One of the first professionally trained designers to embrace machine production, Christopher Dresser is considered by many as the world's first industrial designer. He revolutionized product design of his day by incorporating innovations in the use of color, pattern, material, and ornamentation, and drew upon an extraordinarily eclectic fusion of influences from, amongst others, Egyptian, Indian, Persian, Peruvian, and Japanese culture. Dresser was also instrumental in establishing the practice of working directly with manufacturers, employing new materials and machine processes, and creating inventive forms and designs to make affordable, high-quality products for a growing middle class. As an influential writer and distinguished lecturer, he became a leading figure in the campaign to reform design and industry in Britain. Dresser firmly believed that "we must not be copyists or merely servile imitators; on the contrary, from the fullness of our knowledge we must seek to produce what is new, and what is accordant with the spirit of the times in which we live; but what we produce must reveal our knowledge of the ornament of past ages." Born in 1834 in Glasgow, the son of an excise officer, Dresser attended the new Government School of Design at age thirteen in London. He studied botany and was introduced to the theories and works of the most influential designers of his time, including A. W. N. Pugin and Owen Jones. In the 1860s, Dresser chose a career as a designer, creating a successful studio that collaborated with over fifty of the most important manufacturers of his day—a testament to his entrepreneurial talent. He promoted the importance of the role of the designer in his own career by frequently signing his work and closely monitoring the production of his creations. In 1876, Dresser was the first European designer to visit Japan to study decorative arts and production techniques. This three-month tour, during which he visited hundreds of manufacturers as well as temples and other architectural sites, had a profound impact on Dresser's approach to materials and form. Utilizing a wide range of media and new industrial production techniques, Dresser pushed ornamentation toward greater stylization and abstraction. His innovative and elaborate cast-iron furniture, ceramics, textiles, glass, wallcoverings, and household objects represented a stunning departure from traditional European decorative arts design, and resulted in startlingly modern forms.