One of Chicago's most important design firms in the decades after World War II, Mel Boldt & Associates fashioned many of the radios, televisions, jukeboxes and appliances produced by Midwest manufacturers. The firm's major clients included Zenith (the "Sony" of its day in consumer electronics) Amana/Raytheon, National Presto Industries, Rowe/AMI, Schick Personal Care, and Bausch & Lomb. During the nearly 40 years of its existence, Mel Boldt & Associates employed hundreds of designers. Many designers active today started their careers at Boldt and credit that studio with teaching important lessons. Conversations with them also reveal how much the business of design has changed in the past 30 years.

Born in Chicago in 1917, Melvin H. Boldt attended the Armour Institute of Technology (now IIT) and left after two years of study to go to work. During World War II he designed for military needs at Bendix Home Appliances, Inc.omHoh Home in South Bend, Indiana, and then as Product Stylist, designed equipment and furnishings, as well as laundry machines -- washers with their distinctive large porthole window, dryers and ironers- quality appliances desired by the many families starting households after the War. In 1947 he returned to Chicago to partner with John (Jack) Morgan, who had headed design at Sears, Roebuck & Co. In 1952 Boldt opened his own firm, first located in the Palmolive Building at 919 N. Michigan, and by 1969 had moved Mel Boldt & Associates to 320 S. School Street in Mount Prospect to be closer to Zenith, its most important client. After Boldt's death in 1981, the office survived eight years under the management of key employees.

Boldt's design office grew from five at the start to 35 at its peak. He wouldn't allow the firm to grown larger because he insisted on being "the" designer for each of his clients. He was as much a salesman as designer. He mined the clients for design projects, critiqued the designers' work for both concept and presentation, and sold the client on the best results of their efforts. Until his final illness he rarely missed a client design meeting.

For Zenith the Boldt office designed the first transistor Transoceanic radio, TVs, the company's first TV remote control, watches, and video recorders; the first Radarange microwave oven and many refrigerators for Amana; and countless blenders, toasters, coffee percolators, irons, and specialty appliances (hamburger press, egg cooker, butter melter, vertical grill) and cordless rechargeable toothbrush for Presto; desk lamps for Spartus, jukeboxes and vending machines for Rowe/AMI, exercise bicycles for Bally, and sunglasses for Bausch & Lomb including their best-selling model.

The firm excelled at generating ideas for the industrial design of new products and in the presentation of the design ideas using a unique rendering style, along with the creation of high-quality design prototypes. Engineering was handled by client staff. Former employees chuckle about how once the studio was burglarized by thieves who took the models, believing they were taking real televisions. Too bad for them, the court determined the models were more valuable than real TVs and fined the culprits accordingly!

In the days before computers, the firm developed a consistent style of presentation drawings that helped clients visualize early concepts. Glenview designer Bill Cesaroni got his first job with Boldt and during his 1971-76 tenure he acquired skills he applied to the firm he later established. "You'd learn from the guy standing next to you. You'd start with a fresh piece of paper in the morning, do thumbnail sketches for 15 minutes, create an underlay, put a new piece of paper on the top, and at the end of the day expect a colored rendering on the wall. Everybody's style was the same; if five guys did 25 drawings for a client, they all looked the same-that was intentional, so there was no impact on the selection. It was not an individual's work when presented. We worked in magic marker and thought fast to offer as many choices as possible. The Mel Boldt style of rendering was so nice it would pop off the page, it was a good means to get "Wow" factor in phase one. The staff of 15 industrial designers did nothing but concept renderings, eight or nine hours a day, five days a week; we were an assembly line producing concept renderings. We'd show the client 20 choices, the client picked one and that drawing would go to the other side of the room where the draftsmen did nothing but detail work. What we produced in one day was incredible. It was the basis of my education."

Marilyn Johnson, now a design manager at S.C. Johnson in Racine, Wisconsin (Boldt alum 1979-1988) recalled, "I would do the appearance, layout of controls and functionality, those renderings would go to the other side of the room and they would do detailed control drawings before CAD came along."

When Mel returned to the office late in the day from visiting with clients, he'd survey the day's output pinned to the walls by walking around the studio with the account managers. She continued, "It was high visibility for our work. If you were still working at that hour, you got the dubious honor of listening to the remarks. Starting out, it was a good learning experience, no holds barred. We heard critiques on a regular basis, it was a chance to understand what the client wanted. We didn't have client contact, this was our client feedback."

Later in her career she discovered, "Once I was visiting an office in California and I saw a drawing pinned on a wall. I recognized right away that person had worked at Boldt's." How to characterize the Boldt style? "Size of object in the picture plane, background technique, the style of surfaces rendered and reflections," she summarized.

And the lessons learned? "It taught you how to go back and think about a problem from a different angle and see that there is never just one way to do something. That's a critical skill ever since for me: I learned that a problem has more than one solution. You have to keep looking for it. It may seem obvious, easy to come up with an initial idea, you fall in love with it and want to stop. But at Boldt, you couldn't stop, you had to keep going, and you surprise yourself when you keep going, you go places you didn't expect."

But what about research, where designers spend so much of their time now? Bill Cesaroni offered an important insight: "Designers didn't have to spend time on research then; the client project manager knew his category and industry inside and out because he had spent 20 years of his career learning it. Today young managers change positions often and don't have the confidence. They need research to justify the concept selection."

The Boldt business model, typical of that era, relied on large retainer fees. The design consultancy was considered an arm of the client company. But the business climate changed from one with vigorous company executives who lived their product category to an environment in which management focused more on the bottom line. Manufacturers either brought design in-house or shifted their allegiance to designers who provided project work. The Boldt firm dissolved when Zenith, its largest client, decided to bring design inside and top personnel left to work for Zenith.

Cesaroni recalls, "His firm was so successful-- he never published, advertised or hardly promoted himself-- yet during the '50s, '60s and '70s it was probably the most successful ID office by far in Chicago and the Midwest."

Long before designers affected white suits or unique glasses, the gentleman class of designers branded themselves with a signature appearance. Mel Boldt's 1981 obituary noted that for the last dozen years of his life, he had been listed as one of the "Ten Best Dressed Men in America" by the Custom Tailor's Guild. His lifestyle of golf with client company presidents, fine cars and impeccable suits was both the means of achieving and the result of his prosperous business.

Robert Huff, who had led the Amana account and continued with that work until he retired to Arizona in 1998, echoed the interpretations of his former colleagues and added, "Those were the days when companies were run by salesmen and entrepreneurs, driven people. These people were replaced by "bean counters" and it changed the face of American industry. Product development stopped being about unique innovation, but about making money. Now it's come back almost full circle."

Vicki Matranga, H/IDSA has been the Design Programs Coordinator for the International Housewares Association for 14 years. She administers the annual student design competition and product Design Awards, and events and displays at the annual Show at McCormick Place such as the Theatre, ColorWatch, Design Defined and DesignALIVE.

Drawings supplied by Bob Huff and Bill Cesaroni. Photos provided by Bob Huff and Mel W. Boldt. Scans and photographs of drawings by Vicki Matranga.

Materials from the Boldt office are held at The Henry Ford Museum, www.thehenryford.org

Labels: "chicago design history"