John Tjaarda
Johan "Jan" Tjaarda (born February 4, 1897 , † 1962 ), later known as John Tjaarda van Sterkenburg , was an American product and car designer of Dutch origin. He was born in Arnhem , Netherlands in 1897 , the son of Henriette Elisabeth Thieme and the doctor Johannes Jan Tjaarda.
Tjaarda was trained in aircraft design in Great Britain and later was a pilot in the Koninklijke Luchtmacht . In 1923 he emigrated to the USA , changed his name to John and worked in Hollywood as a coachbuilder . Around 1926 he was hired as a designer at the wagon builder Locke and Company. Their best-known product was the Touralette, a two-door open body originally designed by Tjaarda for the chassis of the Chrysler L-80 (1927–1928). For a while he also worked for the "GM Art and Color Section" headed by Harley Earl
In the 1920s he designed a series of streamlined bodies known as the "Sterkenburg Series". He later became head of body design at Briggs Manufacturing Company, a body manufacturer in Detroit that worked for Ford and Chrysler, among others. There he developed the “Briggs Dream Car” on behalf of Ford, a concept vehicle for the world exhibition “ A Century of Progress ” in Chicago . The car had a rear engine and a streamlined body. Tjaarda gave the Lincoln Zephyr (1936) a similar shape, converted to a front engine .
In 1934 he created the “Kitchen of Tomorrow” exhibition for Briggs.
The designer Tom Tjaarda was John Tjaarda's son.
Web links
- History of Industrial Design - John Tjaarda
- John Tjaarda page on the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) website
Individual evidence
- ↑ Birth record
- ^ John Tjaarda van Sterkenburg in the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie
- ^ Locke & Company, Justus Vinton Locke. Locke-Bodied, Fleischmann, Rochester, New York City, Lincoln Motor Car - CoachBuilt.com
- ↑ Chrysler (book by Dennis Adler) page 24
- ↑ John Tjaarda van Sterkenburg - Coachbult.com
personal data | |
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SURNAME | Tjaarda, John |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Tjaarda, Johan; Tjaarda, Jan (nickname); Tjaarda van Sterkenburg, John (full name) |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American product and car designer of Dutch origin |
DATE OF BIRTH | February 4, 1897 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Arnhem , Netherlands |
DATE OF DEATH | 1962 |