A Life’s Design: The Life And Work of Industrial Designer Charles Harrison

The Viewmaster. The portable hair dryer. The riding lawn mower. The see-through measuring cup. The first garbage can that didn’t dent, break or go clang in the night.These and countless other icons of Americana unobtrusively yet radically reshaped the contours of 20th Century life—millions can say they have one of these or fondly remember one of those. Yet few if any can say that they knew that the genius behind these and those originated from one prolific a dyslexic kid from rural Louisiana.A Life’s Design (Ibis 2006, 125 pp) chronicles the life, career and the emergent philosophy of Charles “Chuck” Harrison, one the most prolific and respected industrial designers of his time, an influencer on style and design today, and a pioneer as the first African American executive ever hired by Sears Roebuck & Company.Designs by Chuck Harrison not only reflected our changing lives, they often drove the transformation itself that took place in the American home and workplace during the era following World War II through the mid-1980s.