Deconstructing Product Design

Model 302-F1 Telephone

Henry Dreyfuss Associates for Bell Laboratories, 1938

1. Often called the “Lucy phone” due to its use by the lead characters of the I Love Lucy show, the Model 302 is perhaps the first phone that was “designed” in something approaching the modern sense of the word. Then, however, as is often the case today, there remains confusion between “art” and “design.” Henry Dreyfuss comments: “In 1930, shortly after I opened my office, a representative of the Bell Telephone Laboratories called on me … His mission was to inform me that the Bell Laboratories were offering $1,000 awards to each of ten artists and craftsmen for their conceptions of the future appearance of the telephone. It was flattering to be included in such a ...