Read Viemeister (1922 – 10 September 1993) 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 ...

. He was the Creative Director for the

Lippincott Lippincott may refer to: Arts and media * ''Lippincott's Monthly Magazine'' a 19th-century literary magazine published in Philadelphia, U.S. * Andy Lippincott, a fictional character in the comic strip ''Doonesbury'' * "Lippincott", a song by Animal ...

team working on the

Tucker Tucker may refer to: Places United States * Tucker, Arkansas * Tucker, Georgia * Tucker, Mississippi * Tucker, Missouri * Tucker, Utah, ghost town * Tucker County, West Virginia Outer space * Tucker (crater), a small lunar impact crater in the s ...

car in 1947, and the founder of Vie Design Studios in

Yellow Springs, Ohio Yellow Springs is a village in Greene County, Ohio, United States. The population was 3,697 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area. It is home to Antioch College. History The area of the village had long b ...

Early life and education

Born in

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

in 1922 Read Viemeister was the son of architect August L. Viemeister and artist Janet Emmons Viemeister. The family later moved to a house his father designed in Roslyn Heights, NY. During the Depression they traveled to

Taos, New Mexico Taos is a town in Taos County in the north-central region of New Mexico in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Initially founded in 1615, it was intermittently occupied until its formal establishment in 1795 by Nuevo México Governor Fernando Cha ...

, as well as the

1939 World's Fair The 1939–40 New York World's Fair was a world's fair held at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, New York, United States. It was the second-most expensive American world's fair of all time, exceeded only by St. Louis's Louisiana Purcha ...

. Later, Viemeister was exempted from military service because of a

Polio Poliomyelitis, commonly shortened to polio, is an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus. Approximately 70% of cases are asymptomatic; mild symptoms which can occur include sore throat and fever; in a proportion of cases more severe s ...

disability. He went on to study at

Pratt Institute Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York (state), New York. It has a satellite campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The school was ...

with many of the founders of the American industrial design education: Donald Dohner, Alexander Kostellow and Rowena Reed Kostellow. Viemeister graduated from Pratt in 1943.

Career

Viemeister began his career as Director of Styling of Dohner and Lippincott (now called Lippincott).

Preston Tucker Preston Thomas Tucker (21 September 1903 – 26 December 1956) was an American automobile entrepreneur. He is most remembered for his Tucker 48 sedan, initially nicknamed the "Tucker Torpedo", an automobile which introduced many features t ...

asked Lippincott to help design his new car, and Viemeister joined the project. As Creative Director for the Lippincott Viemeister led team working on the Tucker car in 1947 He also founded the Department of Industrial Design at the

Dayton Art Institute The Dayton Art Institute (DAI) is a museum of fine arts in Dayton, Ohio, United States. The Dayton Art Institute has been rated one of the top 10 best art museums in the United States for children. The museum also ranks in the top 3% of all art mus ...

in 1949.

Vie Design Studios

In 1946 he married Beverly Lipsett, moved to

and founded Vie Design Studios with Budd Steinhilber. They designed award-winning graphics, products, furniture, exhibits and buildings. Their

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Antioch College Antioch College is a private liberal arts college in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Founded in 1850 by the Christian Connection, the college began operating in 1852 as a non-sectarian institution; politician and education reformer Horace Mann was its f ...

logos and GraLab darkroom timer are still being produced. They designed many more logos including those for

Huffy The Huffy Corporation is a supplier of bicycles with headquarters in Dayton, Ohio, United States. Early history It has its roots in 1887 when George P. Huffman purchased the Davis Sewing Machine Company and in 1890 moved its sewing machine f ...

, American Standard, and NCR. He was most proud of the First Flight mural he created for the Aviation Hall of Fame. The famous picture of the Wright brothers flight transformed into a digital mosaic ceramic tiles using 20 gray-tone values represented with symbols.

Awards

Active in the design field, he was Fellow of the Industrial Design Society of America and Pratt Alumni Achievement Award (1993).

Death

Viemeister died in 1993 of lung cancer at home, in his bed he had designed forty years earlier.

Personal life

Viemeister had 4 children:

, Kris, Heidi and Roslyn Viemeister.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Viemeister, Read 1922 births 1993 deaths American automobile designers People from Baltimore Pratt Institute alumni Deaths from cancer in the United States