Design History Society

Design Education and Industry: The Laborious Beginnings of the Institute of Design in
Chicago in 1944
Author(s): Alain Findeli and Charlotte Benton
Source: Journal of Design History, Vol. 4, No. 2 (1991), pp. 97-113
Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of Design History Society
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Alain Findeli
Design Education and
Laborious Beginnings of
Design in Chicago in
Methodological Preamble
If one were to believe a number of historians of
industrial design, one would be led to conclude that
the period of industrialization of Western societies is
already over. That it is common for people today to
speak freely of 'post-industrial' society would appear
to support this view. One can characterize such a
unidirectional view as a geological history, in the
sense that it leads us to consider historical pheno-
mena as the result of a process of sedimentation in
which the still active surface layers are transformed
over time into strata which become progressively
more inert, congealed, fossilized, dead. It is these last
which are then surrendered to the work of the
historian.
To this physicalist version of history, in which the
influence of the positivist-materialist paradigm is
manifest, certain authors oppose a more lively,
comprehensive and imaginative interpretation of the
succession of human events. To borrow the termino-
logy of Goethe, one of the first moderns to have
offered us epistemological reflections of this kind,
the discipline of history should consist in grasping
the primeval phenomenon ('Urphanomen') and of
examining its successive metamorphoses over the
course of time. The privileged tool of historians in
this case is no longer simply that of analysis, but
analogy. Such a morphogenetic vision then invites
us to see history not as a straight line but as a pulsa-
tion. More precisely, and to borrow an image which
Goethe liked to use towards the end of his life, the
dynamic form of history would derive from the
combination of a linear (or masculine) movement
and a circular (or feminine) one and would thus
result in a spiral movement.1
These methodological considerations seem to me
to be particularly rich for the historian of industrial
design, if only for their pedagogic interest. Since it is
the living aspect of phenomena which is significant,
Journalof Design HistoryVol.4 No. 2 ? 1991 TheDesignHistorySociety0952-4649/90 $3.00
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Industry: the
the Institute of
1944
from now on the historian will be led to seize them
at the point at which they reveal themselves most
clearly-that is, in the course of their metamorphosis
or genesis. From this perspective it is entirely
possible even today to observe the phenomenon of
industrialization in areas which have hitherto been
relatively well preserved from it: food, medical care,
culture, law, and of course teaching. The interest of
such an observation is that it allows us to grasp the
various consequences of industrialization in action.
Edgar Morin would say that it reveals to us the
whole complexity of the industrial system. It is thus
that questions as fundamental for the theory of
design as: the determinism of the process of produc-
tion on form, the relationship between form and
function, the losses and gains of meaning and quality
in relation to the rationalizationand multiplication of
production, the growing influence of economic
factors, the mediatizationof aesthetics and ethics, the
levelling of values and tastes, all these questions
then-and many others besides-which are already
part of the history of industrial design, confront us
directly and daily in sectors other than those of
material production, and invite us to adopt an
approach to its history which is both more pheno-
menological and more comprehensive (in the sense
of Max Weber).
If I have departed from the subject indicated in the
title of my article it is the better to return to it, for if
there is an area which is currently undergoing
change under the pressure of industrialism, it is
certainly that of university teaching. The growing
number of students wanting to pursue university
courses (the student population is expected to
double within ten years) puts the establishment
under pressure to abandon craft methods in order to
satisfy demand. The urgency is the greater since the
economic difficulties of universities are extremely
worrying. One of the remedies being proposed is to
persuade institutions to establish links with industry
97
so that they can benefit, when the occasion arises,
from its economic dynamic. We shall see, in the
remainderof this article, how Moholy-Nagy resolved
to accept such a solution to save his school in 1944.
But we can see already that when one addresses the
relationship between teaching and industry, one
cannot avoid the question of the metamorphosis
which teaching (and, more marginally, industry)
undergoes through this contact. One is thus lead to
speak of teaching as industry.
One may easily understand that this termino-
logical nuance in effect denotes the displacement of
the question from the strictly economic plane
towards the pedagogical and axiological planes, that
is to say to the level of ethics. In simple terms the
question can be formulated thus: 'Is the adoption, by
the university, of methods of management borrowed
from industrial organization carried out at the
expense of its social mission?'2 This is how Sibyl
Moholy-Nagy, in the romanticized biography of her
husband replied to this question:
The whole dilemma of endowed education centered
aroundthe simplefactthata schoolis not a business,that
it operates according to different psychological and
economiclaws.3
Moholy-Nagy himself was much more cynical:
How often have I been told by the Boardthat I have to
makeup my mindwhetherI want to headmy own peanut
affair or an institution that counts. What a strange
insecuritythat measures the importanceof an idea in
squarefeet or occupiedfloor space, and the numberof
personnel..4
and even bitter:
Ourcurriculumdoesn'tfit into the competitivemoodof an
approachingpostwarboom,becausewe refuseto promise
a two-semestertrainingfor a bread-winningjob ... I shall
keep on considering the process of education more
importantthan the finishedresult.5
The phenomenon which the present article reports
is not unique. One finds it at Dessau in 1928, provok-
ing Walter Gropius's resignation from the Bauhaus,
followed by Marcel Breuer,Herbert Bayer and Laszlo
Moholy-Nagy. One rediscovers it at Chicago in 1955
where, after Serge Chermayeff's departure from the
Institute of Design in 1951 and Jay Doblin's appoint-
ment as director in 1955, a large part of the teaching
staff resigned. And one finds it again at Ulm where
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the Hochschule fur Gestaltung ended up by closing
its doors in 1968. And it can probably be found, most
often in embryonic form, in all schools of industrial
design.6 The conclusion of this article attempts an
outline interpretationof this phenomenon. But let us
see now how, after seven years of efforts, Walter
Paepcke, the president of the Container Corporation
of America, and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, the 'experi-
menter in totality', founded the Institute of Design in
Chicago in 1944.
The New Bauhaus: a False Start (1937-8)
It was on 23 May 1937, when he had been working in
London for two years as a designer (publicity, photo-
graphy, window-dressing, exhibitions), that
Moholy-Nagy received the telegram inviting him to
go to Chicago to found a new school of industrial
design modelled 'on Bauhaus lines'. In fact, the
invitation from Norma Stahle, director of the
Chicago Association of Arts and Industries, had
been sent in the first place to Walter Gropius.
Gropius, who had just accepted a post at Harvard
University, declined the invitation and strongly
recommended his former colleague Moholy-Nagy:
'the best man [you] can get ... endowed with that
rare creative power which stimulates the students.'7
Thus Gropius paid homage to the friend who had
