Have
you ever wondered who designed the toy that you loved as a child, the
vase sitting on your favorite table, or the light fixture glowing in
your living room? Well, it’s very possible that the designer was
Charles Harrison, Kenneth Wingard, or Stephen Burks.
Before
retiring in 1993, Harrison spent 32 years as a product designer at
Sears, Roebuck and Company. He influenced the design of hundreds
of
products ranging from sewing machines to lawnmowers.
 Wingard and Burks
represent a new generation of product designers.
Windgard’s
creations grace stores ranging from Crate and Barrel to
Barney’s of New York. Burks has developed concepts for brands
ranging
from Estee Lauder to Zanotta.
Harrison, Wingard, and Burks are product designers, people who combine
their
imaginative and technical skills to create products that help
shape the world in which we live. Unlike a
craftsperson who is concerned about making one product at a time,
“product designers have to organize their thinking and designs so the
designs can be mass produced,” says Harrison, one of a few trained
Black designers of his generation.
When Sears hired Harrison into its executive ranks in 1961, the company
touted that it “had everything.” However, Sears, then the
world’s
largest retailer, had no Black executives at its Chicago
headquarters.
“They had porters and a couple of guys in the cafeteria and maybe a
stock room guy,” recalls the Army veteran. While at Sears, the
Shreveport, Louisiana native literally shaped many of American
household products.
Many young Americans may not remember when garbage cans were made of
metal. Not only did they rust, but on garbage pick-up day, they
made a
noisy racket in neighborhoods all over the land. It was Harrison
who
designed the first practical plastic garbage container in 1966.
Before Harrison’s design, the sun’s ultraviolet rays quickly destroyed
the plastic containers then in use; therefore, making their use
expensive. Harrison’s design used a plastic molding process that
placed less pressure on the molecules in the plastic; therefore,
allowing the plastic to hold up to outdoor exposure.
As a product designer, Harrison had to think about several factors
including aesthetics, quality, function and cost. For
instance, to
save on shipping cost, he designed the plastic garbage container so
they nest inside each other. If the manufacturer or distributor
shipped the 30-gallon containers separately, only about 30 of them
could fill a truck. However, since they nested together, the same
truck could carry several thousand.
Read the complete
story in the print issue.
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