Sundberg-Ferar is an

industrial design Industrial design is a process of design applied to physical Product (business), products that are to be manufactured by mass production. It is the creative act of determining and defining a product's form and features, which takes place in adva ...

consultancy headquartered in

Walled Lake, Michigan Walled Lake is a city in Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. A northwestern suburb of Detroit, Walled Lake is located roughly northwest of downtown Detroit. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 7,246. History The town ...

. Founded in 1934 by partners Carl Sundberg (1910–1982) and Montgomery Ferar (1910–1982), the company was among the first industrial design firms to be established in the U.S. Sundberg-Ferar employs approximately 20 employees in the disciplines of

mechanical engineering Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines and mechanism (engineering), mechanisms that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and engineering mathematics, mathematics principl ...

, research, model making and prototyping,

interaction design Interaction design, often abbreviated as IxD, is "the practice of designing interactive digital products, environments, systems, and services." While interaction design has an interest in form (similar to other design fields), its main area of foc ...

and packaging design. The firm has designed products for hundreds of clients in categories such as

home appliances A home appliance, also referred to as a domestic appliance, an electric appliance or a household appliance, is a machine which assists in household functions such as cooking, cleaning and food preservation. The domestic application attached to ...

and housewares, automotive and medical products,

consumer electronics Consumer electronics, also known as home electronics, are electronic devices intended for everyday household use. Consumer electronics include those used for entertainment, Communication, communications, and recreation. Historically, these prod ...

, industrial equipment,

mass transit Public transport (also known as public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) are forms of transport available to the general public. It typically uses a fixed schedule, route and charges a fixed fare. There is no rigid definition of whi ...

vehicles,

vending machines A vending machine is an automated machine that dispenses items such as snacks, beverages, cigarettes, and lottery tickets to consumers after cash, a credit card, or other forms of payment are inserted into the machine or payment is otherwise m ...

and aircraft interiors.

Company history

In 1934, founders Sundberg and Ferar were working together at the

General Motors General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. The company is most known for owning and manufacturing f ...

Art & Color Section under Harley J. Earl when they decided to leave and start their own firm. They remained partners and owners of Sundberg-Ferar until 1975, when they retired from the firm. Company ownership has transitioned internally ever since. Originally located in

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

, Sundberg-Ferar became one of the leading independent design offices after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. The firm also pioneered the use of design to create corporate image, coordinating a look for

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

's early computers and showrooms in the 1950s. Company headquarters moved from

Royal Oak, Michigan Royal Oak is a city in Oakland County, Michigan, Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. An inner-ring suburb of Metro Detroit, Detroit, Royal Oak is located roughly north of downtown Detroit. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 cens ...

and then to

Southfield, Michigan Southfield is a city in Oakland County, Michigan, Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. An inner-ring suburb of Detroit, Southfield borders Detroit to the north, roughly northwest of downtown Downtown Detroit, Detroit. As of the 2020 Uni ...

in 1959. In 1995, the company moved to its current location in

where it operates within a 15,000 sq. ft. purpose-built structure. The building is divided into an 8,000 sq. ft.

prototype A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototype ...

shop and a 7,000 sq. ft. multi-disciplinary office space that includes a large

focus group A focus group is a group interview involving a small number (sometimes up to ten) of demographically predefined participants. Their reactions to specific researcher/evaluator-posed questions are studied. Focus groups are used in market researc ...

/viewing facility. During the 1990s, the company opened offices in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

and

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, but closed these offices in a restructuring effort in 2002–2004. In addition to Montgomery ("Monte") Ferar and Carl Sundberg, many noteworthy U.S. industrial designers of the 20th century at one time worked at Sundberg-Ferar, including Carl "Cam" Cameron, Samuel M. Highberger, Norman J. James and Clair Samhammer. At its 2016 International Conference in Detroit, Michigan, the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) awarded Carl and Monte the "Personal Recognition Award" for their contribution to industrial design's long-term welfare and importance.

Project history

Today, some of Sundberg-Ferar's most well-known projects include Hyundai’s walking car concept, ‘Elevate’, unveiled at CES 2019
SproutsIO
a start-up product that is revolutionizing the garden-to-table movement, Affinity Tool Works’ ‘Speedhorse’
the world’s fastest deployable sawhorse
and more. During the 1930s-1960's, the firm's design and styling projects represented a broad range of product categories, including

household goods Household goods are goods and products used within households. They are the tangible and movable personal property placed in the rooms of a house, such as a bed or refrigerator. Economic role Businesses that produce household goods are categori ...

and appliances, office and industrial equipment, automobiles, boats and furniture. Notable design work from that period included: *

Crosley Crosley was a small, independent American manufacturer of economy cars or subcompact cars, bordering on microcars. At first called the Crosley Corporation and later Crosley Motors Incorporated, the Cincinnati, Ohio, firm was active from 19 ...

