The Man Who Shaped America - Norman Bel Geddes

A pioneer of American industrial design and from the Streamlining movement, Norman Bel Geddes, who died in 1958, helped to shape the image of modern America with everything from household objects like refrigerators, lamps and vacuum cleaners – to hypothetical mechanised theatres, cars and floating airports.

Norman Bel Geddes - I Have Seen the Future

Bel Geddes started his career as a theatrical designer which then started to create a serious of model cars and prototypes for trains and planes including a proposal for a transatlantic boat plane carrying 450 passengers and an army of staff.

In 1927, Bel Geddes opened an industrial-design studio where he designed a wide range of commercial products from the red, white and blue Patriot radio for Emerson and the Soda King Seltzer bottle for Walter Kidde, as well other designs like the bullet shaped train.

Prototype for the Patriot radio

Soda King Seltzer bottles

Erich Mandelsohn was the inspiration for Norman Bel Geddes. His commercial buildings all have something in common. These are curved corners, wrap around horizontal bands and elongated proportions.

Norman Bel Geddes designed lavish film sets for producers such as Cecil Be De Mille.

Norman Bel Geddes was the one inventing the teardrop form. From 1928 Norman Bel Geddes designed futuristic looking cars for the Graham Paige Company. In 1939 he also designed the General Motors Pavilion – the ‘Futurama’.

Futurama 

Futurama

Nowadays, there is still some debate as to whether Norman Bel Geddes was a man whose designs where not appreciated or as a man who dreamt of things which he never get. I think that Bel Geddes will still remain the designer who shaped America during the 1930s.

Motor Car without tail fin, 1933

1929 - nine deck amphibian airliner

Unrealized designs - The Flying Car

1930s Cobra Lamp

Streamline one-piece child's school desk and chair

Streamlined Motor Coach 

References:

• Art Directory, N/A. Norman Bel Geddes [online] available at: http://www.norman-bel-geddes.com/

• Object, N/A. 12 Norman Bel Geddes Creations [online] available at: http://www.oobject.com/category/12-norman-bel-geddes-creations/

• MNN Holding, 2014. Norman Bel Gedded designs the city of the future in 1939 [online] available at: http://www.treehugger.com/urban-design/norman-bel-geddes-designs-city-future-1939.html

• Hearst Communictaions, 2014. Norman Bel Geddes, prophetic designer and unsung hero [online] available at: http://www.roadandtrack.com/features/web-originals/this-is-norman-bel-geddes-prophetic-designer-and-unsung-automotive-hero

• Associated Newspapers, N/A. The designer who shaped the 30s: Exhibition celebrates futuristic creations from his amphibious cars to a humble desk lamp [image online] available at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2507327/Norman-Bel-Geddes-exhibitions-designs-shaped-modern-America.html