Roger Tallon
1929 - 2011, Né et défunt à Paris, France
Roger Tallon (Paris, 1929 – Paris, 2011) was one of the most important and prolific designers in France. He played a central role in the development of the industrial design profession in post-war France until his death in 2011. Throughout his life, he was responsible for creating over 400 diverse and innovative designs, ranging from one of the first portable televisions to the award-winning high-speed train TGV and other models for Eurostar.
Roger Tallon believed that good design is rooted in the rational resolution of problems rather than artistic expression; that the purpose of design should be nothing less than societal progress. In the late 1950s, he created the first French design course at the École des Arts Appliqués de Paris, and later the design department at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in 1963.
He was awarded the Grand Prix National de Design Industriel in 1985 and the Insigne du Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres in 1992. In 2008, he donated all his files, including drawings, technical plans, photographs, and patent applications, to the Arts Décoratifs de Paris, which organized a major retrospective of the designer in 2016.
