Paris based Musée des Arts Décoratifs is honoring one of France’s giants of industrial design from the second half of the 20th century: Roger Tallon. In a grand retrospective, the museum looks back on Tallon’s many accomplishments in his 60 year career, from iconic consumer electronics such as his portable TV set Téléavia p111 to graphic designs, for example for Art Press magazine, to his most widely known designs for French SNCF’s Corail, TGV Duplex and Eurostar trains still in use today.Tallon donated his entire archive to the museum before his death in 2011, including numerous models, drawings, notes, and documents—a source the new show generously delves into to portray his versatility and development as one of France’s design pioneers. This covers not only his own work, but also the great influence he had on the understanding of design as a profession and industry in France. After all, it was Tallon who established the first design course in France at the School of Applied Arts in Paris, later to be followed by the first design department at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, also initiated by him.Born in 1929 in Paris, Tallon studied engineering in the late 1940s, and already as a young man had an open mind for the arts. Throughout his life he entertained close friendships with artists and actors. This cultural sensitivity would influence his later work as a designer considerably, as well as the outlook on design he promoted in France. Initially a consultant for American firms Caterpillar and Dupont de Nemours, Tallon’s career took off when in 1953 he joined Technès, a design consultancy founded by famous industrial designer Jacques Viénot, whom Tallon worked with until his death in 1959. He then became the firm’s new director until 1973, when he decided to start his own firm Design Programmes SA.Tallon’s range and output are legendary. During his time at Technès alone, he and his team created more than 400 products, from machine tools to typewriters, and from office furniture to cameras—followed by 200 more patents, models, and brands created by his own company from 1973 on.Many of these designs are now represented in Paris, alongside documents, sketches, and other materials. Highlights include his above mentioned Téléavia P111 portable television set, his 3T tableware series, the Cryptogamme stools for Mobilier National, oil cans for Elf and the Mach 2000 wristwatch series for Lip. Also featured are the “metamorphic trapezoidal bed” from the M400 furniture series, the Wimpy Chair and the TS folding chair for Sentou. Another focus is put on his many achievements as a designer in public transport. Tallon designed the Mexico City Metro in 1968. Two years later, his fruitful collaboration with the French National Railways SNCF began, lasting all the way through the 1990s, and manifested in the Corail train (named such by Tallon after his “comfort on rail” concept), the TGV Atlantique and TGV Duplex, and the Eurostar in 1994.Undoubtedly a star of design in France, Tallon never quite reached the popular celebrity status some of his international colleagues attained. Nonetheless he remains a seminal figure in the French industrial design hall of fame, often named in one breath with revered stars such as Andrée Putman and Philippe Starck. “Roger Tallon. Design in Motion” is on view through January 8, 2017 at Musée des arts décoratifs Paris, France. Click here for more information. See more in the slide show. Read more