Jay Doblin was an American industrial design

Industrial design

Industrial design is the use of a combination of applied art and applied science to improve the aesthetics, ergonomics, and usability of a product, but it may also be used to improve the product's marketability and production...

er, best known for his contribution to the field of design in particular his work related to systems thinking, design methods

Design methods

Design Methods is a broad area that focuses on:* Divergence – Exploring possibilities and constraints of inherited situations by applying critical thinking through qualitative and quantitative research methods to create new understanding toward better design solutions* Transformation – Redefining...

 and design theory in general. Throughout his professional career Doblin worked with some of the most important design firms of their time including Raymond Loewy

Raymond Loewy

Raymond Loewy was an industrial designer, and the first to be featured on the cover of Time Magazine, on October 31, 1949. Born in France, he spent most of his professional career in the United States...

 Associates, Lippincott

Lippincott

Lippincott is a consulting firm that primarily deals with brand strategy and the development of corporate identities. The firm was founded in 1943 by J. Gordon Lippincott and Walter P. Margulies as Lippincott & Margulies....

 & Margulies, and Unimark International

Unimark International

Unimark International was an American design firm founded in Chicago, Illinois in 1964 by seven designers: Ralph Eckerstrom, Massimo Vignelli, James Fogelman, Wally Gutches, Larry Klein, Robert Moldafsky and Bob Noorda. Unimark filed for final Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1977, and no longer exists...

, which he founded together with Massimo Vignelli

Massimo Vignelli

Massimo Vignelli is a designer who has done work in a number of areas ranging from package design to furniture design to public signage to showroom design through Vignelli Associates, which he co-founded with his wife, Lella...

 and Bob Noorda

Bob Noorda

Bob Noorda was a Dutch-born graphic designer who lived and worked primarily in Milan from 1954 to his death in 2010...

 .
Between 1955 and 1969, he served as director of the IIT Institute of Design

IIT Institute of Design

Institute of Design at Illinois Institute of Technology , originally founded as the New Bauhaus, is a graduate school teaching systemic, human-centered design.- History :...

, a design school founded in 1937 in Chicago by László Moholy-Nagy

László Moholy-Nagy

László Moholy-Nagy was a Hungarian painter and photographer as well as professor in the Bauhaus school. He was highly influenced by constructivism and a strong advocate of the integration of technology and industry into the arts.-Early life:...

, a former Bauhaus

Bauhaus

', commonly known simply as Bauhaus, was a school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught. It operated from 1919 to 1933. At that time the German term stood for "School of Building".The Bauhaus school was founded by...

 teacher. After his departure, he stayed involved with school as a professor. In 2004, Jay Doblin was awarded the medal of the AIGA

Aiga

‘Aiga is a word in the Samoan language which means 'family.' The aiga is the family unit of Samoan society and differs from the Western sense in that it consists more than just a mother, father and children. The Samoan family, also referred to as an 'extended family' is based on the culture's...

.

Writings

• "One Hundred Great Product Designs" by Jay Doblin. Van Nost. Reinhold (1970)
• "Perspective: A new system for designers" by Jay Doblin. Whitney Library of Design (1970)
• "A short grandiose theory of design" by Jay Doblin. Article published in the 1987 Society of Typographic Arts Design Journal
• "Chicago Bauhaus: Past, Present and Future" by Jay Doblin. Speech given at a symposium honoring the 25th anniversary of the Institute of Design's merger with Illinois Institute of Technology
  Illinois Institute of Technology
  Illinois Institute of Technology, commonly called Illinois Tech or IIT, is a private Ph.D.-granting university located in Chicago, Illinois, with programs in engineering, science, psychology, architecture, business, communications, industrial technology, information technology, design, and law...
  
  in 1974.
• "What designers do" by Jay Doblin. Designer (June 1980)
• "Discrimination: The special skills required for seeing, and the curious structure of judgement" by Jay Doblin. Design Processes Newsletter, Vol. 2, No.4, Institute of Design, Illinois Institute ofTechnology, Chicago, IL, U.S.A. (1987)
• "Trademark Design" by Jay Doblin. Article published for issue #2 of Dot Zero magazine (1966)
• "Mass Media: the Stimulation System" by Jay Doblin. Article published for issue #3 of Dot Zero magazine (spring 1967)
• "The position of crafts in America today" by Jay Doblin. Paper for the National Conference of American Craftsmen's Council (1957)
• "DesMod (Design Model)" by Jay Doblin. Unpublished Design Theory Lecture Handout: Institute of Design Illinois Institute of Technology (1984)
• "Volume Retailing in Britain. Does it undermine quality in the design and manufacture of home-produced consumer goods?" by Jay Doblin. RSA Journal Volume 128 (1979)

Quotes

• "A product is frozen information"
• "The reason to have a design firm is to have lunch every day with interesting people"
• "Ignorance this monumental is difficult to overcome" (when speaking about how people mixed their understanding of different disciplines of design)

External links

• Jay Doblin AIGA profile