Welcome to Industrial Design

In my eyes, the two readings were very similar in all but one way: their main focus. Yes, this may sound contradictory… But, both pieces take a casual tone (admittedly, Black People Made America is a bit more relaxed in its language, but neither feels like you’re reading a textbook on industrial design). Both pieces introduce significant innovators and designers along with a small paragraph covering their most notable achievements. Both pieces cover a wide berth of information — neither focuses on only one extremely important design or product or person. Both pieces expect a minimal amount of background knowledge from the reader; all jargon is explained, names accompanied with descriptions of work, Understanding Industrial Design even included pictures.

However, despite their apparent similarities, the pieces do differ. Understanding Industrial Design focuses on common names, designers noted over and over again such as the Eames’s. The goal of this piece is to give a brief overview of the history of Industrial design — they trace it from the design on pencil sharpeners to smart watches. This piece does not seem to take any strong stance on the information it provides, whereas Black People Made America’s main goal lies within its stance. Black People Made America attempts to make known the countless numbers of forgotten black inventors and designers. Unlike the first piece, which associates well-known names with their most notable works, this piece associates unknown names with famous works. Although both pieces consist of similar structures, their content and goals vary greatly. Does the fact that the first piece omits so many of the inventors mentioned in the second say something about how frequently black names are erased in history? How different would the first piece look like if it included more of the inventors from the second?

I read the first article before the second so perhaps my analysis of it was inherently biased. It is difficult to know if the authors were biased in which inventors they decided to include and omit. My guess if the perpetuation of emphasis on white designers and creators gives us no choice but to think of them as the most notable. We see a similar situation when it comes to male and female designers (perfect example — Charles and Ray Eames (for much of their careers)). It would be fascinating to see and historical overview, like Understanding Industrial Design, but including all significant inventors, no matter their gender or skin color.