Biography
Brook Stevens
Born 1911 in Milwaukee, WI
Died 1995 in Milwaukee, WI
As one of the fifteen charter members of the Society of Industrial Designers, Brooks Stevens’ ability to visualize future trends for functional items with style guided his career for 60 years. Today many of his designs are products and fixtures that the modern world takes for granted in every day life.
Stricken with polio at a young age, Stevens was encouraged by his father to draw and build models while bedridden, likely laying the foundation for his prominent career in industrial design. Later, he studied architecture at Cornell University and briefly worked as a package designer before starting his own design firm in 1934.
Stevens coined the term “planned obsolescence,” which he defined as “the desire to own something a little newer, a little better, a little sooner than is necessary.” Based in Milwaukee, his firm earned international recognition while creating thousands of product designs including Studebaker and Excalibur automobiles, Harley-Davidson motorcycles, Hiawatha and Olympian trains, the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile, Briggs & Stratton “Vanguard” gasoline engines, outboard motors, home appliances, and logos and packaging to create “corporate identities” for companies such as 3M, Miller Brewing and Allen Bradley.
A strong advocate of design education, Stevens lectured at the Layton School of Art, and later at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design (MIAD). The Brooks Stevens chair of Industrial Design was established there in 1983 and the Brooks Stevens Center, a display space, was created when the new MIAD facility was finished in 1992. Stevens continued to teach industrial design until his death in 1995. After his death his son, Kipp Stevens continued to run “Brooks Stevens Design” with offices in Milwaukee and Chicago.
Selected Exhibitions:
1950 Industrial Design Exhibit, Milwaukee Art Institute, WI
1975 Wisconsin Directions, Milwaukee Art Center, WI
1985 Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, WI (One-person)
1991 Brooks Stevens: Designs in Motion, Madison Art Center, Madison, WI
1991 Styled to Sell: The Industrial Designs of Brooks Stevens, State Historical Museum of Wisconsin, Madison, WI
2003 Industrial Strength Design: How Brooks Stevens Shaped Your World, Milwaukee Art Museum, WI
Brooks Stevens continued:
Selected Publications:
Auer, James “He Adds Style to Daily Life.” Milwaukee Journal, September 24, 1979
Auer, James “Stylish Hiawatha was Queen of the Road.” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, June 20, 2003
Adamson, Glen Industrial Strength Design: How Brooks Stevens Shaped Your World, MIT Press, 2003
© 11/10/2005 Museum of Wisconsin Art, West Bend, Wisconsin 6/3/2010