"Style in Industry," the view from 1929

Reading through the August 1929 Dun's International Review ("A Journal for the Promotion of Trade" that ran until 1931), I ran into this editorial. Interesting to see US trade seeing the notion of trend and styling as something that needed to be controlled and standardized in order to help produce profits, but also in order to be profitable. It reminds me of contemporary conversations on style and trending (Zara, anyone?)

Style in Industry

Manufacturers must be on their mettle these days to meet the demands of a smart and quick-thinking public. This public knows what it wants and keeps an eye open for new trends in style and design in all kinds of articles, ranging from the daitiest of garments to kitchen stoves and industrial machinery. So important have manufacturers found these factors that some have established departments to watch movements in style and design and develop new ones themselves, when the occasion warrants.

Recognizing that many manufacturers are injecting the element of beauty into even the most common articles of daily use, a survey of this general movement has been made by the Policyholders' Service Bureau of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, the results of which have been published in a brochure under the title, 'The Use of Style and Design in Industry.' In discussing the general situation surrounding the trend toward developing style and design, the booklet states that, although new styles and designs are absorbing a greater proportion of production, and despite th fact that these new styles and designs are appearing at an accelerated pace, investigation shows that apparently there has been very little developed in the way of a regular procedures to control, coordinate and direct that production of these new styles and designs so that the undertaking shall be a profitable one. The act is appreciated that the adoption of new styles and designs cannot be placed on a mathematical basis, but the risks now taken by American business are inordinately great.

American business has long been characterized by the freest exchange of information, even among competitors [...] But the literature on styling is scanty and  fragmentary. If progress is to be made in the successful utilization of style and design as factors in producing profits, the first step would seem to be the consideration of hte styling process, as it is undertaken in various types of industrial establishments. Just how is the styling developed? How are styles launched and how are they controlled once in production? It will not be long then before best practices and standards are developed in a field that is still open to guesswork and snap judgment.