Cooper Hewitt says...
Known primarily for his influential writings on industrial design theory and practice, Egmont Arens was among the individuals who launched the industrial design profession in America during the 1920s and 1930s. His contemporaries included Walter Dorwin Teague, Donald Deskey, Norman Bel Geddes, Russel Wright, and Lurelle Guild.
Like several of his colleagues, Arens segued into the then new field of industrial design from another creative profession. He came from a publications and editorial background but, by 1929, became advertising director of the firm Earnest Elmo Calkins, where he established an industrial design styling department based on what he called “consumer engineering.” In 1932, Arens and Roy Sheldon co authored the book Consumer Engineering: A New Technique for Prosperity, primarily intended for a business and design audience.
Arens’s design work was shown in the 1939 New York World’s Fair and he was one of the 15 design practitioners who founded the Society of Industrial Designers in 1944. Throughout his career, he worked for companies such as General Electric, Fairchild Aircraft, The Carborundum Company, the Dayton Scale Company, Coca-Cola, and the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company (more commonly known as A&P), producing a diverse range of designs including freight cars, airplanes, coffee grinders, refrigerators, candy, graphics, and packaging. Among his best known work is his 1937 Model K stand mixer for the Hobart Manufacturing Company. KitchenAid still manufactures the mixer today, little changed from the original design.
