12 Facts About Henry Dreyfuss

Henry Dreyfuss was an American industrial designer.

Henry Dreyfuss is known for designing the Western Electric Model 500 telephone, the Westclox Big Ben alarm clock, and the Honeywell T87 Round Thermostat.

Henry Dreyfuss dramatically improved the look, feel, and usability of dozens of consumer products.

Sometimes compared to Raymond Loewy and other contemporaries, Henry Dreyfuss was much more than a stylist; he applied common sense and a scientific approach to design problems, making products more pleasing to the eye and hand, safer to use, and more efficient to manufacture and repair.

Henry Dreyfuss's work helped popularize the role of the industrial designer while contributing significant advances to the fields of ergonomics, anthropometrics and human factors.

In 1929, Henry Dreyfuss opened his own office for theatrical and industrial design.

Henry Dreyfuss's firm met with commercial success, and continued as Henry Dreyfuss Associates for over four decades after his death.

Henry Dreyfuss became a trustee of the California Institute of Technology in 1963.

Henry Dreyfuss was a member of the faculty at the University of California, Los Angeles.

In 1965, Henry Dreyfuss became the first President of the Industrial Designers Society of America.

In 1969, Henry Dreyfuss retired from the firm he founded, but continued serving many of the companies he worked with as board member and consultant.

In 1972 Henry Dreyfuss published The Symbol Sourcebook, An Authoritative Guide to International Graphic Symbols.