African American Steering Committee this year would like to take note of some of its rich history featuring notable creatives, artisans, scientists and leaders. This year’s Cut To Black “Did you know?” will celebrate inventors and their inventions of everyday objects that have contributed to the storytelling of films and television.
Charles Harrison
1931 – 2018
One of the most prominent African American designers of the 20th century, Charles Harrison transformed postwar living in the US with his modern designs for durable and affordable household products. During his 32-year career at the Chicago-based retailer Sears, Roebuck, and Co., Harrison designed over 750 objects for nearly every area of the home, including hair dryers, kitchen appliances, toasters, sewing machines , lawn mowers, and the country’s first plastic trash can. After studying industrial design at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) with professor and mentor Henry P. Glass and serving in the United States Army, Harrison worked as a designer for a number of Chicago-based companies in the mid-1950s. One transformative early project was his acclaimed 1959 redesign for the popular toy View Master, a stereoscope device originally introduced at the 1939 New York World’s Fair and used by the military in WWII. View-Master is a stereoscopic viewing device that allows users to flip through 3D images on a cardboard reel. Harrison’s updated—and now iconic—model replaced the dark brown, blocky unit with lightweight, brightly colored, injection-molded plastic, making the device less costly and easier to use, especially for children. The View-Master epitomizes Harrison’s approach to design, which was based on problem solving and a keen attention to the experience of the user rather than predetermined aesthetic goals.
