An exploration of industrial design in America, using Toledo as a paradigm of the shift from manufacturing based on engineering to production involving design and marketing This book illuminates the widespread implications, ranging from utopian visions to the development of modern advertising and targeted marketing. The essays included in this publication illuminate our understanding of modern America Of interest to collectors and historians of twentieth century design as well as those interested in automobile history, architecture, and urban development The Alliance of Art and Industry: Toledo Designs for a Modern America brings together analyses by prominent scholars of the impact of the industrial designer on America and its cities. A few of the ten essayists include William Porter, retired automobile designer for General Motors, who examines the evolution of the Jeep into the modern SUV. Victoria K. Matranga, independent industrial design consultant, who uses Libby-Owens-Ford to investigate how a company employed design to promote an otherwise indistinguishable commodity. Davira S. Taragin analyzes how one company, Libbey Glass, used the emerging industrial design profession— particularly its few women professionals—to achieve dominance in its market with products aimed at the average consumer. Art, industrial design, and community pride are the key elements in this fascinating exhibition catalog celebrating the Toledo Museum of Art's centennial and the leading role Toledo played in promoting the consumer products it created. This volume is not your typical glitzy coffee-table book but instead a thoughtful and reflective sociological study divided into several chapters and case studies. Each section integrates the striking industrial designs and illustrative examples of an emerging corporate America and highlights Toledo's many design triumphs. The 163 color plates and 54 black-and-white illustrations include the notable and classic designs of nontraditional objects, from the Willys-Overland Jeep automobiles and Maytag washing machines to Libbey Glass glassware, the Toledo Official Athletic Scale, and the DeVilbiss air compressor and perfume atomizer. Also included is a section on biographies of the designers. Highly recommended for collections focusing on decorative arts and industrial design. Stephen Allan Patrick, East Tennessee State Univ. Libs., Johnson City Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. Toledo, Ohio, isn't the city that first comes to mind as a design capital, but, in fact, it was a mecca for industrial designers at the dawn of the twentieth century, thanks to a socially responsible glass manufacturer named Edward Drummond Libbey, who built a factory and founded an art museum. Inspired by a utopian vision of the union of art and industry, Libbey and his colleagues established the influential Toledo Museum School of Design at the heart of a community of cutting-edge designers and manufacturers who produced everything from scales to picture windows, bicycles, glassware, and Jeeps. This lively, well-illustrated volume, which features a roster of engaging contributors, celebrates the Toledo's "pioneering enthusiasm for modern industrial design," a key phase in the evolution of design in America. Donna Seaman Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Used Book in Good Condition