previously supported him at the Bauhaus, despite all
the adversities. Without hesitation Moholy-Nagy
telegraphed Mrs Stahle to announce his imminent
arrival and, the same day, he wrote to Gropius to
thank him. In his letter Moholy-Nagy pronounced
himself tired of England, enthused about the
prospect of 'being able, after all these trivialities, to
produce something positive again', and expressed
his confidence in the 'universal validity of the
teaching principles of the Bauhaus', and the 'possib-
ilty of adapting them in America'.8
If the programme which Moholy-Nagy outlined to
Gropius effectively followed that of 1919-an
obligatory Vorkurs, followed by three years in a
specialized workshop, according to choice-the
course contents were brought up to date. Science
courses (physical and life sciences, social science)
and music and poetry were added to the traditional
artistic and technical components of the Vorkurs,and
the specialized workshops were oriented towards
professional practice (industrial design, graphic
Alain Findeli
design, photography and film, industrialized build-
ing), rather than-as previously at the Bauhaus-
based on a material (stone, wood, metal, textiles,
etc.).
The 'New Bauhaus: American School of Design'
was officially inaugurated on 9 November 1937,
three weeks after the courses had begun [1]. In his
opening speech, entitled 'Educationtowards creative
design', Walter Gropius denied ever having extolled
rationalism and functionalism, affirming the pre-
eminence of the 'how' over the 'what' in his
aesthetics and his pedagogy.9 Summing up, for his
American audience, the founding principles of the
Bauhaus, he gave his entire support to his friend's
project.
A vast exchange of correspondence between the
two friends during this first year bears witness to the
difficulties encountered in the implementation of the
programme. Several contradictory testimonies con-
firm this. The problems were caused not only by the
students but by some members of the teaching
faculty. The situation became sufficiently grave at
one stage for Moholy-Nagy to ask Gropius to come
to Chicago to calm things down and to reassure the
administration. After his visit (in June 1938), every-
thing seemed to be resolved and active preparations
were made for the opening of the specialized work-
shops the following year. 'In September' wrote
Moholy-Nagy, 'we expect the arrival of athletes':
Jacques Helion (colour), Herbert Bayer (light),
Alexander Archipenko (sculpture), Xanti Schawin-
sky (stage design), Marli Ehrmann (textiles), George
Fred Keck (architecture). Other teachers were or
0
0
0 -
DesignEducationand Industry
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would be envisaged: Siegfried Giedion, Frank Lloyd
Wright, James Johnson Sweeney, Alexander Calder,
Fernand Leger, Igor Stravinsky, John Cage, Johannes
Molzahn, Roberto Matta, Max Bill, and Piet Mon-
drian (the latter wrote to offer his services!).10
Unfortunately this enthusiasm was short-lived,
because on 11 August 1938 a letter from Elkan
Powell, the President of the Association, informed
Moholy-Nagy and his team that it would be
impossible to reopen the school in September. The
alleged reason for this was that the Association had
lost all its money in a financial crash; but the sub-
sequent history which, according to Gyorgy Kepes,
unfolded in 'the purest Chicago style', indicated that
economic reasons were merely the pretext for more
profound motives. This can be interpreted, cynically,
in the concise formulation of one of the present
teachers at the Institute of Design: 'What Moholy
was selling and what Chicago was buying were two
very different products.'1 Despite the law-suit
initiated by Moholy-Nagy against the Association,12
despite the letter of support from the teachers
drafted by Charles Morris,13and despite Gropius's
efforts to keep the New Bauhaus going, the doors of
the Marshall Field mansion on Prairie Avenue, in
which the American Bauhaus had installed itself,
remained closed.
The School of Design and the Crossing of the
Desert (1939-44)
It was to underestimate Moholy-Nagy's resources
for the story to end there. In spite of the difficulties
i Signet of the New Bauhaus, 1939
99
of adaptation the first year had convinced him that
the Bauhaus idea could, and should, take root in
America. Without waiting for the outcome of the
law-suit and the possible financial compensation
which he anticipated, he decided to reopen the
school on his own account, with the support of his
colleagues, his wife and some enlightened industrial-
ists. The 'School of Design' opened its doors on the
22 February 1939, offering day and evening courses
(with 42 enrolled students) in a 1,700 m2 loft situated
in the centre of Chicago. The school was sponsored
by such prestigious names as Alfred Barr,Director of
the New York Museum of Modern Art, John Dewey,
Julian Huxley and, of course, Walter Gropius [2-3].
Rather than being divided into sections and
structured on the basis of a precise curriculum, the
School of Design became a large communal studio, a
sort of industrious hive, in which the availability of
unsalaried teachers and the spirit of initiative of
students avid for initiation into modern art, archi-
tecture and design constituted the principal resource.
*': ' . ;;.. j. : BO
2 Cl e c. e f a o .. ... b ..
2 Catalogue cover after a photograph by Gy6rgy Kepes, 1940
100
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Here is how Moholy-Nagy welcomed the new
students at the beginning of the term:
At this pointwe canconfessthatthis schoolis actuallynot
a schoolat all in the usualway of the schoolinterpretation.
Indeed we like to see this place as an experimental
collective.On the first phase of the education,it is an
experimentationtoward the complete discovery of the
individualhimself in his full capacity[crossedout: as a
psychophysicalexistence]with his receptiveand creative
abilitiesto take and give, to comprehendand express.In
the later phase it will be an experimentationtoward
specifictasksconcerningthe needs of the community,the
justificationof mass productionproblems.14
But the economic circumstances of the School
remained precarious. The number of day students
was very low, which limited the fee income; on the
other hand the evening courses were well-
subscribed, principally by commercial artists. These
meagre funds were made up by a grant from the
Carnegie Foundation and subsequently from the
Rockefeller Foundation. The honoraria obtained by
the teachers as a result of commercial contracts were
immediately reinvested in the School. Finally, Walter
Paepcke, the President of the Container Corporation
of America, discovering the commercial value of a
carefully constructed corporate identity, showed his
interest in Moholy-Nagy's project and began a policy
of patronage which would last until the end.'5
There were other setbacks in addition to the
financial difficulties: Roosevelt's proclamation of a
state of national emergency from the Autumn of
1940, followed by the entry of the United States into
the war in December 1941, deprived the School of
... many of its teachers and students who were called to
employ their technical and artistic skills in the army.
In addition, numerous materials-metal, rubber,
paper, plastics-which were essential to the func-
tioning of the workshops were rationed.16 But
s'
i...... ..... .
Moholy-Nagy, typically, was quick to turn the situa-
tion to his advantage by offering to put the expertise
and laboratories of the School at the disposal of the
Secretary of Defence. In January 1942 he obtained a
half-hour audience with President Roosevelt and in
the Autumn of that year, the boss of the Army
Education Service granted him the accreditation he
had requested.17 The School would give, amongst
others, a course on camouflage, train instructors in
visual communication [4-5], and organize a group of
rehabilitation courses-based on the therapeutic
Alain Findeli
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 American School of Design
foundedby the
ASSOCIATIONof ARTSand INDUSTRIES
1905 PrairieAvenue
Chicago, Illinois
Telephone VICtory 2500

