Pratt Institute - Prattonia Yearbook (Brooklyn, NY)

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INDUSTRIAL DESIGN Allan McCroskery Howard Palmer Allan Phillips Charles Reuss Arthur Sessa Charles Smith Louis Taney Walter Menn Angelina Perrone Robert Piantholt Francis Riggs Samuel Shapiro Marian Spaulding Joseph Troisi Richard Neagle Elizabeth Pepke William Porten William Ritch Bernard Sheppard Hervey Stockman Richard Williams

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When the first machines produced useful objects to satisfy the demand of their time, appearance was primarily an after-thought. With the prevailing appreciation of good taste and convenience in home and industry the industrial designer is becoming established as the interpreter of proper styling with me- chanical comprehension. Attuned to the ever-growing demand for trained artist-designers and desirous of ful- filling this need, several men introduced a practical approach to the problem through education. Pratt Institute, one of the pioneers of industrial design training, organized a course under the leadership of Donald Doh- ner in 1935 and Alexander J. Kostellow in 1944. This course brings to the student an in- tegration of engineering and aesthetic knowl- edge which over the years has grown contin- uously into our present curriculum, with its many subjects of definite outline and purpose. The wide scope of problems embraced by the field of industrial design has been un- folded to us as students during our training enlarging our awareness of the outlets for good design and the infinite variety of in- dustrial processes and their limitations. It has equipped us with methods for effective mar- ket research and analysis, with a professional manner of clearly presenting our ideas, our designs to our clients. The use of adequate shop facilities affords excellent assistance in carrying out the latter objective. We came to Pratt from environments and backgrounds of wide diversity. Our precon- ceived purposes, aims and ideals in every case have been revised, improved upon, and in some cases completely re-valued. This is reflective of the unusual, creative experiences we have undergone here. Our development of a theoretic approach to any problem, a consciousness of contem- porary style, and a sensibility for perfection is most remarkable. This . . . all in a short period of three years. f Irving Achorn Lloyd Atkins John Albert Gabor Aufricht William Armstrong Gary Barsumian Robert Betts David Deland William Dempsey Albert Gramza David Hills Leon Drechsler Michael Fromm Joel Goldberg Antony Di Benedetto Stephanie Doherty Luther Draper Esther Harrison Ralph Johanson Rudolph Haumann Foster Lott

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ART EDUCATION Ten smiling faces represent the survivors of the class of '48; a class which began four years ago with all thirty seats occupied. What happened to the others? We know; either they found that Art Education wasn't what they wanted or their little batteries ran out of energy too soon. The Art Education creatures were not vision in motion, we were body in motion—continual motion. The spiral was our path of direction, the world and the people in it our concern. During our four years we had a wide range of experiences, received a comprehensive view of many phases of art, and an understanding of various other fields of learning. You name it—we've had it. Looging back to our freshman year we can give a hearty laugh when we think of the hours spent in the physiology laboratory. Those poor frogs; what we didn't do to them! Then there was the Conference—Arts and Crafts in the Rehabilitation of Veterans, which we held at the Brooklyn Museum. For months we did research work, made charts, gathered material and obtained speakers for our panel. Then came the big day. To our surprise all went well. Looking Glass Land! ' and all the trouble we had about the paper scenery not being fire proof. After all our efforts of painting yards and yards of paper with decorative trees, a sun and a gate, and then we were not able to use it anyway. Remember what happened, though? Our activities in the physics laboratory were enough to continually disrupt the quiet routine of the engineer- ing students and almost drive the engineering instructor out of his mind (had he not been a person endowed with an UNUSUAL amount of patience). If it wasn't the blow- ing of a fuse, it was the crashing of a giant electric bulb. How well we can recall the morning spent in the dark room developing. No more dark rooms for us. The doors are open. The light is beckoning. Beware world, here we come. Art Education of '48 is bound to make its mark. Joan Barbiere Phyllis Blank Jack Bloom Bertram Blumberg Alex Danin Eleanor Diehm Dorothea Gerjovich Zelmira Ondrejcek Martha Sadowsky Betty Toppin