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General Vintage Technology Discussions For general discussions about vintage radio and other vintage electronics etc. |
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11th Jul 2018, 8:14 pm | #1 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Wiltshire, UK.
Posts: 13,951
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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. |
12th Jul 2018, 12:52 pm | #2 |
Octode
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Co. Durham, UK.
Posts: 1,111
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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. |
12th Jul 2018, 2:30 pm | #3 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Wiltshire, UK.
Posts: 13,951
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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. |
17th Jul 2018, 9:40 pm | #4 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Staffordshire Moorlands, UK.
Posts: 5,263
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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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Kevin |