Donald Sidney Deskey (November 23, 1894 – April 29, 1989) was an American

industrial designer Industrial design is a process of design applied to physical products that are to be manufactured by mass production. It is the creative act of determining and defining a product's form and features, which takes place in advance of the manufactur ...

Biography

Donald Sidney Deskey was born in

Blue Earth, Minnesota Blue Earth is a city in Faribault County, Minnesota, United States, at the confluence of the east and west branches of the Blue Earth River. The population was 3,174 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Faribault County. It is home t ...

. He studied architecture at the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...

, but did not follow that profession, becoming instead an artist and a pioneer in the field of

Industrial design Industrial design is a process of design applied to physical Product (business), products that are to be manufactured by mass production. It is the creative act of determining and defining a product's form and features, which takes place in advan ...

. He attended the 1925

Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes The International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts (french: Exposition internationale des arts décoratifs et industriels modernes) was a World's fair held in Paris, France, from April to October 1925. It was designed by the Fren ...

in Paris, which influenced his approach to design. He went on to establish a design consulting firm in New York City and later the firm of Deskey-Vollmer (in partnership with

Phillip Vollmer Philip, also Phillip, is a male given name, derived from the Greek (''Philippos'', lit. "horse-loving" or "fond of horses"), from a compound of (''philos'', "dear", "loved", "loving") and (''hippos'', "horse"). Prominent Philips who popularize ...

), which specialized in furniture and textile design. His designs in this era progressed from

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

Streamline Moderne Streamline Moderne is an international style of Art Deco architecture and design that emerged in the 1930s. Inspired by aerodynamic design, it emphasized curving forms, long horizontal lines, and sometimes nautical elements. In industrial design ...

Deskey first gained attention as a designer with his window displays for the Franklin Simon Department Store in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

in 1926. In the 1930s, he won the competition to design

Radio City Music Hall Radio City Music Hall is an entertainment venue and Theater (structure), theater at 1260 Sixth Avenue (Manhattan), Avenue of the Americas, within Rockefeller Center, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Nicknamed "The Showplac ...

's interiors. He also sold geometrically painted objects through the fashionable shop of

Rena Rosenthal Rena Rosenthal (1880–1966) was a trend-setting American retailer and businesswoman. Known principally for her exclusive Madison Avenue retail shop in New York City, she was an influential arbiter of taste and fashion in the interior decoratin ...

, and did custom design work for her. In the 1940s, he started the graphic design firm

Donald Deskey Associates Donald is a masculine given name derived from the Gaelic name ''Dòmhnall''.. This comes from the Proto-Celtic *''Dumno-ualos'' ("world-ruler" or "world-wielder"). The final -''d'' in ''Donald'' is partly derived from a misinterpretation of the ...

and made some of the most recognizable icons of the day, including the

Crest toothpaste Crest is an American brand of toothpaste and other oral hygiene products made by American multinational Procter & Gamble (P&G) and sold worldwide. In many countries in Europe, such as Germany, Bulgaria, Serbia, Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, Poland, ...

packaging, the

Tide Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravity, gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another. Tide t ...

bullseye, as well as a widely used New York City lamppost model. In 1940, Deskey developed a decorative form of

plywood Plywood is a material manufactured from thin layers or "plies" of wood veneer that are glued together with adjacent layers having their wood grain rotated up to 90 degrees to one another. It is an engineered wood from the family of manufactured ...

, which had a unique striated, or combed, look. Produced under the name Weldtex, it became very popular in the 1950s. His company is still in operation in

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

. A collection of his work is held by the

Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum is a design museum housed within the Andrew Carnegie Mansion in Manhattan, New York City, along the Upper East Side's Museum Mile (New York City), Museum Mile. It is one of 19 museums that fall under the ...

. He died in

Vero Beach Vero Beach is a city in and the seat of Indian River County, Florida, United States. Vero Beach is the second most populous city in Indian River County. Abundant in beaches and wildlife, Vero Beach is located on Florida's Treasure Coast. It is thi ...

, Florida, the town to which he had retired in 1975. In 1923, Deskey married Mary Campbell Douthett, a pianist and later professor of music at

Juniata College Juniata College is a private liberal arts college in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1876 as a co-educational school, it was the first college started by members of the Church of the Brethren as a center for vocational learning for those wh ...

. They had two sons, Michael Douthett Deskey, an architect, and Donald Stephen ("Steve" or D. Stephen) Deskey, a building contractor. In 1952, Deskey married Katharine Godfrey Brennan, who survived him.

References

External links

Donald Deskey at IDSADonald Deskey at The American Artists Bluebook
{{DEFAULTSORT:Deskey, Donald 1894 births 1989 deaths American industrial designers Streamline Moderne architects People from Blue Earth, Minnesota