Design Master: Chuck Harrison

Continuing with D421’s Black History Month 2010 celebration, today we’re recognizing Charles (Chuck) Harrison and his design contribution to the world.  Chuck who has mentored and taught many designers is well-loved. And you probably know more about him than you think. If you’ve ever played with a View-Master, owned a plastic garbage can, used a sewing machine, there’s a chance that you’ve benefited personally from Chuck’s ingenuity.

Chuck Harrison

Charles Harrison is a designer and educator specializing in industrial design across multiple consumer products areas. The primary portion of his career was spent working for Sears Roebuck & Company, beginning as a freelancer, then as a staff designer and later as the head of the company’s design department. An accomplished designer, Harrison’s work touched almost every area of household products from cribs to tractors and everything in between.

During his career, he executed more than 700 designs, a significant number of which were highly successful in the marketplace. Perhaps most iconic were Harrison’s redesign of the View-Master in 1958 and the first-of-its-kind plastic garbage can designed in 1963.

The View-Master quickly became a worldwide success as a toy and his design sold with only minor color changes for over 40 years. It could be found in almost every U.S. household and throughout the world. Similarly, Harrison’s design of the polypropylene garbage can in 1963 remains resonant today. The cans were developed during a unique period within plastics manufacturing, affording Harrison the opportunity to adapt an old standard into a new execution. His subsequent reworking of the can to a rectangular form with wheels is the foundational design for contemporary refuse containers that line the alleys and streets of urban and suburban America.

Harrison is the 2008 National Design Award recipient for Lifetime Achievement. He also has received awards from the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA), Executive Leadership Council and HistoryMakers, among many others, and in 2009, he received an honorary doctorate from the School of the Art Institute. Harrison received significant mention in the Encyclopedia of Chicago and has been profiled in by national news media including The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Ebony Magazine, WGN-TV, The Crisis Magazine and the Tavis Smiley Radio Show.

Throughout his prolific career, Charles focused on developing relevant, useful products to solve, rather than create problems for consumers. He continues to build his legacy as a speaker on the topics of design inclusion and education and as an educator at Columbia College Chicago and The School of the Art Institute where, leveraging his extensive industry contacts, he helps prepare young designers for entry into the profession.

Chuck’s work is chronicled in his memoir A Life’s Design: The Life and Work of Industrial Designer.

Now, let’s talk . . . In the comments below, tell us:

• What personal experiences you have with Chuck’s products?
• Have you read his book? If so, were you as inspired as we were?
  
• What other design masters would you like to see profiled here this month and in the future?