New stamps honor U.S. industrial designers

Faced with dwindling sales after the Great Depression, manufacturers wanted to give their products a modern look that would better appeal to consumers. Enter the industrial designer.

The U.S. Postal Service on Wednesday dedicated a new sheet of forever stamps honoring 12 of the nation's most influential industrial designers - including desk-telephone designer Henry Dreyfuss - whose creations projected the image of progress as the country was recovering from economic turmoil.

Characterized by horizontal lines and rounded shapes, these new, streamlined looks differed completely from the decorative extravagance of the 1920s. And industrial designers helped lower costs by using inexpensive new materials such as plastic, vinyl, chrome, aluminum, and plywood, all of which were good for manufacturing techniques such as molds and stamping.

Each stamp features the name of a designer and an object created by the person. Derry Noyes, whose father, Eliot Noyes, is honored for his typewriter design, was the art director.

The other designers are Peter Müller-Munk, Frederick Hurten Rhead, Raymond Loewy, Donald Deskey, Walter Dorwin Teague, Norman Bel Geddes, Dave Chapman, Greta von Nessen, Russel Wright, and Gilbert Rohde.