Viktor Schreckengost, A True Giant of Industrial Design Dies at 101
A 2001 Interview with the Prolific and Long-lived Great American Designer at Age 94
By: Mark Favermann - Feb 08, 2008
At 94, he was still sharp, clear-thinking and highly articulate. The following questions and answers are from the 2001 interview with Viktor Schreckengost.
Q. Having excelled at both during your long and full career, do you make any distinction between art and design? If so, what are they? If not, why not?
A. Both have to serve a strong purpose or function. Both have aspects that are both mechanical and mental. Design needs to create a device that is useful; art needs to convey an idea or concept. Each needs to communicate, and communicate in a way that can be evaluated. This is true of the simplest sketch or a finished product or piece of art.
Q. How has the professional practice of design changed over your career? How has it stayed the same?
A. First, design has moved from only being created for big corporations or the rich to a point that all levels of business and people can use and enjoy the result of good design. Previously, the wealthy were the only ones who could afford good design. I have always felt that good design should make things more affordable. Today, things are much more affordable. Second, when I started out, design was much more about appearance and ornamentation than function. Design was primarily used for marketing or publicity. It is now much more integrated functionally. My own interests have always been concerned with how to improve the function of things, how things could operate better and how they could be made more economically.
Q. Considering the collectible value of " The Jazz Bowl" and other pieces that you created, are you amazed or just pleased at the recognition and valuation of some of your projects?
A. I am extremely pleased and frankly amazed. It was the bottom of the Depression, and the Cowan Pottery Studio where I worked part time for Guy Cowan, my former teacher, received a number of letters requesting specific types of products from various galleries. I remember picking up one request from a gallery in New York City asking for a large punch bowl with a New York theme. I thought about it awhile and felt that the City of New York reflected the excitement and energy of jazz music. I listened to a lot of it when I visited the city. I also felt that the bowl should be blue to mirror the strange blue tinged light that rose over the city at night. I started with plaster, creating a bowl and then went to white porcelain. I then started to use a rather primitive method of scratching (etching) an image on the surface of the bowl. This was a black and white technique. I then put on the bowl translucent copper and cobalt blue glazes that were then baked on.
A week after the bowl was shipped, the gallery owner called to say that the lady was so pleased that she wanted to order two more. She said that her husband Franklin loved it, too. One was to be sent to her house in Hyde Park, New York, and other was to be sent to the White House in Washington, DC. Though, I eventually spoke to her on the phone, I regret that I never met her in person even though I was stationed in Washington with the Navy during WWII. By the way, the Cowan Pottery Studio soon closed after we produced the Jazz Bowls.
We did two versions of the bowl. One was the famous bowl. It was expensive-$50, a high price then. The other, we referred to as the Poor Man's Bowl, was $25 and not etched, but just painted. I am told that recently, the Poor man's Bowl sold for $60,000 at auction and the more expensive one for $120,000 ( actually in 2005 for $254,000). And no, I don't have either one. Guy Cowan produced about 50 more bowls after Eleanor Roosevelt's order. I feel that it was too bad that the Cowan Pottery Studio closed because there were so many other wonderful pieces that could have been created there following the Jazz Bowl.
Q. What do you consider your greatest contribution?
A. I think that I have had a few. One of my greatest contributions was to create well-designed things that were affordable for everyone. I also feel that my influence on so many successful and prominent designers through teaching has been a wonderful thing as well. I have great personal satisfaction from this.
Q. What can you tell designers today that can help them with their careers?
A. Always go back to the basics. This is the key to good design. Designers should remember that the appearance of an object is the last thing that they should consider. The object's function is the most important. Materials are next. Designers should be highly knowledgeable about available materials. Then the basic shape should be refined. The ornamental aspects and colors should be the last things focused upon. Often a designer's role is to clean up or to refine and object's design. The designer can also learn much from those who currently use a similar product or object.
An example of this was the time that I was asked to redesign the printing presses at the Harris Printing Company. I looked at the existing presses and learned many things about the problem to be solved. This included the fact that they were extremely difficult to clean, and they were dangerous because their working parts were exposed. I also spoke to master printers and was shown scars on their shins because the presses were set at inconsistent heights. When there was a problem with the presses, the printers often had to run up and down to correct it. Often, they either fell or bumped their legs against the machines and hurt their legs. So knowing all this, I sheathed the machinery's working parts metal to make the presses safer. I changed the color of them from black with brass fittings to white with chrome fittings for easier cleaning. And I set all the rises at a consistent height. This helped morale and safety as well as built a sense of ownership with the printing staff. I just went back to the basics.
Q. What decade did you enjoy working in the best and why?
A. All of the decades had their challenges and particular solutions. Technologies and techniques changed, however. Tools change, instead of drawing by hand, everyone now uses computers, but drawing is still drawing. And I have always felt that whatever I was working on at the time was the best thing that I had ever worked on. The next thing or solution that I was to work on was going to be even better. This is how all good designers must feel. It is a natural progression. You must start with an object's basic function, work that out and then go on to its materials and then its colors. And it each stage there must be a continuous growing of its concept. This has no specific timeframe. This is just the process of design.
Q. Do you have any regrets in your career?
A. No, I have no specific regrets. I would have done some things better, but probably not very differently. I could have always improved on what I did or how I did it. But, I have been very fortunate and very lucky.
Q. Why do you think many great artists and designers live to ripe old ages? Is it the water they drink?
A. The first answer is that long life may be a result of general satisfaction with life. The second answer is good genes. Both of my grandfathers lived to well into their 90's. One was killed in a snow sledding accident when he was 98. The other fought in the Civil War and heard Lincoln give the Gettysburg Address. I used to love to hear him talk about this when I was a boy. My brother, also an artist and designer, is 90 and still goes to work and teaches.
Thank you Viktor Schrekengost for generously sharing your creative life and wisdom.
This January 2001 interview was republished by special permission of The Journal of Antiques and Collectibles, www.journalofantiques.com .