Sara Little Turnbull
Encyclopedia
Sara Little Turnbull is an American product designer, design
innovator and educator. She advised corporate America on product design for more than 50 years, and has been described as "corporate America's secret weapon." She was one of America's first female industrial design
ers and one of the first women to succeed in a post-World War II design industry dominated by men. She helped to create essential products from medical masks to CorningWare
, and founded and led the Process of Change: Laboratory for Innovation and Design at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. She approached design as a self-trained cultural anthropologist
and believed that a thorough understanding of the fine-grain details of how different cultures behaved was key to successful and innovative business solutions.
Because she was 4'11" in height, she acquired the nickname "Little Sara," and then began to call herself Sara Little professionally. She married James R. Turnbull (then executive vice president of Douglas Fir Plywood Assn in Tacoma, WA) in 1965, but used the name Sara Little for her entire career. Later, when Turnbull became executive vice president of National Forest Products Assn, they moved to Washington, D.C., with an apartment at the Warergate. They were living there during the "plumbers'" break-in.
magazine, where she wrote the "Girl with a Future" column until she rose to the position of Decorating Editor, which she held for nearly two decades.
At House Beautiful, she anticipated and helped develop the American post-World War II domestic lifestyle. By asking, "how we could help these people put their lives back together through ideas in our magazine?" she encouraged readers to utilize more informal space in the home (in what eventually became known as the family room
), share living space with a roommate, and organize small spaces for maximum domestic efficiency (she lived for 20 years in a 400 square feet (37.2 m²) hotel room from which she also ran her international consulting practice).
, 3M
and the Corning Glass consumer products division. All three companies eventually hired her as a product research consultant to assist in finding new applications for technologies developed for the war effort. She helped create disposable medical and antipollution masks made from non-woven fibers, nutritious soybean candy, and the ubiquitous freezer-to-oven CorningWare that was developed from a material originally used on missile cones.
During her 65-year design career she provided advice on strategic design
, consumer awareness, and cultural change to an international slate of companies such as: Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola, General Mills, Macy’s, Neiman Marcus, Marks & Spencer, American Can, DuPont, Ford, Nissan, Pfizer, Revlon, Elizabeth Arden, Lever Brothers, Motorola, NASA and Volvo. She consulted on a range of domestic products including housewares, home storage systems, food, counters that cook, microwave cooking products, personal care, medication delivery systems, cosmetics, fabric processes (knit and non-wovens), space suits, furniture, toys, decoration and packaging, household cleaning products, pet care, tapes and adhesives, and car interiors.
Many of her ideas arose from her intense interest in different cultures and the natural world. A self-trained cultural anthropologist, she traveled frequently to destinations such as Borneo
, Malaysia, the Philippines, India
and Kenya
, always on the lookout for how people and animals solved the problems of everyday living. Her design for a pot lid was inspired by observing cheetah
s grasping their prey in the wild. “It always starts with a fundamental curiosity,” she said of her quest for innovative product design. “When I can't find the answer in a book, I go out and search for it. The excitement of my life is that I have always jumped into the unknown to find what I needed to know.” In another case, she began the design process for a burglar-proof lock by interviewing thieves in jail.
In 1971, she established the Sara Little Center for Design Research at the Tacoma Art Museum in Washington State to archive and display her collection of over 5,000 artifacts gathered during her travels. The collection includes body coverings and accessories, food preparation and dining implements, textiles, fine and folk art, much of which had influenced her concepts for domestic product design. The collection was deaccessioned from the Tacoma Art Museum in 2003 and is being re-established in Seattle, WA for design scholarship and educational purposes.
In her work with students at Stanford, Little continually emphasized digging deep into the "why" of a product before leaping into the "how," in order to avoid designing products that only addressed superficial symptoms rather than the deeper need. “The designer is the conscience of the company. We can't expect anyone else to fill this role. That’s why the Process of Change Laboratory delineated the need to know more. Design requires a background of scholarship, otherwise it remains a visual trick.”
She received a Distinguished Designer Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts
in 1988; the Trailblazer Award from the National Home Fashion League (1980), and an honorary doctorate from Academy of Art University
(2003). In 2008, Chrysler
Corporation established the Chrysler Sara Little Turnbull Scholarship at Academy of Art University. The Modern Art Council of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
designated her a "Bay Area Living Treasure" in 2001. In 2006, at the age of 89, Sara Little received the Lifetime Achievement Award from Icograda
(International Congress of Graphic Design Associations).
