Lynnaea Haggard
Industrial Designer, Marketing and Communications
With International Industrial Design day coming up this week, we decided it was the perfect time to take a lunch hour together and pour over sketches, photos, and newspaper clippings from our archive of Sundberg-Ferar’s most historically significant work. The team dug out drool-worthy concept renderings and blast-from-the-past products from the 1930s when the studio was founded through the 70s and 80s, and listened while our team members told the stories captured in these historical artifacts.
With International Industrial Design day coming up this week, we decided it was the perfect time to take a lunch hour together and pour over sketches, photos, and newspaper clippings from our archive of Sundberg-Ferar’s most historically significant work. The team dug out drool-worthy concept renderings and blast-from-the-past products from the 1930s when the studio was founded through the 70s and 80s, and listened while our team members told the stories captured in these historical artifacts.
Jessie and Sara who have been spearheading our studio’s archiving initiative introduced us to some rare photos of our founders, Carl Sundberg and Monte Ferar, in their daily design work and personal lives. Jessie also walked the team through chronological photos from the studio’s huge undertaking in designing and developing the B.A.R.T. mass transit vehicle for the San Francisco Bay Area in the 60s and 70s. The wealth of documentation covered everything from initial concept ideation through to construction of a full-scale prototype in Sundberg-Ferar’s shop (then located in Southfield). There were even photos from the on-site delivery of the sleek new rapid transit vehicle. (By the way, Sundberg-Ferar is actually designed over 65% of the nation’s public mass transit vehicles, including the DART in Dallas, MARTA in Atlanta, the PATH in Manhattan and north Jersey, and others.)
The finale from our lunchtime archive excavation was a collection of original sketches and sample work by the late Syd Mead, renowned futurist and industrial designer, from when Sundberg-Ferar asked him to quote on concept sketching for the B.A.R.T. project!
To learn more about our history as pioneers of industrial design since 1934, click here!
Author
Lynnaea Haggard
Industrial Designer, Marketing and Communications
Lynnaea Haggard, Industrial Designer + Marcom, has a natural passion for storytelling and building relationships. She started her college education in Journalism, but soon found her passion in switching to Industrial Design. Now she uses her industrial design and skills and enthusiasm for communication to support studio projects as well as design and develop Sundberg-Ferar’s marketing and communications materials. In her spare time, she does anything outdoors, reads, writes, and keeps her cello performance skills sharp.