Sponsors' Committee
William Bachrach
ChJ.rman. Coni. on Education. Chic.go Assn. of Commerco
Alfred H. Birr, Jr.
?chXi aa iJ / Diroctr,.Mu.;eunr . New YorkCity
of Moder Art.
/
U (New York City
Walter Gropius
Chairnman,Dept. of Architecture, Harvard University
Joseph Hudnut
Dean of Graduate School of Design, Harvard University
Julian Huxloy
Secrotary, Lor;don Zoological Society
W. W. Norton
President, W. W. Ilort-n & Co., Inc., New York City
Director
L. Moholy-Nagy

Board olf Directors

I N. Walter P. Paepcke., Chkairunniof the Board of Directors
W\J1 U U UUJn U] L1 ( President, Container Corporation of America
Maurice H. Needham. Vice Chairman
Prusident, Needham. Louis Jnd brorby. Inc.
.Guy E. Reed, Vice Chairman
/Ie/t CC Cf0 Vice President, Harris Trust & Savings Bank
L. Moholy-Nougy
President. Instituteof Design
William A. Patterson
President, United Airlines
E. P. Brooks
Vice President, Seoas Roebuck & Company
Bertroa I. Cuhn
President, B. Kupponheniner& Company, Inc.
Charles M. Hines
President, Edwurd Hines LumlberCompany
Leverett S. Lyon
Chief Executive Olticer. Chicago Associatiun ol Comiimurcu
Willinm S. Streot
Vi.o President, Marshall Field & Conim,dny

3 Letterheads of the New Bauhaus (1937-8), the School of Design (1939-44), and the Institute of Design (1944-6)

characteristics of the preliminary course-for war
wounded. Besides this, the product design workshop
obtained royalties, from a Chicago firm, for the
development of several principles of wooden springs
which were intended to counter the effects of the
rationing of steel.'8
Still in 1942 a moving ceremony took place at the
School: the graduation of the first five diplomates.
On this occasion the light workshop made a colour
film illustrating the work of the workshops and
Moholy-Nagy gave a speech whose seriousness
reflected the country's political situation and the
financial insecurity of the School, and in which he
re-emphasized the importance of its pedagogical
task:
Design Educationand Industry
Since the outbreak of the war, students and faculty have
been confronted with queries as to whether our work is not
a luxury in times of strife ... It is a great privilege to be
allowed the exercise of one's skill and ambition in times of
war when millions die and additional millions barely
survive. But it is a privilege granted to you by society, an
investment made for the future benefit of man ... Demo-
cracy is based upon an exchange of equivalents. It is the
obligation of those who were permitted to develop their
finest capabilities to exchange one day their creative skill
for the productive and harmonious existence of a new
generation.9
We find in this speech, in summary, the essential
components of Moholy-Nagy's artistic aesthetic and
ethical credo. To the desperate cry of Holderlin,
101

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 his confidence Moholy-Nagy sometimes lacked faith
without, however, ever thinking of giving up [6]. 'I
need your and other people's appreciation in my

CARE= desert', he confided in a letter sent to his wife during

one of his numerous circuits around the country. The
departure, during this period of two of his most

IA

....... . ..... . .. ..

SAVES WEAR
4 Poster project by the student Richard Filipowski, light work-
shop, 1943; awarded a prize in Chicago

.?0
'Wozu Dichter in diirftiger Zeit?' (What use are poets
in distressed times?), Moholy-Nagy retorted that the
usefulness and true success of the artist's work is
measured by the moral and intellectual influence
which it exerts 'not in a lifetime, but in the lifetime of
5 Poster project by Richard Filipowski, light workshop, 1943;
generations'.20 awarded a prize in New York
Events obliged Moholy-Nagy, largely for financial
reasons, to be opportunistic in reorganizing his
priorities. In practice the School neglected the
regular daytime programme because few students
were enrolled (around 20 on average, spread through 6 Moholy-Nagy in his office

four years) and became a sort of lender of services,

offering a striking number of courses in the most
varied of disciplines, run by guest lecturers. It was
really reluctantly that Moholy-Nagy for a time
abandoned his original ambitious programme which
was to structure the School around six workshops
dominated by the architecturestudio. However these
numerous concessions to demand and to the market-
place provided the oxygen balloon which was
necessary for the survival of the School during this
long 'desert crossing'. Despite his determination and 6 Moholy-Nagy in his office, School of Design

