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Dreyfuss, a native of Brooklyn, New York City, is one of the celebrity industrial designers of the 1930s and 1940s who pioneered his field. Dreyfuss dramatically improved the look, feel, and usability of dozens of consumer products. Sometimes compared to Raymond Loewy and other contemporaries, Dreyfuss was much more than a stylist; he applied common sense and a scientific approach to design problems, making products more pleasing to the eye and hand, safer to use, and more efficient to manufacture and repair. His work helped popularize the role of the industrial designer while also contributing significant advances to the fields of ergonomics, anthropometrics and human factors.
Dreyfuss began as a Broadway theatrical designer. Until 1920, he apprenticed under Norman Bel Geddes, who would later become one of his competitors. In 1929, Dreyfuss opened his own office for theatrical and industrial design. His firm met with commercial success, and continued as Henry Dreyfuss Associates for over four decades after his death.
Academic Affiliations
Dreyfuss became a trustee of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in 1963. For many years prior, he had been a member of the Engineering Division faculty and had lectured annually on industrial design. After taking a seat on the board, he encouraged the trustees to seek eminent architects for new buildings at the institute.[1][2]
Several WestcloxBig Ben alarm clocks (1931–1956). The style 3 (1931), 4 (1934), 5 (1939) and 6 (1949) Big and Baby Ben cases were all designed by Dreyfuss.[3]
In 1955, Dreyfuss wrote Designing for People. A window into Dreyfuss's career as an industrial designer, the book illustrated his ethical and aesthetic principles, included design case studies, many anecdotes, and an explanation of his "Joe" and "Josephine" anthropometric charts.
In 1960 he published The Measure of Man, a collection of ergonomic reference charts providing designers precise specifications for product designs.
In 1965, Dreyfuss became the first President of the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA).
In 1969, Dreyfuss retired from the firm he founded,[7] but continued serving many of the companies he worked with as board member and consultant.
In 1972 Dreyfuss published The Symbol Sourcebook, An Authoritative Guide to International Graphic Symbols. This visual database of over 20,000 symbols continues to provide a standard for industrial designers around the world,[8] and has notably been incorporated into works by artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat.Script error: No such module "Unsubst".
On October 5, 1972, Henry Dreyfuss (aged 68) and his wife and business partner Doris Marks Dreyfuss (aged 69) committed suicide together. Mrs. Dreyfuss was terminally ill at the time. The couple was survived by their son, John A., and their two daughters, Ann and Mrs. George C. Wilson Jr.[9][2][10]
