Charles Harrison, an industrial designer who rethought hundreds of ordinary items, including a plastic trash bin on wheels, a see-through measuring cup and the 3-D View-Master, which were then snapped up by the nation’s burgeoning postwar middle class. When he was hired at Sears headquarters in Chicago in 1961, he was the first black executive there. When Mr. Harrison, who was working for a small design firm at the time, was put in charge of the View-Master’s redesign in 1958, he made it lighter, more durable and much easier to use — easy enough for a child. That simplicity was a hallmark of his work; he was dyslexic, and he wanted to make all his products intuitive so that no one would have to read the instructions. Mr. Harrison’s 1963 design not only lightened the trash bin; it also changed the shape to rectangular and added wheels, making it the foundational design for trash bins now visible all over the country. Mr. Harrison’s creativity was driven in part by the rapidly evolving science of plastics and other materials. Just as he had done with the View-Master, he used new manufacturing processes to come up with lighter and cheaper household products — blenders, baby cribs, portable hair dryers. Turning to Kenmore sewing machines, sold by Sears, he made them lighter by using die-cast aluminum rather than sand-casted molded heavy metals. #blackhistorymonth #blackhistory #designer #charlesharrison https://www.instagram.com/p/B81o7S6F8YL/?igshid=1iqxolncofo82
