Jay Doblin was a designer, design educator, and design theorist. He worked with many of the most notable firms and designers of his day. He directed the Institute of Design at IIT in Chicago for 15 years and continued to teach there for many more years. He led numerous academic design programs in Europe, the US, and Japan. He worked tirelessly to help the field of design become more important, developing theories about product and communications design, the role of the designer, and how design could best become connected to other fields that serve customers and business.

Jay attended Pratt Institute, graduating with considerable distinction in 1942 with an emphasis on camouflage, the knowledge of which was among his contributions to the war effort. He joined the design profession, working with Raymond Loewy, Gordon Lippincott, and then back to Loewy, where he became chief of industrial design.  

During the ID years, he became a founding partner of Unimark international. Afterwards, he periodically ran projects using Jay Doblin & Associates. This firm opened in the early 1980s and, later, as Doblin Group. In 2013, Deloitte acquired Monitor, who in turn acquired Doblin.

Jay had a sharp wit and a great laugh. He was quick to grouch at perceived flaws in the ways business served humanity. He was disappointed when he encountered a lack of rigorous thinking. He always had an open eye for ways to make things better.

John Pipino, Doblin, 2020