THE MEASURE OF MAN
Human Factors in Design
Henry Dreyfuss
Henry Dreyfuss: THE MEASURE OF MAN [Human Factors in Design]. New York: Whitney Library of Design, 1960. First edition. Folio. Publishers printed paper covered board folio housing 19 items: a 16-page stapled booklet, 16 individual anthropometric diagrams, and a pair of 25 x 76” figure charts machine folded as issued. Folio edge worn with scrapped front panel and yellowing to edges. The two figure charts with trivial foxing to blank versos and the usual crimping and creasing that occurs with prolonged folding. Booklet and diagrams are all nearly fine, so a very good or better set overall. Rare.
9.75 x 12.75 printed folio with matching interior flaps housing 19 items [all published]. The first iteration of the Henry Dreyfuss Associates’ attempt to produce a universal set of standards for designing for human scale. In the golden age of American industrial design, Henry Dreyfuss Associates knew that there was more to design than just looking good. Products had to be good, crafted to work with the people who use them. With this in mind, HDA designers approached the Measure of Man as an interactive collection of information design specifications.
THE MEASURE OF MAN [Human Factors in Design] contents:
- 9.75 x 12.75 photo illustrated paper covered cardboard folder with Table of Contents printed on front flap and Dreyfuss biography to rear flap. The folder has done an admirable job of protecting the enclosed 19 items.
- Henry Dreyfuss: The Measure of Man. Slim quarto. Stapled wrappers. 16 pp. Booklet includes sections: Explanations; Check List; and Bibliography.
- [16] 8.5 x 11 Diagrams printed via offset lithography rectos only. Includes: Standing Adult Male [x2]; Standing Adult Female [x2]; Male and Female Children; Basic Visual Data; Hand Measurements; Foot Measurements; Male Standing at Control Board; Female Standing at Control Board; Male Seated at Console; Female Seated at Console; Man Seated in Vehicle; Basic Motion Data; Basic Display Data; and Basic Control Data.
- Life Size Diagram “Joe:” 25 x 76” male figure chart printed in blue to recto only, machine folded in sixteenths as issued.
- Life Size Diagram “Josephine:” 25 x 76” female figure chart printed in blue to recto only, machine folded in sixteenths as issued.
The Measure of Man is an important tool for everyone who designs for the human body. It incorporates the extensive amount of human engineering data compiled and organized by Henry Dreyfuss Associates over the last decade, including up-to-date research of anthropologists, psychologists, scientists, human engineers and medical experts. Engineers, architects, industrial designers, planners, interior and furniture designers, and craftsmen will find that the selectors minimize their searching through numerous and conflicting sources and unreliable information.
The name Henry Dreyfuss (American, 1904 – 1972) is synonymous with industrial design. Dreyfuss was one of the "big four" industrial designers, along with Walter Dorwin Teague, Norman bel Geddes and Raymond Loewy.
During his 44-year career, the versatile Dreyfuss designed hundreds of products that have become icons of modern design, among them the Princess and Trimline telephones, John Deere tractors and Hoover vacuum cleaners, which he outfitted with headlights and bumpers to protect furniture. Other designs by Dreyfuss range from the familiar Honeywell round, wall-mounted thermostat, the Big Ben alarm clock, trains such as the 20th Century Limited for the New York Central Railroad, and the "Situation Room" for the Joint Chiefs of Staff during World War II.
Dreyfuss streamlined even his wardrobe by wearing only brown suits, stayed exclusively at the Plaza hotel while he was in New York, so clients could always find him, and reportedly missed only five days of work in twenty-two years. He enjoyed long-standing relationships with such firms as AT&T, John Deere & Co., Honeywell and Lockheed.
In 1960 he published The Measure of Man, a collection of ergonomic reference charts providing designers precise specifications for product designs utilizing his "Joe" and "Josephine" anthropometric charts. Fifteen years later Dreyfuss Associates Neils Diffrient, Alvin R. Tilley and Joan C. Bardagjy revisited and updated the project in the nine volume Humanscale Information Portfolios published by the MIT Press.