The Alliance of Art And Industry: Toledo Designs for a Modern America

• 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.