102 Alain Findeli

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 faithful and valued colleagues, Bob Wolff and
Gy6rgy Kepes, could only add to the burden.
For his part, Walter Paepcke had decided that his
friend Moholy-Nagy's project should survive come
what may. To this end he made efforts in various
directions, with varying success. To begin with he
tried to find the School a host institution-the
University of Chicago, Illinois Institute of Techno-
logy, Northwestern University-but in vain, at least
temporarily. On the other hand he obtained a grant
from the RockefellerFoundation as well as donations
from his industrial friends ($3,750 in 1942, $9,000 in
1943, $17,000 in 1944). It should be mentioned, too,
that from 1939 the Paepcke family had put at the
disposal of the School a farm situated in the neigh-
bouring countryside, where a regular summer school
could be held; this was an outright success. But, as a
good businessman, Paepcke couldn't help observing
with a critical eye the way in which Moholy-Nagy
managed his School: the use of the available funds,
the management of premises and personnel, the
corporate image. The inevitable resulted in 1944
when, following a short illness which left Moholy-
Nagy exhausted, Paepcke strongly recommended
that Moholy-Nagy should overhaul his administrat-
ive structure. Paepcke proposed a radical alteration
of the statutes through the creation of a Board of
Directors, and thus the separation of the admini-
strative directoratefrom that of teaching. Paepcke, of
course, would be in charge of the former, leaving
Moholy-Nagy the task of developing the latter,
which would allow him to pursue his artistic work
(painting and photography). Scalded by his mishap
in 1937-8, Moholy-Nagy hesitated, but he ended up
accepting and, on 28 March 1944, the Chicago
School of Design was renamed the Institute of
Design.
The Institute of Design and the 'Moholy Affair'
The planning and development of the new Institute
was entrusted to a Board of Directors presided over
by Walter Paepcke and composed of nine members,
all of whom-with the exception of Moholy-Nagy-
came from industrial backgrounds. In order to
emphasize to his friend that this marked a significant
change as well as to assure him that he was fully
aware of the new era that was opening for him and
his school, Paepcke wrote Moholy-Nagy a long letter
Design Educationand Industry
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which denoted the pragmatism of the middle-
western businessmen. It deserves to be cited at some
length:
For about five years you were trying to prove to yourself,
to your public in general that the idea and ideals of the
School, strength and vitality could, from a very humble
beginning, gradually and slowly grow in the perhaps
potentially fertile but not too cultivated soil of the Middle
West ... Now the condition is materially changed. What
you, your friends, and the public will expect from you will
be the demonstration and exercise of those abilities which
you have (i) as an educator, (2) as a creative artist, (3) as an
author in order to further spread your ideas of education,
(4) as a lecturer, and (5) as a general education admini-
strator who can handle what you and all of us hope will be
a much larger and important institution ...
The Directors ... will not expect an artist, an educator, a
lecturer, and a director of a school to personally demon-
strate business ability ... Furthermore, it is quite
impossible, in my humble opinion, for any one man to do a
first-class job in both of these fields .. Therefore, I would
not wait three months, three weeks, or even three days to
shove off on Baker [the secretary-treasurer]anything and
everything which is not definitely a part of the five
important functions that you alone must perform ... You
must, therefore, delegate everything you possibly can,
even if you are positive that it will not be done well ... I
know you readily understand that a school two or three
times its present size ... requires without question a staff
of reliable people who are and will be functioning without
bothering you with all and every detail and who will
individually merit their connection with the School on the
basis of their ability ... rather than the loyalty or the
sympathy you may feel for them as individuals ... The
above would be my 'creed' for you. I hope I am not too
optimistic if I trust that you necessarily must also see it
pretty much the same way and, in fact, adopt it.21
As I mentioned, it was a question of an important
turning point.
The change of syllabus which, as one would
expect, accompanied the change of administrative
structure, was not the only development which
would disturb the two years which followed: two
successive moves of premises, the end of the war
and the massive influx of students taking advantage
of the 'GI Bill of Rights', the 'Moholy affair' and,
finally, Moholy-Nagy's premature death in Novem-
ber 1946, would result in a difficult birth for the
Institute of Design (ID).
I shall dwell now on what Giedion was the first to
call the 'Moholy affair' (Die Moholy Sache), because
103
it represents an 'ideal-typical' situation for many
industrial design schools.
Although Paepcke had given frequent assurances
that the Boardof Directors of the ID would limit itself
to its administrative role, and that the pedagogical
directorate need fear no interference from it,
Moholy-Nagy never harboured any illusions on this
score. Let us not forget that the catchphrase to 'see
everything in relationship' lay at the heart of his
design methodology. For him this precept indeed
constituted 'the key to our age'.22How, then, could
one have convinced him that a modification to the
administrative directorate would have no effect on
the totality of the system and thus on the main peda-
gogical objectives and, in consequence, on what
differentiated the ID and the Bauhaus from all the
other schools of design?
In effect, the first difficulties were not slow to
emerge. As early as December 1944 a representative
of the Chicago Chamber of Commerce wrote a note
to his director, who was on the Board of Directors of
the ID, in which he summed up the queries and
anxieties of his members:
1 Does this organization havean activeBoardof Directors,
or, is it primarilythe personalhobbyof Mr.Paepcke?...
2 Is this a one-man school-mainly the projectof Mr.
Moholy-Nagy-or is there a well-trainedand sufficient
facultyto carryon the workwhich the school outlinesin
his bulletins?
3 Just what is the nature of the school, that is, is it
primarilya schoolof designfor commercialand industrial
concerns . . 23
The following year, one of the senior representatives
of the Rockefeller Foundation, charged with a
national enquiry into the various schools of design
and applied arts, wrote to Walter Paepcke:
Mightit not be helpfulfor the Instituteto hold a forumof
industrialistsand designers, principallyof the Chicago
area, on the general subject of the relation of art to
industry? ... It would make Moholy stop talking about
educationand concentrateon designinstruction.It would
makehim talkon his feet, whichhe does betterthanwrite.
And, not the least important,it would be an excellent
meansof ... layinga basis for betterpublicrelations.Out
of it mightcome a betterunderstandingon the Institute's
part of the needs of industry and on industry's side
suggestionsas to the type of trainingmost desirablefor
industrialdesigners.
I do not feel that the Institutehas altogetherdefinedits now and then by a lackof precisionre. the layoutof the
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objectives. Is it training teachers, designers or people
concernedwith, as Moholywould put it, 'the new educa-
tion'?24
As we can see, the conflict and confusion between
education and training doesn't date from today.
Other exchanges of correspondence took up the
same theme with some variations. Whether they
were justified or not, all these criticisms put Walter
Paepcke in a difficult position, midway between the
industrialists on the Board of Directors, to whom he
had probably promised a school to fulfil their needs,
and his friend Moholy-Nagy whom he had assured
of his loyalty and his sincere interest in respect of the
latter's pedagogical and humanist ideas. Paepcke
managed to reassure the former and to mitigate their
impatience thanks to the authority he enjoyed. It
remained, however, to convice Moholy-Nagy of the
necessity of reorganizing his initial curriculum and
of revising some of its basic principles in the light of
the historical, geographical, economic, and cultural
situation of Chicago. This was far from being an easy
business. Anticipating and dreading the extreme
delicacy of the task, Paepcke called on the help of
those friends of Moholy-Nagy who were then
resident in the United States: Walter Gropius,
Siegfried Giedion, and Herbert Bayer, and set up a
vast operation to win hearts and minds about which
Sibyl, the wife of the subject, had to be kept
absolutely in the dark.
It all began with a very polite invitation to Walter
Gropius to lecture under the joint auspices of the
Chicago Plan Commission, the Chicago Association
of Commerce, and the Institute of Design. Gropius's
visit was to provide the opportunity to discuss the
'Moholy affair' with him. The lecture, entitled
'Rebuilding our Communities after the War',
attracted a large audience, and was later published
by the ID [7]. On his return to Harvard, Gropius
wrote to thank his host for his invitation and his
hospitality and saluted him as 'the rare exception of
a man in power and leadership who seriously tries to
fuse business with cultural progress'. He reassured
Paepcke about Moholy-Nagy's attitudes and
dispelled the anxieties which the latter's pedagogical
system aroused amongst members of the Board of
Directors:
I quite understandthat some of the directorsare puzzled
Alain Findeli
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curriculum or of the school work itself; but as this is a and to try to live up with it. The basic trouble is his
laboratory-like institute its main object being to stimulate congeniallackof time sense . . .27
the inventiveness of the designer, a certain amount of
The situation thus seemed to be working out for
indefinite by-chance procedure has to be accepted I am
afraid. I had to suffer from this myself at the Bauhaus. I am the better and Moholy-Nagy was even ready to
confident, however, after my lengthy talk with Moholy, accept the fusion of the ID with another institu-
that he will try to change some of the debatable features tion-a solution which he had previously rejected in
which seem to hurt his prestige.25 the name of the independence of his school. How-
ever, the beginning of the Spring term did not see an
The subject of this 'lengthy talk' is described in a increase in the number of enrolments. The members
letter from Sibyl to Ise Gropius, Walter's wife, as also of the Board of Directors resumed the offensive, and
the effect provoked by a letter which Gropius sent to
Paepcke himself did not resist. According to Giedion
Moholy-Nagy the same day as the previous one. In who had just taught a seminar on urbanism for the
this letter Gropius reassured Moholy-Nagy of ID, Moholy-Nagy was very depressed and ready to
Paepcke's enthusiasm for the ID, on certain condi- sell the School. To the problems of moving to new
tions, however, which he urged Moholy-Nagy to
temporary premises was added the resentment
obey. The demands formulated by Paepcke are caused by the authorities' refusal to grant him
supposedly due to his concern for Moholy-Nagy's American citizenship on account of his alleged
state of health:
political activities, both in Hungary following the
The definition of a good organizer is for him [Paepcke], to 1918 revolution and in Chicago in the Hungarian
have the setup made in such a way that the distribution of Democratic Council, of which he was the president.
duties gives sufficient flexibility to keep the ship going His wife Sibyl threw oil on the flames in a letter to
even if a leading figure would withdraw all of a sudden.26 Herbert Bayer in which she accused all her
husband's old Bauhaus colleagues of having aban-
This dreadful foreboding was in fact founded on a doned him in Chicago for better paid work in New
real deterioration in the state of Moholy-Nagy's York. And when Walter Paepcke, fearing reactions,
health and on the overwork which he had imposed
entrusted the important exhibition of graphic art
on himself over so many years. According to Sibyl,
entitled 'Modern Art in Advertising', held at the Art
Moholy-Nagy certainly took to heart Gropius's Institute in the Spring of 1945, to Bayer rather than
advice:
to Moholy-Nagy (or Kepes), Sibyl exploded. To her
Mo ... was very impressed by Walter's letter and he has credit, it should be said that, from the start, she had
certainly for a man of 49 a remarkablegift to take criticism shared in all the misfortunes of the school, not

