[TMC] Why GPR-90s Look So Good

[Richard Knoppow]

    Yes, I agree with this completely.  Sometimes appearance 
is rated more important than function. I think this is 
always a mistake. Good appearance is important but not when 
it interferes with function.  I have seen some beautiful 
home made stuff. Most of it was built to be convenient and 
work well. The application can lead to an attractive design.
    A good deal of the industrial design of, perhaps the 
1940s and later was essentially covering up the machinery. 
The mechanism, whatever it was, continued to be the same but 
was covered by fairing of some sort. One can see this in 
broadcast transmitters, sewing machines, "streamline" 
locomotives, cars too. Sometimes not much attention was paid 
to providing access to the works so maintenance became a 
PITA.
    Dreyfuss seems to have been aware of this in his 
designs. The 500 has all sorts of interesting touches like 
being able to park the handset on the body if you don't want 
to hang up.

--
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles
WB6KBL
dickburk at ix.netcom.com
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jim Haynes" <jhhaynes at earthlink.net>
To: "Richard Knoppow" <1oldlens1 at ix.netcom.com>
Cc: "BRUCE BERMAN" <triodes at optonline.net>; "Les Locklear" 
<leslocklear at hotmail.com>; "tmc collector's group" 
<TMC at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Friday, December 12, 2014 3:28 PM
Subject: Re: [TMC] Why GPR-90s Look So Good


> But there's also design by non-artists - home made ham 
> equipment, for
> instance, can look very good or very ugly.  And 
> non-consumer electronics
> probably doesn't rate the attention of an industrial 
> designer very
> much.  Although in the days of Big Iron computers design 
> was very much
> a part of the overall process.
>
> Now in modern personal computers design has often been 
> more artistic
> than functional.  I'm thinking of those with "sculptured" 
> front panels
> which limit usability, like having only one slot a floppy 
> drive can
> possibly go into.  Some of the Dell designs of a few years 
> back strike
> me as especially awful.  There's one with a door that has 
> to be pulled
> up to insert a USB device in the front of the machine. 
> Makes me think
> of pulling up a guy's shirt tail to give him an enema!
>
> Dreyfuss and the 500 type telephone leads to an 
> interesting observation.
> If you look at the Model 33 and Model 35 Teletype 
> machines, also
> designed by the Dreyfuss firm, you see a similarity in 
> profile to the 500 type telephone.  Don Gennaro of 
> Dreyfuss did a lot of work for Teletype.
>
> jhhaynes at earthlink dot net