Designer of Utility Furniture
Gordon Russell (1892 – 1980) was a British Furniture Maker and Designer.
Biography
He began working at his father’s modest antiques restoration workshop in 1908, where he learned various crafts and oversaw repairs. In 1910, he began designing furniture. After World War I, he manufactured furniture in the style of Ernest Gimson. By 1926, his company had adopted Modernism’s beliefs and concepts to integrate the best of the Arts and Crafts tradition with the efficiency of mechanised production. He was a founding member of the Design and Industries Association and a member of the Art-Workers’ Guild.
Established business in London
In 1929, he opened a business with Nikolaus Pevsner at 24 Wigmore Street in London. His visit to Gunner Asplund’s Stockholm Exhibition in 1930 was eye-opening. He relocated to a spacious store constructed by Geoffrey Jellicoe just a few doors away from his previous accommodations in 1935.
In 1931, the company began making radio cabinets for Murphy Radio in Welwyn Garden City, designed by R.D. Russell. These were strikingly modern, influenced by both the International Style and the Arts and Crafts movement.
Utility Furniture
Russell, Crofton Gane (of Gane’s in Bristol), and Geoffrey Dunn (of Dunn’s of Bromley) founded The Good Furniture Group in 1938 to promote mass-production furniture. However, they phased out this practice with the onset of World War II.
Gordon Russell was the director of the Council of Industrial Design from 1947 to 1959. He steered the Council through the years of post-WWII reconstruction and his influence was felt with his involvement with the organisation of the 1951 London “Festival of Britain.” He was knighted in 1955 after helping to organise the 1951 London “Festival of Britain.”
Recognition
In 1940, they named him Royal Designer for Industry and made him a Fellow of the Society of Arts. He taught furniture design at the Royal College of Art in London from 1948 to 1949.
Sources
Byars, M., & Riley, T. (2004). The design encyclopedia. Laurence King Publishing. https://amzn.to/3ElmSlL
Design and Cultural Politics in Postwar Britain: The “Britain Can Make It” Exhibition of 1946. (1997). United Kingdom: Bloomsbury Academic.
Encyclopedia of Interior Design. (1997). United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis.
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