Designing People Octogenarian Company Innovates Air Travel and More Around Human Nuances

This article originally appeared in Washington CEO magazine, June 2006, Volume 17, Number 6, pages 50-51. Copyright © 2006 by Washington CEO Inc. All Rights Reserved.This article may not be reproduced by any means without prior permission of the publisher. ANNIVERSARY By Jennifer K. Stuller Designing People Octogenarian company innovates air travel and more around human nuances STEPPING aboard the Boeing 787 Dreamliner is like stepping into calls “convergence products” – products the lobby of a W Hotel. Who knew commercial air travel could be so hip? where technology and life meet. Examples include lightweight, multipur- The possibility of incorporating sophistication into the everyday is some- pose items for the mobile professional, thing industrial designers have always known – it’s the magic of combining such as high-resolution camera phones with built-in zoom capabilities and highly technology with ambiance, design with experience. portable video recorders and projector Along with contemporaries Norman Bel says current Teague President and CEO systems. Teague has received several Geddes and Henry Dreyfuss, Walter John Barratt. The founder had a youthful awards for its modern creations, including Dorwin Teague helped pioneer the field and exuberant approach, and Barratt an iF award, what Barratt calls the “Oscar” of industrial design – a profession dedi- believes “naïveté like his should be at of design awards. cated to producing everyday objects that the heart of a designer’s work.” Reflecting are simple, streamlined and efficient on the company’s rich history, he adds, DREAM WEAVERS through a merging of form and function, “We want to recapture that spirit of lead- Teague’s continuing relationship with often combining new materials with ership.” Boeing also celebrates an anniversary this provocative ideas. The company migrated from New York year. It all started with the Stratocruiser “A better world than we have ever to Seattle in the late 1990s – a move airplane – a post-war project to revolu- known can and will be built,” Teague inspired by their relationship with The tionize passenger air-travel. In 1946, wrote in an article for Popular Mechanics Boeing Co. – and is now located in a Teague was tapped to humanize aircraft in 1940. Belltown studio that houses more than with interior designs that had customer Believing that the design of today had 200 employees. Teague currently does appeal. Teague and Boeing have since the power to create a better tomorrow, consulting work for such internationally spent 60 years developing ideas to make Teague established an office in New York recognized clients as Microsoft Corp., air travel exciting. in 1926. Over the years he designed prod- Panasonic Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co., “There is no other designer-client ucts for the likes of Eastman Kodak Co. Nike Inc. and Samsung Corp. relationship like the Teague-Boeing rela- and Steuben Glass Works, served on the Barratt, who worked for Royal Philips tionship,” says Barratt. design board of the 1939-1940 New York Electronics of Amsterdam until being Ken Dowd, vice president of Teague’s World’s Fair and was appointed as the recruited by Teague in 1999, stepped into Aviation Studio, is a living example of that first president of the Industrial Designers his current position in 2004. As head of relationship. He has made contributions Society of America. His enthusiasm for the company, he strives to stimulate to the transportation industry for more designing aesthetically pleasing, modern growth by thinking globally – but always than 40 years – 30 of which have been at and multipurpose products continues to be with a sense of humor and the belief that Teague. Travel + Leisure magazine recently at the heart of his eponymous corporation’s people matter most. Creating technology named him one of the top 35 innovators current work – though Teague himself died that is relevant to people’s lives is a who have helped make travel “safer, in 1960. never-ending pursuit. sexier, and more streamlined” in the 21st “Teague was all about being a pioneer A company focal point and a nod to its century. COURTESY OF TEAGUE (ABOVE) TEAGUE OF COURTESY and was excited about the work he did,” core values is the production of what it Dowd helped design the interiors for 50 WASHINGTONCEO • JUNE 2006 www.washingtonceo.com DAN LAMONT Teague President and CEO John Barratt, here inside the Boeing 787 interior his company designed, believes in continually renewing the design company with the kind of youthful thinking held 80 years ago by founder Walter Dorwin Teague.The company has since expanded into electronic design such as with the space-age looking terabeam (opposite), which transmits data by laser signal. Boeing’s 747 and 777. With a team of that happens at the 787 mock-up center enthusiastic Dowd. “It’s an incredible engineering, manufacturing, buying and in Tukwila. Boarding the partial, 84-seat piece of technology and a marvelous marketing professionals, he recently plane section, one does breathe a sigh of machine.” developed the forthcoming 787, aka “The relief. The immanent feeling of claus- Five years ago, after a relatively quiet Dreamliner.” The team brought the trophobia felt by some passengers has 75th anniversary celebration, the com- weight of extensive market research to been replaced with the illusion of wide pany is going all out this year. Events bear on what proves to be the heart of the open space. Many of the touches that include a refreshed visual identity, a challenge: What is it that people do – and contribute to an unprecedented comfort large party, a new ad campaign run in ID don’t – like about flying? are subtle, but they have a profound magazine and the publication of a com- “People all over the world were consis- effect on the mind-set and physical memorative book. tently more aware of what they don’t like,” well-being of passengers. Keeping the company aligned with what says Dowd, who acknowledges that mod- For example, LED cabin lights can be it set out to do 80 years ago is one thing. ern travel, especially after 9/11, has gradually lowered and raised, helping to But Barratt further stresses that Teague become a chore. “Around the world the regulate natural circadian rhythms rather has always hired the best talent. This land- state of flying is in a pretty bad place.” The than shocking them. Windows are 50 per- mark 80th anniversary – as well as the team unearthed people’s unarticulated cent larger than the competition, making 60th anniversary of their relationship desires and needs to make travel an exhil- every seat a window seat – even the one in with Boeing – is about celebrating the arating experience again. Their mission the lavatory. achievements of their people. was to make sure that the hassles of the With the Dreamliner, Teague wanted to “As a company,” Barratt says, “all you airport are left behind – and hopefully, fundamentally rethink what an airplane is have is your people.” completely forgotten – upon boarding the and what it does. Its conclusion? Dreamliner. “Airplanes are for people. And the 787 Jennifer K. Stuller is a Seattle-based freelance Customers can get a glimpse of how elicits a response from people,” says an writer. www.washingtonceo.com WASHINGTONCEO • JUNE 2006 51.

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