Brooks Stevens, Inc., also known as Brooks Stevens Design Associates and Brooks Stevens Design, is a product development firm headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Brooks Stevens's services included research, industrial design, engineering, prototyping, project management,and graphic design.
 | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Product development |
| Founded | 1934 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin |
| Headquarters | Allenton, Wisconsin |
| Website | www.brooksstevens.com |
History
editBrooks Stevens Design was established by Clifford Brooks Stevens in 1934. In 1954, Brooks Stevens, the founder, popularized the term "planned obsolescence" as a cornerstone to product evolution. The phrase was not intended to refer to building things that deteriorate easily, but to "instilling in the buyer the desire to own something a little newer, a little better, a little sooner. Stevens's philosophies have been said to define the industrial design profession.[1] The firm has designed products from toasters to automobiles and heavy equipment, including the 1949 Twin Cities Hiawatha and Olympian Hiawatha trains with "Skytop Lounge" cars.[2]
In 2007, the founder's son, Kipp Stevens, retired and sold Brooks Stevens to Ingenium Product Development, expanding the company's product coverage and engineering capabilities.[3]
Today, Brooks Stevens designs and engineers both consumer and heavy industrial products.[example needed]
References
edit- ^ Stenquist, Paul (May 13, 2011). "From the Pen of a Giant of Industrial Design". The New York Times. Retrieved 14 March 2012.
- ^ Wisconsin Historical Society. "Brooks Stevens Railroad Car Seat".
- ^ "Brooks Stevens to be acquired". Milwaukee Business Journal. 28 September 2007. Retrieved 12 March 2021.
Further reading
edit- Povletich, Bill. "Brooks Stevens: Designing the American Dream". Wisconsin Magazine of History, vol. 97, no. 1 (Autumn 2013): 38-49.
- Scribbins, Jim (1970). The Hiawatha Story. Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Kalmbach Publishing Company. LCCN 70107874. OCLC 91468.
External links
edit- Industrial designer Brooks Stevens examines the effect of WWII on auto design
- Brooks Stevens archives at the Milwaukee Art Museum
- Old Milwaukee: Brooks Stevens, Wienermobiles, and High Life, from Milwaukee Record
- ^ name="History">History of Brooks Stevens
- ^ Glenn Adamson. Industrial Strength Design: How Brooks Stevens Shaped your World. p. 129.
- ^ Wisconsin Historical Society. "Stevens, Brooks, 1911-1995, Industrial Designer"
- ^ Carroll Gantz. Founders of American Industrial Design. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 2014,p. 157.
- ^ Babette B. Tischleder and Sarah Wasserman (eds.). Cultures of Obsolescence: History, Materiality, and the Digital Age. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015.