Design
Design as a noun informally refers to a plan or convention for the construction of an object or a system while “to design” refers to making this plan...
innovator and educator. She advised corporate America on product design for more than 50 years, and has been described as "corporate America's secret weapon." She was one of America's first female industrial design
Industrial design
Industrial design is the use of a combination of applied art and applied science to improve the aesthetics, ergonomics, and usability of a product, but it may also be used to improve the product's marketability and production...
ers and one of the first women to succeed in a post-World War II design industry dominated by men. She helped to create essential products from medical masks to CorningWare
Corningware
CorningWare was originally a brand name for a unique pyroceramic glass cookware resistant to thermal shock, that was first introduced in 1958 by Corning Glass Works. CorningWare is notable for the fact that it can be used directly on the stovetop.- History :In 1953, Dr. S...
, and founded and led the Process of Change: Laboratory for Innovation and Design at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. She approached design as a self-trained cultural anthropologist
Cultural anthropology
Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans, collecting data about the impact of global economic and political processes on local cultural realities. Anthropologists use a variety of methods, including participant observation,...
and believed that a thorough understanding of the fine-grain details of how different cultures behaved was key to successful and innovative business solutions.
Early life and education
Sara Finkelstein was born in Manhattan and raised in Brooklyn. Her mother introduced her to the use of color and form by arranging fruits and vegetables in bowls. She attended Parsons School of Design on scholarships from the School Art League of NYC and the National Council of Jewish Women, graduating in 1939.Because she was 4'11" in height, she acquired the nickname "Little Sara," and then began to call herself Sara Little professionally. She married James R. Turnbull (then executive vice president of Douglas Fir Plywood Assn in Tacoma, WA) in 1965, but used the name Sara Little for her entire career. Later, when Turnbull became executive vice president of National Forest Products Assn, they moved to Washington, D.C., with an apartment at the Warergate. They were living there during the "plumbers'" break-in.
House Beautiful
After college, Sara Little worked at Marshall Fields as a bench designer and assistant art director, then became art director at Blaker Advertising Agency. She was eventually hired as an editorial assistant at House BeautifulHouse Beautiful
House Beautiful is an interior decorating magazine that focuses on decorating and the domestic arts. First published in 1896, it is currently published by the Hearst Corporation, who purchased it in 1934...
magazine, where she wrote the "Girl with a Future" column until she rose to the position of Decorating Editor, which she held for nearly two decades.
At House Beautiful, she anticipated and helped develop the American post-World War II domestic lifestyle. By asking, "how we could help these people put their lives back together through ideas in our magazine?" she encouraged readers to utilize more informal space in the home (in what eventually became known as the family room
Family room
A family room is an informal, all-purpose room in a house similar to a living room. The family room is designed to be a place where family and guests gather for group recreation like talking, reading, watching TV, and other family activities. Often, the family room is located adjacent to the...
), share living space with a roommate, and organize small spaces for maximum domestic efficiency (she lived for 20 years in a 400 square feet (37.2 m²) hotel room from which she also ran her international consulting practice).
Product Design
In 1958, Little left the magazine world and formed Sara Little Design Consultant. At the time, she wrote a trade article for Housewares Review entitled "Forgetting the Little Woman" (although she often referred to this article in subsequent interviews as "When Will The Consumer Become Your Customer?"). Her main argument was that most companies created products for retailers, instead of considering the people who were actually going to use them. The story caught the attention of a few prominent CEO's and executives, including the heads of General MillsGeneral Mills
General Mills, Inc. is an American Fortune 500 corporation, primarily concerned with food products, which is headquartered in Golden Valley, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis. The company markets many well-known brands, such as Betty Crocker, Yoplait, Colombo, Totinos, Jeno's, Pillsbury, Green...
, 3M
3M
3M Company , formerly known as the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation based in Maplewood, Minnesota, United States....
and the Corning Glass consumer products division. All three companies eventually hired her as a product research consultant to assist in finding new applications for technologies developed for the war effort. She helped create disposable medical and antipollution masks made from non-woven fibers, nutritious soybean candy, and the ubiquitous freezer-to-oven CorningWare that was developed from a material originally used on missile cones.
During her 65-year design career she provided advice on strategic design
Strategic design
Strategic design is the application of future-orientated design principles in order to increase an organization’s innovative and competitive qualities....
