Collected for the first time, facsimiles of Alexander Kostellow’s handwritten letters and original articles written between 1930 and 1954, some initially published in Interiors and by Pratt Institute. He created the introductory first-year curriculum: “Design and Structure,” which became known as the Foundation Program — the standard for art and design schools worldwide. He is called the “Father of Industrial Design Education.” Buy The Book
Produced by: Bruce Hannah and Tucker Viemeister (2023)
Fred Blumlien Travels From Pratt To Vietnam and back To Pratt with a few stops along the way for “Advanced Shelf Building” with SONY in Las Vegas, AT&T at MOMA, and Epcot at Walt Disney World. Bruce Hannah never quite leaves Pratt but manages to do a few unexpected products that “No one knew they needed” with Knoll, Takrara Belmont, Wiley, and The Smithsonian. Watch the Video
Bill Katavolos created organic architecture, water architecture and designed a few classic furniture pieces along the way. The “T” Chair created with Littell & Kelley and The New York Sofa series. In this interview Bill explores his beginnings in the early 1940’s at The Rams Head Inn, listening to scientists discussing The Bomb, while splashing paint onto transite. Bill also talks about how his grandfather creating a vegetable & fruit garden for his family in Garden City, Long Island inspired him to start thinking about how we might start taking back our backyards as gardens that feed our bodies and our senses. Watch the Interview
Produced by: Yvette Chaparro (1999)
William Katavolos received Pratt’s 2019 Alumni Achievement Award. The award honors alumni who have made distinctive and significant cultural impacts in their communities. Bill has been a professor at Pratt since graduating from the ID program in 1949 where he studied with both Alexander and Rowena Kostellow.
Produced by: Bruce Hannah, Jonathan Yarus
An interview with designer Ted Muehling
Metropolis (Feb. 2007)
Interiors Magazine (July 1947)
Interiors Magazine (July 1952)
Journal of the American Association of University Women
(January 1959)
The very first Pratt ID Viewbook, celebrating the classic tradition of end-of-term presentations and sharing the range of projects produced in the department — the results of hard work by amazing students and professors. Go To Viewbook
This issue's focus was FORM with many Pratt people featured — because making beautiful forms is what we learned at Pratt! There are articles about the Pratt ID curriculum by Filla and Skalski, how it has evolved at CMU by Craig Vogel, and how it is applied in the real world by Jeff Kapec. Plus, Eva Zeisel's teapot is on the cover!
Founded by Bret Smith, IDSA, the site is designed as a resource for industrial designers, historians and those interested in design. It is a place where designers can contribute stories and images as well as audio and video files about designers and firms they’ve worked with, products they’ve design, and lessons they’ve learned.
Pratt is internationally recognized as one of the leading professional schools of art, design, and architecture in the United States.
IDSA is the voice of the industrial design profession, advancing the quality and positive impact of design.
Suzanne E. Vanderbilt (Pratt ID ’55) discusses her life at General Motors as a pioneering female industrial designer, and her influences including Pratt instructors Rowena and Alexander Kostellow.
The first influence on the University of Guadalajara’s school of design came from the pedagogical program developed at Pratt Institute, initiated by Alexander Jusserand Kostellow and later perfected by Rowena Reed Kostellow. The curriculum has remained as a model for the institution and for many design programs outside the United States. This paper, written by Jaime Francisco Gómez for the International Conference of Design History and Studies and presented it in its Helsinki edition in 2006, was later published by Design Discourse Japan in 2007. Go To Article (PDF)
Rowena Reed Kostellow taught industrial design at Pratt Institute for more than fifty years and the designers she trained-and the designers they're training today-have changed the face of American design. This hands-on book is a tribute to an exceptional teacher and a study of the abstract visual relationships that were her lifelong pursuit. Buy The Book