Tucker Viemeister will give a Brown Bag Lunch presentation on Thursday, February 27, at 12:15 pm. His talk it entitled “Birth Place of Industrial Design: Pratt History.”

The industrial design pedagogy that is now used around the world originated at Pratt Institute (not the Bauhaus). It revolutionized the whole industry. In this talk Viemeister will discuss the origin of business practices such as Design Thinking, User Centered and interaction design, the Iterative process, prototyping, transdisciplinary design, collaborative design, and design strategy.


Tucker Viemeister is most famous for OXO Good Grips kitchen tools that conceived “universal design” designed at Smart Design, the company he helped found in 1979. He also founded the LAB at Rockwell Group, where he directed interactive experiences, and founded frogdesign’s New York office and Viemeister Industries. He worked with Ralph Appelbaum Associates, developed innovative concepts for the Smithsonian Institution and the Empire State building with Thinc, teaches at Parsons School of Design, is vice president of the Architectural League, is a Fellow of the Industrial Design Society of America, has his work in MoMA, holds 32 US utility patents, has a BID from Pratt, and was named after a car. He is currently working with architect Henry Myerberg on the Narxoz University in Kazakhstan.