, consumer awareness, and cultural change to an international slate of companies such as: Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola, General Mills, Macy’s, Neiman Marcus, Marks & Spencer, American Can, DuPont, Ford, Nissan, Pfizer, Revlon, Elizabeth Arden, Lever Brothers, Motorola, NASA and Volvo. She consulted on a range of domestic products including housewares, home storage systems, food, counters that cook, microwave cooking products, personal care, medication delivery systems, cosmetics, fabric processes (knit and non-wovens), space suits, furniture, toys, decoration and packaging, household cleaning products, pet care, tapes and adhesives, and car interiors.
Many of her ideas arose from her intense interest in different cultures and the natural world. A self-trained cultural anthropologist, she traveled frequently to destinations such as Borneo
Borneo
Borneo is the third largest island in the world and is located north of Java Island, Indonesia, at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia....
, Malaysia, the Philippines, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
and Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
, always on the lookout for how people and animals solved the problems of everyday living. Her design for a pot lid was inspired by observing cheetah
Cheetah
The cheetah is a large-sized feline inhabiting most of Africa and parts of the Middle East. The cheetah is the only extant member of the genus Acinonyx, most notable for modifications in the species' paws...
s grasping their prey in the wild. “It always starts with a fundamental curiosity,” she said of her quest for innovative product design. “When I can't find the answer in a book, I go out and search for it. The excitement of my life is that I have always jumped into the unknown to find what I needed to know.” In another case, she began the design process for a burglar-proof lock by interviewing thieves in jail.
In 1971, she established the Sara Little Center for Design Research at the Tacoma Art Museum in Washington State to archive and display her collection of over 5,000 artifacts gathered during her travels. The collection includes body coverings and accessories, food preparation and dining implements, textiles, fine and folk art, much of which had influenced her concepts for domestic product design. The collection was deaccessioned from the Tacoma Art Museum in 2003 and is being re-established in Seattle, WA for design scholarship and educational purposes.
Process of Change: Laboratory for Innovation and Design
In 1988, Little founded and for the next 18 years directed the Process of Change: Laboratory for Innovation and Design at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. The Laboratory tracked changing trends in more than 375 areas including education, healthcare, aging, sexuality, food and nutrition, housing, clothing, and manufacturing. Little used this information to fuel her design concepts. "The quality of life of a people dictates what they design, what they make," she said. "It's a reflection of life itself."In her work with students at Stanford, Little continually emphasized digging deep into the "why" of a product before leaping into the "how," in order to avoid designing products that only addressed superficial symptoms rather than the deeper need. “The designer is the conscience of the company. We can't expect anyone else to fill this role. That’s why the Process of Change Laboratory delineated the need to know more. Design requires a background of scholarship, otherwise it remains a visual trick.”
Teaching, Awards and Honors
In addition to her work at Stanford, Sara Little has been a guest lecturer at schools such as Parsons School of Design, Rhode Island School of Design, MIT, Harvard, Illinois School of Technology, Copenhagen Business School, University of Washington, San Francisco State University and University of California Berkeley.She received a Distinguished Designer Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
in 1988; the Trailblazer Award from the National Home Fashion League (1980), and an honorary doctorate from Academy of Art University
Academy of Art University
The Academy of Art University , a for-profit university owned by the Stephens Institute, was founded in San Francisco, California in 1929 by Richard S. Stephens...
(2003). In 2008, Chrysler
Chrysler
Chrysler Group LLC is a multinational automaker headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan, USA. Chrysler was first organized as the Chrysler Corporation in 1925....
Corporation established the Chrysler Sara Little Turnbull Scholarship at Academy of Art University. The Modern Art Council of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is a modern art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art and was the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th century art...
designated her a "Bay Area Living Treasure" in 2001. In 2006, at the age of 89, Sara Little received the Lifetime Achievement Award from Icograda
Icograda
International Council of Graphic Design Associations was founded in London in 1963. Icograda is the world body for professional communication design and visual communication. Icograda network members include professional organisations, design promotion bodies, design media and design education...
(International Congress of Graphic Design Associations).
Board Service
- 1948: American Institute of Decorators "Design Associate"
- 1951-54: Alumni Board, Parsons School of Art and Design
- 1965-70: Board of Trustees, Parsons School of Art and Design
- 1990-? Board of Director, Corporate Design Foundation
- 1991: Board of Directors, Long Term Care Implementation Committee at the Age Center Alliance, Inc. (Palo Alto, CA)
- 1995: Advisory Member, National Design Forum
- 2004: Board of Directors, Cooper Hewitt Museum and Committee for the Arts