DesignEducationand Industry 105

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simply as the wife of the director but also because cerned with the commercial exploitation of proto-
the entire burden of the administration, of the secre- types developed by the workshops, the setting up of
tariat, of the accounts, and of translation fell on her a research institute for the development of products,
and because she served as chauffeur, librarian,hotel- the introduction of a series of courses on modern art
keeper to visiting friends, cook for the summer and design aimed at business executives (Executive
schools, nurse to her exhausted husband and mother Series), the publication of a periodical (ID News), the
to their two daughters. extension of the series ID Books,the construction of a
It was then that the 'Moholy affair' rebounded. new building to accommodate the ID [8]. Practically
Very worried on his return from Chicago after the none of these projects was ever realized. In Spring
exhibition which, after all, was very successful, 1945 the ID comprised 39 day students, 4 full-time
Herbert Bayer confided in Gropius and Giedion after teachers, 13 guest lecturers and 6 non-teaching
he had seen Moholy-Nagy. He proposed a summit employees. The hierarchical mode of management
conference with Paepcke, to be held in New York or which replaced the former 'familial' mode was char-
at Gropius's house in Lincoln. The latter, in his acterized by the fact that the total of salaries for the
reply, was completely in favour of such a meeting in administrative staff almost equalled that for the
order to 'help Moholy in his permanent plight' teaching staff ($17,000 against $24,000).
(Gropius) and to 'get Moholy out of the ditch' The rationalization of the curriculumwas achieved
(Bayer). Bayer then took the initiative of inviting in time for the beginning of the Autumn term of
Paepcke, asking him not to let Moholy-Nagy know. 1946, as the brochure published at the time indicates.
But Paepcke replied that he was too busy for the time
being and proposed that the meeting should take
place in August, still without Moholy-Nagy's know-
ledge, at Paepcke's ranch in Colorado. However, he
stated in his letter that despite his wish to co-operate
for the success of the ID, he was often discouraged in
view of the meagre results obtained:
I haveoftenexplainedto Moholythathe andhis staffhave
to so conductthe businessaffairsof the school,the curri-
culumof the students,the orderlyprocedures,cleanliness
of the premises,modem and artisticappearanceof the
schoolitself,etc., so as to makemy partof the jobpossible.
I cannotinterestfirmsor individualsto makegifts unless
they, as successful,somewhatimpatient,and aggressive -p?-;
::~hI
businessmen,see the same rapidstridesof progressthat
theyareused to witnessingdayby day in theirown organ-
izations,whateverthey maybe.28
But the carefully planned meeting would never take
place, for reasons of timetabling. Everything would
end up unfolding between the two Walters and their
wives, during a stay in Colorado in the splendid
setting of Aspen, which Paepcke had recently re-
discovered and which he would later develop. (This
would actually be the next of his great projects.)
The 'reorganization' of the curriculum to conform
with the new 'style' of management took place
gradually, supported by an energetic public relations
8 Front cover of TheArchitecturalReview (June 1947) showing the
policy. Likewise several new projects were con- proposal for a new building to house the Institute of Design in
sidered in the heat of the moment: the creation of a Chicago. Design by Richard Filipowski, Architecture workshop,
master's programme, a body which would be con- 1945-6

106 Alain Findeli

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In form this was similar to that of other universities;
whilst the introductory text describing the general
objectives disappeared, the courses were henceforth
divided into theoretical and laboratory (practical)
work and assigned a code and number of credits. If
the preliminary course (renamed Foundation
Course) remained, the number of workshops
(renamed Departments) was reduced to four:
industrial design, advertising arts, textile design,
photography, to which was added a master's in
architecture which was accessible only to graduates
in industrial design [9-10].
Briefly, the principal characteristics of the re-
organization were the following:
- the rationalization of the teaching staff and
courses, and restriction of the range of disciplines
covered;
- the formulation of a clearer curriculum, putting
the emphasis on the form of the distribution and
-
B..-
I
9 Before: front page and an inside page from the 1940/1 catalogue
DesignEducationand Industry
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the outline of the courses rather than on depth
and on the underlying pedagogical intentions;
- priority given to the professional aspect of the
teaching at the expense of artistic training,
awakening and development of individual
potential, and social consciousness;
- the recognition of the university status of the ID
which resulted from its alignment with similar
institutions, at the price of the loss of its original-
ity;
- withdrawal of the possibility of free artistic
practice under the tutorship of a chosen teacher/
artist; the gradual abandonment of a global vision
of the design process and of a methodology
common to all the workshops in favour of a
clearer distinction between the different depart-
ments, based on the various types of products
with which they were concerned and the differ-
ences between the professional practices to
which they were related;
An.-
- .-- --------
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107