Pavilion - New York World's Fair (1939) *

CC automobile (1945) *DeVilbiss Co. air compressor (1948) *

IBM 702 The IBM 702 was an early generation electronic tube, tube-based digital computer produced by IBM in the early to mid-1950s. It was the company's response to Remington Rand's UNIVAC I, UNIVAC, which was the first mainframe computer to use magneti ...

computer (1954) *

IBM 305 RAMAC The IBM 305 RAMAC was the first commercial computer that used a moving-head hard disk drive (magnetic disk storage) for secondary storage. The system was publicly announced on September 14, 1956,

business computer (first disk drive and architectural character to fit office decor) (1957) *

RCA RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded in 1919 as the Radio Corporation of America. It was initially a patent pool, patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Westinghou ...

Whirlpool A whirlpool is a body of rotating water produced by opposing currents or a current running into an obstacle. Small whirlpools form when a bath or a sink is draining. More powerful ones formed in seas or oceans may be called maelstroms ( ). ''Vo ...

"Miracle Kitchen" (1957) *J.P.

Seeburg Corporation Seeburg was an American design and manufacturing company of automated musical equipment, such as orchestrions, jukeboxes, and vending equipment. Founded in 1902, its first products were Orchestrions and automatic pianos but after the arrival of g ...

jukebox A jukebox is a partially automated music-playing device, usually a coin-operated machine, that plays a user-selected song from a self-contained media library. Traditional jukeboxes contain records, compact discs, or digital files, and allow user ...

(KD-200, L-series - 1957; Q100, Q160 and 3W100 Wall-O-Matic - 1960) *

Model C electric typewriter (1959) *

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co., commonly known as Sears ( ), is an American chain of department stores and online retailer founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosen ...

, Roebuck & Company Tower Capri typewriter (1961) Beginning in the 1960s, Sundberg-Ferar became heavily involved in the design of mass transit vehicles. *

New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is a New York state public benefit corporations, public benefit corporation in New York (state), New York State responsible for public transportation in the New York metropolitan area, New York Ci ...

R40M subway transit vehicles (Design in Steel Award 1969) *

Bay Area Rapid Transit Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) is a rapid transit system serving the San Francisco Bay Area in California. BART serves 50 stations along six routes and of track, including eBART, a spur line running to Antioch, and Oakland Airport Connecto ...

(BART) System vehicles (designed in 1965, introduced 1972) *

Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA ), commonly referred to as Metro, is a tri-jurisdictional public transit agency that operates transit services in the Washington metropolitan area. WMATA provides rapid transit servic ...

(Metro) subway vehicles (1976) *

Chicago Transit Authority The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) is the operator of public transport, mass transit in Chicago, Illinois, United States, and some of its suburbs, including the trains of the Chicago "L" and List of Chicago Transit Authority bus routes, CTA bu ...

(Rail) 2400 Series "L" cars (1976–1978) *

Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA ) is the principal public transport operator in the Atlanta metropolitan area. Formed in 1971 as strictly a bus system, MARTA operates a network of Public transport bus service, bus route ...

vehicles (1980's) *

Dallas Area Rapid Transit Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) is a transit agency serving the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex of Texas. It operates buses, light rail, commuter rail, and high-occupancy vehicle lanes in Dallas and twelve of its suburbs. In , the system had a r ...

vehicles (1985–1989) Listed among Sundberg-Ferar's major clients since 2000 are

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a cola soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. In 2013, Coke products were sold in over 200 countries and territories worldwide, with consumers drinking more than 1.8 billion company beverage servings ...

Procter & Gamble The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is an American multinational consumer goods corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble. It specializes in a wide range of personal health/con ...

, Carrier,

Masco Masco Corporation is an American manufacturer of products for the home improvement and new home construction markets. Comprising more than 20 companies, the Masco conglomerate operates nearly 60 manufacturing facilities in the United States and ...

Chrysler FCA US, LLC, Trade name, doing business as Stellantis North America and known historically as Chrysler ( ), is one of the "Big Three (automobile manufacturers), Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn H ...

, and

Electrolux Electrolux AB () is a Swedish Multinational corporation, multinational home appliance manufacturer, headquartered in Stockholm. It is consistently ranked the world's second largest appliance maker by units sold, after Whirlpool Corporation, Whi ...

References

{{Reflist

External links

*Sundberg-Ferar web site (http://www.sundbergferar.com) Industrial design firms Design companies of the United States Design companies established in 1934 Companies based in Oakland County, Michigan 1934 establishments in Michigan