Jean Reinecke was one of the msot succesful and innovative Amercian industiral designers of the twentieth century.

Reinecke was born in Bourbon County, Kansas. He attended Kansas State Teachers College, then moved to St. Louis and attended Washington University’s Art School. He was a display artist at General Display Studios in St. Louis, where he soon became a partner and art director and designed automated convention and World’s Fair displays. In 1930, he opened an office in Chicago to work on the Chicago Century of Progress (1933-1934) for General Display. In 1934, he established the industrial design and engineering firm of Barnes & Reinecke in partnership with James Barnes. Barnes and Reinecke was higly successful and grew to a staff of 375 desginers and engineers.

In 1948 Reinecke sold his share in the company, and opened his own firm, J. O. Reinecke and Associates where he was able to take a more direct and personal approach to design projects, including nearly 15,000 products for clients including Amana Refrigeration, Inc., Caterpiller Tractor Co., Chicago Molder Products Corp., Federal Tool Corporation, and Zenith Radio corporation. In 1961 he designed the now-classic 3M Decor Dispenser Model C-15 tape dispenser. The swooping plastic desktop tape dispenser came in numerous colors and textures, and was in use until the end of the twentieth century.

Reinecke was a fellow of the American Society of Industrial Designers of which he served as president and chairman. He was also a member of long-standing of the Society of Plastics Engineers.

See:

"Jean Otis Reinecke," IDSA.org

Reinecke, Jean O., "Industrial Design and the Plastics engineer," SPE Journal (Oct. 1957), 54, 80.