...it was Bernard S. Benson, a British-American inventor and engineer working in the aviation industry, who refocused the debate on what was undoubtedly a core issue for the conferees when he observed, “The dilemma of the designer these days is ‘How can I have my cake and eat it?’ Though he may not want to admit it, he is really saying to himself ‘Do I want to be honest but broke, or do I want to prostitute myself and be loaded?’” With these stark sentences, he verbalized a dilemma that had been taking shape for years in the worlds of industrial and graphic design, but that had never been expressed so bluntly by speakers or participants at the IDCA – even if it was constantly on their minds.
Architectural, industrial, and graphic design in the United States from the 1950s through to the 1970s – generally known as mid-century modern – is now perceived as a golden era,...