondary.
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