bwIDEIBHK
HOiTrnITIE
1009 3North State Street
Chilelg IhIn-toI * TelplbMe Deliware
later Angust 1, 1946
632 North IDearber Street
o1 After: front page and an inside page from the 1946 catalogue
-the imposition of a disciplinary framework
intended to encourage hard work but inclined to
erase the individuality of students; the educa-
tional pattern is standardized in each department
so that it does not follow each individual talent
any more.
On the other hand there remained:
- the principle of evaluation without specific marks
(pass or fail);
- the compulsory preliminary course;
- the scientific courses;
- the courses in literature, history of ideas, and
sculpture;
- the summer school and children's workshop.
So Moholy-Nagy's aesthetic and pedagogic utopia
was revived in 1946 with, nevertheless, important
concessions to the social, economic, and professional
realities of the new practices of post-war design and
to the implacable demands for a viable management
of the curriculum. Moholy-Nagy's untimely and
108
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indusitrial ersign
Aftercompletingthe foundation course.thestudentspecializingin Indus
trial Designwill spendthegreaterportionof his timeduringthenextsix
semestersin thedesignworkshop. Herehe experiments withmanvdifferent
materialssuch as wood.metal,glassandplastics.designin objectsrang-
ing from small utensilsto lightingfixtures,furniture,andinteriors.Great
emphasisis placedupon a creativeapproachto the problemof using
materialshonestlyto fit theneedsof ourpresentdaysociety,bothaesthel-
ically and economically.The use of machines,differentmethodsof con-
structionand productiontechniques are carefullystudied.The aim is to
acquaintthe studentso thorougilywithmethodsof fabricationthathe is
able to designexpresslyfor machineproduction. It is a basictenetof the
IndustrialDesign Department thatthe potentialsof machineproduction
are unlimitedand that manyof its inherentqualitieshavenot yet been
exploited.For this reason,althoughthe studentacquiresskill in making
objectsby hand,it is constantlvemphasized thattheseexerciseshaveto be
readilyadaptablefor industrialproduction methods.
Upon graduationfromthe IndustrialDesignDepartment, a diligentstu-
dentis readyto designalmostanyobjectfroma saltcellarto a prefabri.
catedhousingunit.Thethoroughtrainingwhichhe hasreceivedin surface
treatment,volume,color,graphictechniques,technicaland social proe-
lens fit him to performa worthwhileservicein the solutionof a great
manycontemporary problems.
The degreeof Bachelorof Sciencein IndustrialDesignis givenuponcom-
pletionof the couse.
industrial Design Curriculum
(For thefint twosemesters,
see fFotadion Course,page6)
SECOND YEAR
Semnster Lccture Laborsory
3rd 4th Hour Hours
4S8 303 3su ProductDsip Woakshop 2 11
103 o104 J1athaoties 2
113 114 Pibnic 2 3
203 204 Form&Cvilizatio 2
513 514 Lettsein 3
403 404 ldanitemcDrawing I 5
000 000 Special Lectres I
'Toalt 10
premature death three months after the new
structures had been put in place, prevented him
ensuring their direction and, perhaps, success.
'Rarely has anyone been so deprived of the fruits of
his sacrifice', Giedion confided in one of his letters to
Gropius.
What would have been the final outcome of the
reorganized project under Moholy-Nagy's direction?
Although the answer to such a question must remain
in the realm of conjecture, the last letter Moholy-
Nagy sent to Walter Paepcke, three days before his
death, gives us several clues. Wanting to reassure
Paepcke in the face of the disruption caused by the
massive, influx of students hardened by the experi-
ence of war, Moholy-Nagy delivered an authentic
pedagogical and political testament:
The matteris only how to interprettraditionor use our
heritage-mechanicallyor creatively.Your letter raises
most clearlythe fundamentalquestionof how to meet the
naturaltendencytowardspoliticalradicalismin students
... Politics is not dominantin our school as it is over-
Alain Findeli
 1937-38 1939-45 1945-46 1946-56 1956- auj.

~~. f a, ... ...:. .

1905 Prairie Ave 247 E. Ontario St. 1009 North State St. 632 North Dearborn St. 3360 South State St.
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CICAGO RIVER

11 Successive buildings and locations in Chicago of the New Bauhaus (1937-9), the School of Design (1939-44), the Institute of Design
(1944-9), and the Institute of Design at the Illinois Institute of Technology (1949 onwards)

shadowed or replaced by the problems of contemporary art A Difficult Succession

and design which sublimate to a large extent the sub-
conscious urge in the finest of the young people to fight for Feeling the end coming, Moholy-Nagy had taken the
political ideals ... It is our duty to find a way for the young precaution in a confidential letter addressed to
generation to acquire a philosophy of life which will not be Paepcke in July 1946, of suggesting his likely
destructive but creative ... successors. They were, in order: first the Hungarian
For this we may have a different approach. We never Marcel Breuer, in spite of the frictions which had
present a dogma or a rigid theory but try to present intel- come to oppose him irreversibly to Gropius ('one of
lectual and spiritual problems through their various the most brilliant architects of the generation after
aspects, sometimes by different lecturers-keeping always Gropius' and 'one of the most outstanding furniture
in mind the importance of stimulation of the student's
individual thinking ...
designers of today'). 'He has a great artistic sensibil-
This can be done only by people who understand-at ity', continued Moholy-Nagy, 'which I am convinced
is indispensable for the Head of the Institute.' Then
least to some extent-what is going on and are not easily
confused in facing the immense complexity of our con- came Jose Luis Sert, 'a latin variation of Breuer',
and-if the choice had to be of an American-
temporarycivilization. My choice of teachers is based upon
these qualities.29 Moholy-Nagy proposed Ralph Rapson and Charles
Eames, despite their youth. Lastly he added his old
friend and colleague Gyorgy Kepes, and the architect
DesignEducationand Industry 109

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 .. .. ...
....... .. ..... ..
...
...
. ..... .. e.......
..e .. i B
.
. eE
Knud Loenberg-Holm, vice-president of the CIAM
.. . .. . .. .. ...... ..
:.. : : i ; .-.:::: .: . i
and director of the Sweet Catalogue. In conclusion
Moholy-Nagy reiterated the esential characteristics
which the candidates should have:

All candidatesfor the presidencyof the Instituteshouldbe

considerednot only for theiraptitudeas educatorsbut also
for their artisticqualities.Otherwisethe school will be
turnedintojust anotherengineeringschoolof whichthere
are alreadymuch too many in the country.The idea of
integratingart,scienceand technologywill alwaysrequire
.'~... .,
a greateremphasis on the arts since the other two are
?; ?' ......

