VON NESSEN, GRETA INDUSTRIAL DESIGNER (c) By Polly Guerin

Greta von Nessen may not be a household word today but when she created the Anywhere Lamp in 195l there was nothing like it, but at the same time, there was absolutely nothing new about it; all the lamp’s parts had been available as early as the 1920s. Amazing! She was an innovator, a style caster of a modern style. Greta decided instead of totally reinventing the wheel, to wield already-been made parts together (each from a different design periods) to create something new. Greta von Nessen was a woman determined to succeed in a man’s world where so few women had made their mark. In a sense her lamp was a game-changer-or at least parts the effort towards taking design to its next level.
WHAT IS INDUSTRIAL DESIGN? It emerged as a profession in the 1920s but took firmer hold in the depression the United States. After the stuffiness of previous eras manufacturers turned to industrial designers to give their products a modern look that would attract consumer appeal. It was a fresh new beginning and the timing was fortuitous. At a time when the country was at a low-ebb, the new streamlined works evoked a sense of speed and efficiency and projected the image of progress. At the same time, it allowed corporations to mass produce items and industrial designers lowered the costs by exploiting new materials like plastic, vinyl, chrome, aluminum creating works through molds and shaping. Resulting affordable prices and a growing prosperity helped to drive popular demand for modernism.
GRETA BEHIND HER MAN Greta was the widow of the industrial designer, Walter Von Nessen founder of Nessen Studios, established in 1927 in New York City, now Nessen Lamps Inc. Von Nessen was the only major designer to concentrate on innovative contemporary lighting and quickly gained a following with well known architects. After her husband’s death in 1943, Greta continued his lighting and furniture business developing designs of her own, particularly the Anywhere Lamp. She is counted among the pioneers in American industrial design and her designs have been featured at MOMA, the Modern Museum of Art and on a United States postage stamp. There seems to be very little biographical date about Great except that she was an American born in Sweden in 1900 and died in 1978.

GRETA VON NESSEN, ONE OF THE PIONEERS IN INDUSTRIAL DESIGN, SERVES AS INSPIRATION FOR WOMEN TODAY WHO WILL SET THE STANDARD FOR A NEW GENRE OF FUTURE MODERNISM.