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INDU TRIAL DE IGN

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Art M et Industry

By Peter Sheridan

hen it comes to radio design, the years the radio components intended for the lounge room
from 1930 to 1940 presented a pocket and usually controlled by the man of the house.
Wof opportunity wedged between the The wooden console always remained popular
deprivations of the Great Depression and the but, even with Art Deco styling in the 1940s,
upheavals that presaged the advent of World rarely strayed from its box-like form and
War 2. The common image of the radio eventually morphed into the radiogram in the
before its miniaturization in the 1960s is 1950s and 60s.
of a drab piece of wooden furniture or an
unremarkable brown plastic box. But there Radio as Communication
was a period of innovation and glamour that The radio boasts the fastest uptake of any
seems forgotten except by a small group of of the new technologies of the 20th century
collectors who hold the last specimens of including telephone, TV, and the Internet.
this important lineage. Fueled by the genius Radio brought about a third wave of the
of industrial designers, the advent of new democratization of information (the advent of
materials, better manufacturing processes speech and the printed word being first and
plus marketing and consumer changes, this second). Newspapers, magazines, and books
was truly a golden age of radio. were the predominant communication path-
Radio can be seen through a number of way of the 19th century, but literacy rates
different prisms: The technical framework universally were not high. Understanding
of radio electronics; the evolution of the spoken word was universal and radio
radio stations; the diverse content of The first bakelite table-top radio in the world made in enfranchised the least educated with the
entertainment and news as well as the Germany by the Nora Radio Company and called information they could assimilate important
people involved; and through the aesthetics “Sonnenblume” (Sunflower), 1929 information into their own lives. Also, it was
of its presentation as a cost-effective, actually cheaper to provide radio waves than newspapers in remote and
visually appealing domestic appliance. The focus here is on design, with rural areas.
radio as a leading player in the evolution of a new style movement, By 1940, 90% of people in the
animated by the genius of the most famous industrial designers in the USA, Britain, Europe, and
world. This flowering of radio between 1930 and 1940 has never been Australia had a radio in their
appreciated for its importance in the world of Industrial Design and its homes and some 75% got
relevance to the beginnings of Art Deco styling in the home. their news through this
The first consumer radios in the 1920s were a complex mix of medium. This saturation
separate elements consisting of a receiver with multiple controls, a could not have happened
battery, and a speaker (or headphones). Radio initially followed the without the advent of the
style of the gramophone and in the late 1920s, aided by the availability tabletop or mantle radio
of electricity in the home, evolved into popular console radio. This was which first appeared in
a piece of wooden furniture with Victorian styling housing and hiding Germany created by the
Nora Radio Company in
Woman using a 1929. This was a portable
crystal radio in integrated cabinet containing
the 1920s all the electronics and a speaker,
with simple controls and con-
nected to an electrical outlet. By
1930 table-top wooden radios
appeared in England, the U.S.,
Wells Coates (UK) Ekco AD65, 1934
and England, but again Nora
led the way in Germany with the first bakelite table-top radio,the
“Sonnenblume” (Sunflower) shown above.
The table-top radio had no design predecessor, and although count-
less numbers were subsequently made in wood and with traditional
styling, there was an opportunity here for new ideas in terms of the
cabinet design, the materials used, and the target market. By 1930 radio
had moved from a novelty to a necessity and, given the number of

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