-. .ii-
....... - H
usuallyacceptedas a matterof course.30
But Gropius, to whom Paepcke had entrusted the
.......?
..... j task of proposing the successor after offering the job
first to him, did not take Moholy-Nagy's wishes into
account. He chose Serge Chermayeff, who was then
. . .. . .
.. ........
director of Brooklyn College.
1i - :/: '' ; -N For all sorts of reasons which will not retain us
here, Chermayeff's time in office was difficult and
stormy despite his declared aim of remaining faithful
to the heritage of his predecessor. At the end of 1949,
after six years of negotiations, Paepcke at last
succeeded in persuading the President of the Illinois
;??il~
' iiir i-~;
:; Institute of Technology to incorporate the Institute of
;;;;.Si
Design as one of its constituent colleges. If this
arrangement solved the eternal financial problems
and, from 1956, the question of premises, it didn't
make the task of the ID's director, Serge Chermayeff
easy: his presence in the 'temple' of Mies van der
Rohe was instantly considered unwelcome. The co-
existence, in a single institution of two such radically
different interpretations of the Bauhaus spirit as
13On o MhoyNay' lstol aitigs eeutd ftr h those of Moholy-Nagy and Mies van der Rohe could
of Hiroshima, 1946collection)i:':.
bombing (Private
only prove explosive, to the great regret of Gropius
who was concerned, above all, to preserve the image
of the institution which he had created thirty years
earlier. Chermayeff ended up resigning soon after-
wards, in 1951, plunging the ID into a new period of
instability which lasted until 1955. In that year the
President of IIT nominated Jay Doblin, an industrial
designer who had trained with Raymond Loewy, as
the new director of the ID. The appointment
immediately provoked open hostilities as much
amongst the students as amongst the staff, several of
whom resigned.31 Gropius himself repudiated the
new director in an official letter of protest, which
was made public.32 But to no avail: Jay Doblin
remained in post, with a single break, until 1969. For
110 Alain Findeli

