This article forms part of the Decorative and Applied Arts Encyclopedia, a master reference hub providing a structured overview of design history, materials, movements, and practitioners.
Award-Winning British Design 1957-1988 is a hardcover by Lily Crowther (Author), published by Victoria & Albert Museum. Lily Crowther surveys winners of Britain’s annual Designs of the Year Awards from 1957 to 1988. The selection moves from domestic objects to street furniture, transport, electronics and public systems, presenting design as part of everyday national life.
For Encyclopedia.Design readers, the book offers a focused way to connect objects and buildings with the cultural systems that produced them. Its combination of visual evidence and historical interpretation makes it useful beyond its immediate subject.
Award-Winning British Design 1957-1988 in Context
Work by Robin and Lucienne Day, Kenneth Grange and David Mellor appears alongside less celebrated but revealing products. The broad scope shows how judging criteria, manufacturing priorities and public expectations changed across three decades.
Seen in this wider setting, the publication becomes more than a catalogue of examples. It shows how design decisions are shaped by institutions, technologies, materials and the expectations of their period.
What the Book Contributes to Design History
Awards create a snapshot of what a culture values at a given moment. Viewed historically, the chosen objects reveal changing definitions of innovation, usefulness and British identity, making the book a compact reference for postwar design history.
The strength of the book lies in its ability to make those relationships visible. Readers can move between individual works and broader questions of authorship, production, use, display and preservation.
Visual Reference and Research Value
As a visual reference, Award-Winning British Design 1957-1988 supports close comparison. Images, examples and contextual material help readers notice details that are easily lost in a general history: surface, proportion, assembly, pattern, material behaviour and the ways objects occupy space.
It is particularly useful when read alongside primary objects, buildings and collection records. The volume provides a structured point of entry while also indicating subjects that deserve deeper research.
Who Should Read This Book?
This book will be most useful to industrial designers, design historians, collectors and readers interested in postwar British material culture. It can be read as an introduction, used as a teaching reference or kept as part of a specialist design library.
Book Details
- Author/editor: Lily Crowther (Author)
- Publisher: Victoria & Albert Museum
- Publication date: March 1, 2012
- Format: Hardcover
- Length: 108 pages
- Amazon ASIN / ISBN-10: 1851776737
- ISBN-13: 9781851776733
Sources
- Amazon product listing: Award-Winning British Design 1957-1988
- V&A Architecture & Interiors catalogue
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