Design For Business

Chicago Il: Paul Theobald, 1947. 1st Edition 1st Printing. Hardcover. Very Good. 225 Pp. Glossy Card Covers. First Edition Stated (1947). Slight Usage; Wear At Ends Of Spine, 1/2" Water Spot On Front Cover, Ownership Signature Of A Ca State-La Art Professor. Joshua Gordon Lippincott, An Engineer By Training, Joined Forces In 1943 With Walter Margulies, An Architect, The Two Men Were Hoping To Make Their Mark Through Product Design. They Succeeded Quite Quickly. They Designed Hotel Restaurants, Changed The Silhouettes Of Typewriters And Selected Patterns And Colors For Ceramic Dishes. Three Years After They Started Their Company In New York, They Received The Campbell Packaging Assignment. The Design Used The Same Signature That The Campbell Soup Company Had Used Since The 19Th Century, But It Was Placed On The Red-And-White Can That After Attracting Consumers For Four Decades Would Be Given The Status Of A Contemporary Icon By Andy Warhol. The Firm Of Lippincott & Margulies Turned Out Both Industrial Designs And Packaging For Thousands Of Products. It Placed The God Mercury In The Logo That Is Still Used Today By Ftd, Florists' Transworld Delivery Inc. Lippincott & Margulies Also Came Up With The Red, White And Black Signature That Identifies Champion Spark Plugs, The Spoon Used By Betty Crocker And The Big ''G'' On The Products Of General Mills. And It Adapted The Coca-Cola Logo For Use On Different Packaging. Even As The Packaging And Product-Identification Businesses Were Growing, Mr. Lippincott Remained Intrigued By Design Challenges. These Included A Task Presented To Him In 1947, When Preston Tucker Walked Into Mr. Lippincott's Office On Fifth Avenue And Asked For Help Styling The Tucker Torpedo, An Automobile With A Radical Design. The Firm Sent Teams Of Designers To Detroit To Shape What Emerged As A Sleek Vehicle That Mr. Lippincott Referred To As The Tin Goose. The Ultimate Failure Of Tucker's Dream Car, Which Was The Subject Of A 1988 Movie, Came About When Tucker Could Not Fulfill Orders. Mr. Lippincott Took Pride That His Firm Was Paid In Full For His Work, And His Only Regret Was That He Did Not Buy One Of The 46 Torpedoes That Were Produced. ''They Are Worth A Fortune, Now,'' He Said At The Time That The Movie Opened. By The Mid-1950'S, Lippincott & Margulies Was One Of The Big Three Of Design Companies, Along With Raymond Loewy Associates And Henry Dreyfus. The Firm Retreated From Reliance On Individual ''Geniuses,'' Which Had Been The Common Practice, And Instead Deployed Teams That Included Engineers, Artists, Interior Decorators And Merchandising Specialists To Tackle Specific Assignments.