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the 'official' historiography of the Bauhaus 1955
marks the rupture of the 'Moholy-Nagy connection'
in the genealogy of the American Bauhaus, the most
ambitious attempt to re-establish Gropius's original
concept. Elsewhere, in October of the same year,
Walter Gropius would inaugurate the new building
of the Hochschule fur Gestaltung, Ulm, where,
henceforward, another episode of this history would
be played out.
Conclusion
This article originated in an observation which, in
my view, constitutes an interesting and engrossing
problem for the design historian: the permanence
and episodic reappearance of an obstacle which
certain schools of industrial design have come up
against in their relations with the world of industry.
In order to throw light on this question, the historical
reconstruction of the birth of the Institute of Design
in Chicago in 1944, under the joint leadership of
Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and Walter Paepcke, has been
presented here in the framework of a larger prob-
lematic, which concerns the alignment of teaching
methods with the practice of industrial management.
In this respect, the experience of the ID constitutes a
paradigm of the essential contradiction which dogs
all endeavours of this kind. This contradiction is
exacerbated in the case of design education in so far
as industry is precisely one of the most important
partners in the designer's practice. The current craze
for design management amongst business execut-
ives, fascinated by the success of corporations such
as Olivetti, Philips, IBM, Sony, Apple (to name but a
few of the most frequently cited 'success stories'),
only confirms the growing hegemony of economism,
not only in our practice but also-and above all-in
our mode of thought.
The successive 'failures' of the Bauhaus idea to
develop an educational concept capable of enlighten-
ing contemporary industrial practice could conceiv-
ably suggest that the project rested on bases which
were insufficiently realistic and too utopian, and that
it served no purpose to persist in trying to implement
it. A rapid diagnosis leads us to a rather obvious
conclusion: the educational project and the industrial
project belong to different and irreconcilable time-
spans and values. The objectives of the one are
spread over several generations, the objectives of the
Design Education and Industry
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other are short-term. On the one hand there is the
promotion of sovereign individuals, endowed with a
critical view of the complexity of the contemporary
world, and of an attitude which prompts discretion
and responsibility in the choice of their actions. On
the other hand is the logic of the optimization of
human and material resources, and a unidirectional
and quantitative vision of the anticipated benefits in
the aim of satisfying expressed or simulated needs
and desires. Of course the sincere desire of both
systems to ensure the 'happiness' of humanity is not
to be questioned. But they differ in their definition of
this 'happiness' and 'well-being': individual or
collective, competitive or shared, material or
spiritual, immediate or deferred, 'secular' or
'regular'; but even supposing that they agree on a
common end, then they will disagree on the means
to achieve it. 'The future needs the whole man',
wrote Moholy-Nagy in The New Vision, adding that
'Not the product, but man, is the end in view';
'[Design must be used] to effectively enhance our
revenue and profits', proclaims the Vice-President of
a multi-national corporation.33These oppositions,
whose manichaeism has been deliberately
emphasized here, seem to me to reflect a funda-
mental phenomenological polarity which is at work
in design. This takes on different forms according to
circumstances and it is in this that design has found,
historically, the raison d'etre and dynamic without
which it would not have developed. My hypothesis
is that the problems result not from the existenceof
this polarity but from one's perceptionof it. A positiv-
ist vision, characteristic of the view which has
animated design during the twentieth century, con-
siders such a polarity as a problem to be resolved.
On the other hand, a more organic vision, character-
istic of a 'contradictory reason',34 would tend to
transform this epistemological deadlock into a con-
ceptual tool capable of overcoming it. In such a
perspective, which reflects the paradigmatic change
presently at work in Western thought, the relation-
ship between design education and industry
becomes fruitful if one admits, as I have suggested in
the introduction, that the ethics which underpin
them and the methodologies which they privilege
can-and should-be mutually interactive and
strengthening. In his own terms, this is what one of
our contemporary designers actually suggests:
'Unlike many artists, technocrats tend to regard
111
disorder as the enemy of order, and hence a menace
to our whole existence. Working with designers and
artists has taught us to appreciate chaos as the only
fertile soil for creative development, and that applies
to management too.'35
ALAIN FINDELI
Universityof Montreal
Notes
i It was the study of plants which suggested his model to
Goethe. See: Lametamorphose desplantes,Triades, 1975,
p. 250. Oswald Spengler subsequently interpreted it
and applied it to history. Piaget's is a contemporary
model which gives credence to the morphogenetic
vision, which recalls the biogenetic law formulated by
Haeckel according to which ontogenesis recapitulates
phylogenesis in the living world. However, the mani-
pulation of such models is tricky by virtue of the values
which one might be tempted to attribute to the
succession of metamorphoses, the determinism which
might result from it and a particular ideology of
progress which might flow from it.
2 Ron Levy answers this question unequivocally and
uncompromisingly, at the same time giving us his
definition of the mission of the university, 'Design
Education: Time to Reflect', Design Issues, vol. VII,
no. i, Autumn 199o, pp. 42-52.
3 S. Moholy-Nagy, Moholy-Nagy. Experimentin Totality,
MIT Press, 1969, p. 216.
4 Ibid., quoted p. 215.
5 Ibid., p. 218, quoted from a lecture given on 20 May
1945 in Milwaukee.
6 The periodical DesignIssues has devoted a special issue
to design teaching (vol. VII, no. 1, Autumn 1990). This
issue provides a glaring illustration of the type of
conflict likely to produce the embryonic state of the
problem discussed here. There is also an outline of the
pedagogical and philosophical bases of Moholy-Nagy's
'own peanut affair'.
7 W. Gropius, letter to Norma K. Stahle, Cambridge,
Mass., 18 May 1937, Bauhaus Archiv; also published in
H. M. Wingler, The Bauhaus. Weimar,Dessau, Berlin,
Chicago, MIT Press, 1979, p. 192. The detailed history of
the foundation of the New Bauhaus is recounted by
L. C. Engelbrecht in his unpublished thesis, 'The
Association of Arts and Industries: Background and
Origins of the Bauhaus Movement in Chicago', Univer-
sity of Chicago, 1973.
8 L. Moholy-Nagy, letter to Walter Gropius, London,
13 June 1937, Gropius Papers, Houghton Library,
Harvard University (translated from the German).
9 A part of the text of the speech was published in
112
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AmericanArchitectand Architecture,May 1937, pp. 26-
30.
10 P. Mondrian, letter to Moholy-Nagy, New York, 6 June
1939 (dated by Sibyl Moholy-Nagy), collection Hattula
Moholy-Nagy.
I1 J. Grimes in TheNew Vision.FortyYearsof Photographyat
the Instituteof Design, Aperture Books, 1982, p. i8.
12 The wording of the law-suit, in which Moholy-Nagy
was accused of 'Hitlerizing' the New Bauhaus, is
evoked in the well-documented article by C. L.
Morrison, 'Chicago Dialectic', Art Forum, Feb. 1978,
pp. 32-9.
13 C. Morris, letter to the Association of Arts and
Industries, signed by Morris, Eckart,Gerard, Dushkin,
Kepes, Schiltz, Smith and-after some hesitation-by
Archipenko and Bredendieck,October 1938, University
of Illinois at Chicago, Special Collection.
14 L. Moholy-Nagy, manuscript notes for a lecture,
collection Hattula Moholy-Nagy.
15 The Container Corporation of America owed its
prosperity to the replacement, from 1926 onwards, of
wooden boxes by corrugated cardboard boxes for the
packing and transport of goods. The invitation of
numerous modern artists to contribute to its corporate
imagery and publicity (Cassandre, Carlu, Bayer, Leger,
Man Ray, Helion, etc.), the appointment of a full-time
artistic director from 1935 (EgbertJacobson) and lastly
a voluntarist cultural policy would contribute to the
company's reputation. For a complete history, see J. S.
Allen, TheRomanceof Commerceand Culture,University
of Chicago Press, 1983.
16 The nature and extent of the rationing and its impact on
industry and construction are described in the article
'Priorities',ArchitecturalForum,August 1941, pp. 73-8.
17 C. D. Carter, War Relocation Authority, Education
Department, letter to Chicago School of Design,
i October 1942, Archives of American Art.
18 A dozen prototypes were realized; they are described
in 'Wooden Springs', Business Week, 31 October 1942,
pp. 35-6.
19 Quoted by S. Moholy-Nagy in her biography (see
note 3), p. 188.
20 Ibid., p. 216.
21 W. Paepcke, letter to Moholy-Nagy, Chicago, 4 April
1944, Archives of American Art.
22 L. Moholy-Nagy, Vision in Motion, Paul Theobald,
1947, p. 68.
23 Jacobs, letter to Mr. Lyon, Member of the Board, the
Chicago Chamber of Commerce, 121 December 1944,
University of Illinois at Chicago, Special Collection.
24 R. N. S. Whitelaw, letter to Walter Paepcke, Carolina
Art Association, Charleston, 25 July 1945, University of
Illinois at Chicago, Special Collection.
Alain Findeli
25 W. Gropius, letter to Walter Paepcke, Lincoln, Mass.,
28 February 1945, University of Illinois at Chicago,
Special Collection.
26 W. Gropius, letter to Moholy-Nagy, Lincoln, Mass.,
28 February 1945, Bauhaus Archiv, Berlin.
27 S. Moholy-Nagy, letter to Ise Gropius, Chicago,
5March 1945, Gropius Papers, Houghton Library,
Harvard University.
28 W. Paepcke, letter to Herbert Bayer (copy to Walter
Gropius), Chicago, 15 June 1945. This letter follows the
one sent by Bayer to Gropius (5 June 1945), by Gropius
to Bayer (8 June 1945), and by Bayer to Paepcke
(13 June 1945), University of Illinois at Chicago, Special
Collection, and Bauhaus Archiv, Berlin. One could not
sum up more succinctly the problematic which this
article addresses: to identify the slippage from the
question of the relationship between the teaching of
design education and industry to the situation which
leads to the teaching of design education as industry.
29 L. Moholy-Nagy, letter to Walter Paepcke, Chicago,
21 November 1946, University of Illinois at Chicago,
Special Collection.
DesignEducationand Industry
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30 L. Moholy-Nagy, letter to Walter Paepcke, Chicago,
31 July 1946, University of Illinois at Chicago, Special
Collection.
31 Two articles in IIT's journal TechnologyNews for
22 April 1955 give evidence of this protest: '14 teachers
protest new ID director' and 'Institute of Design faces
destruction of philosophy'.
32 W. Gropius, 'Statement', 25 April 1955, Bauhaus
Archiv, Berlin.
33 D. Osmon, Vice-President, Marketing and Public
Affairs, 3M, quoted in J. Bernsen (ed.), DesignManage-
mentin Practice,Danish Design Council, European/EEC
Design Editions, 1987, p. PL2.
34 A reference to the work of J. J. Wunenburger, La raison
contradictoire.Scienceset philosophiemodernes:la pensee
du complexe,Albin Michel, Paris, 1990.
35 J. Nielsen, 'Management by design' in Bernsen, op. cit.,
p. JN12.
Translated by Charlotte Benton
113