DREYFUSS, HENRY

born March 2, 1904, New York City died Oct. 5, 1972, South Pasadena, Calif., U.S. U.S. industrial designer noted for the number and variety of his pioneering designs for modern products. At the age of 17 Dreyfuss was designing sets for stage presentations at a Broadway motion-picture theatre. In 1927 a store commissioned him to study its merchandise from the standpoint of attractiveness and to make drawings indicating improvements that the manufacturers could make. He made the study but refused to undertake the design because he felt that the proper way to approach design was to work directly with the manufacturer from the start rather than to try to improve a design after the product had been made. He opened his first industrial design office in 1929. At the same time, he was an active and successful designer of sets for the Broadway theatre. In 1930 he began designing for Bell Telephone Laboratories, an association that resulted in the design of a series of telephones. Other notable designs include the interior of Super G Constellation aircraft for the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation and the interior of the ocean liner Independence. Dreyfuss designs stress the user of the product. He said that when the point of contact between the product and people becomes a point of friction, then the industrial designer has failed. His book The Measure of Man (1960, rev. ed. 1967) contained extensive data on the human body and its movements. His approach to industrial design is described in his book Designing for People (1955, 2nd ed. 1967). From 1963 to 1970 he was associated with the University of California at Los Angeles. On Oct. 5, 1972, Dreyfuss, along with his wife, Doris, died of carbon monoxide poisoning in a car in the garage of their home.