Streamlining: Functionalism In American Product Design, 1927-1939.

Author

Donald John Bush

Publication Date

7-13-1973

Abstract

Streamlining, a term commonly used to denote methods of increasing efficiency and reducing waste, is identified with the teardrop shape in vehicles and other American product designs of the 1930s. Because streamlining was applied widely and, at times, unwisely, it has been held in low esteem as a design principle. This dissertation attempts to show that streamlining had legitimate beginnings in hydrodynamics and aerodynamics, that it was an extension of the functionalism that informed product design in the 1920s and that it provided a useful and optimistic symbol of the future to a nation deep in an economic depression.

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Art History

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

UNM Department of Art and Art History

First Committee Member (Chair)

Peter Walch

Second Committee Member

Charles Mattox

Third Committee Member

Thomas R. Barrow

Fourth Committee Member

Don Paul Schlegel

Recommended Citation

Bush, Donald John. "Streamlining: Functionalism In American Product Design, 1927-1939.." (1973). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/arth_etds/229