Walter Dorwin Teague

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About Walter Dorwin Teague

This group is all about the American Modernist and industrial designer Walter Dorwin Teague. Teague was born in Decatur, Indiana on December 18, 1883. In 1903 Teague set off for New York City where he attended the Art Students League 1903-07. In 1911 he started his own design firm gaining notoreity for his typographic designs and for what came later to be known as "Teague borders." In 1923 he designed the format for the cover of Time Magazine. After a trip to Europe in the middle 1920s and inspired by the Bauhaus designs of Walter Gropius, Teague returned to the USA and started what is believed to be the first industrial design firm in America. Teague was retained by Kodak in 1928 to assist in revamping and designing cameras, packaging and advertising. Teague remained a design consultant for Kodak until his death December 5, 1960. Teague also played a role in the design of the early Polaroid Land cameras, his name appearing as co-designer on several early design patents. Teague was prolific, his other design credits include designs for Boeing, AB Dick, DuPont, the Ford Motor Company, National Cash Register, Texaco and US Steel. He also designed cigarette lighters, radios, Scripto pens, a piano for Steinway, and interiors for the new Air Force Academy being built at Colorado Springs, Colorado. He also designed pavilions and exhibits for the Century of Progress World's Fair in Chicago in 1933-34, the California Pacific International Exposition in San Diego (1935), the Texas Centennial in Dallas (1936) and the New York World's Fair in 1939-40 among others.