David Robertson Smith, formerly a designer a designer of Stickley Brothers Arts and Crafts lines, was hired in 1928 by Johnson-Handley-Johnson, a sister company of The Johnson Furniture Company. They asked had him create an “Art Modern” line of furniture, it was called Dynamique Creations and was America’s first complete line of modern furniture.

David Evans graduated from Carnegie Tech in 1910 majoring in interior decoration. Under Russell Hewett from 1911 until 1928 he designed lighting and furniture for various companies in Chicago, New York, Boston, and Grand Rapids. In 1928 he became a freelance furniture designer in Grand Rapid. In 1935 he designed a modern bedroom set for Widdicomb of hyacinth blue and ivory Maple. This set has been long attributed to Donald Deskey. The drawing and quote on the opposite page are from the “Market Ambassador: Grand Rapids Furniture Exposition”, July 1-20, 1935.

Bert A. Dickenson designed lamps for The Faries Manufacturing Company. The five lamp design patents in his name are all assigned to The Faries Manufacturing Company of Decatur, Illinois. The patent dates range from 1935 to 1938. Dickenson passed away in 1939.

Count Alexis de Sakhnoffsky was born in Russia in 1901, the son of an Advisor to Tsar Nicholas II. Following the Russian revolution he escaped to the continent and began a career as a motorcar designer emigrating to America in 1929. In America he designed many famous automobiles and his drawings of futuristic cars appeared in Esquire Magazine from 1934 on.

Alfons Bach was born in Magdeburg, Germany in 1904. He moved to New York in 1926, he became a freelance industrial designer and architect.

He designed modern carpets for The Bigelow-Sanford Carpet Company, chairs and sofas for Karpen & Brothers, pianos for Jesse French Pianos, lamps for The Mutual Sunset Lamp Company, tables, bookcases, and accessory pieces for Pulaski Veneer Corporation, and suites of furniture for Haywood Wakefield.