Christian Barman was a key first-generation British industrial designer during the interwar years. He is best known for his 1936 electric iron for HMV, which he started designing in 1933. He studied architecture at Liverpool University and ran his practice until Frank Pick invited him to join London Transport as a Publicity Officer in 1935.Read More →
Christian Barman’s 1934 HMV Electric Convector Heater is a classic example of Streamline Modern design. The heater’s stepped parabolic curves are both functional and beautiful. Even though it isn’t streamlined in the strictest sense, it still has the look of modern design.Read More →
The DIY style was one of the novelties that British punk introduced in the 1970s. There were hundreds of these fanzines, the most well-known of which being Sniff in ‘Glue. i-D, published by the art director Terry Jones, evolved from a fanzine into a publishing success.Read More →
Jack Pritchard was one of the most prominent designers in Britain during the 20th century, creating iconic pieces like the bentwood dining table and the Penguin Donkey that can be found in top museums around the world today. Find out more about Jack Pritchard’s life and career by reading this profile of one of Britain’s most respected designers.Read More →
Lucienne Day was one of the most influential post-war British textile designers. She developed a unique style of pattern making. READ MORERead More →
During the twentieth century, a movement arose that advocated for clothing to be worn as part of a sensible, healthy lifestyle rather than only for fashion. These concepts sprang from the work of nineteenth-century fashion reformers, in the same way, that English writer Edward Carpenter popularised the open-toed leather sandal for men. Read More →
It was founded in 1914, by Alexander Morton who reorganised his Alexander Morton and Company Ltd, with Morton Sundour as “the major off-shoot”. It was run by his second son James Morton.Read More →
Alhambra Table Fountain is a centrepiece in the form of a Moorish pavillion having a domed roof decorated with champleve enamelling and resting on a leafy base. The piece is in the style of the Alhambra, Granada, and is intended to represent a shrine covering a water-hole. On the base and encircling the edifice are figures in-the-round of three Arab horses that had been presented to Queen Victoria, and of their Arabian attendant, and nearby a African boy with a dog. Read More →
Between 1960-61, he worked at Latham, Tyler and Jensen, Chicago, and with Jacob Jensen in Copenhagen; in 1961, opened his studio in London, specialising in furniture design; from 1962; began designing seating for Artifort, the Netherlands, who produced more than 20 models of his furniture designsRead More →
William Moorcroft started Moorcroft, a British art pottery manufacturer, in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, in 1913.Read More →
He learned to throw pottery from William Fishley Holland at the Braunton Pottery, North Devon, 1921—22. In 1923, he met Bernard Leach and Shoji Hamada at St. Ives.Read More →
In 1873, Image was ordained a priest in the Church of England. From 1882, he was associated with A.H. Mackmurdo in forming the Century Guild and designed the first issue (1884) of the Guild’s publication, The Hobby Horse. Read More →
Unit One was a British avant-garde community of architects and fine artists were created by designer, artist, and teacher Paul Nash to encourage Modernism in art and architecture in England. Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, and Ben Nicholson were among the group’s most prominent members, as were the architects’ Wells Coates and Colin Lucas. Read More →
From 1882, through his friendship with Arthur H. Mackmurdo, he worked as a draftsman and designed tapestries for William Morris; in 1885, he rented a studio and showed his work for the first time at the Royal Academy; in 1895, he executed murals for the entrance of and a frieze in Siegfried Bing’s shop L’Art Nouveau, ParisRead More →
He was influenced by the sculptural simplicity of German postwar design, such as that of Braun. He redesigned products for Kenwood, including their food mixer. Read More →
He worked in the family retail store in Bromley, he encouraged and supported contemporary design and young designers. Dunn’s sold furniture by Marcel Breuer, Serge Chermayeff, and Alvar Aalto; fabric by Donald Bros., Edinburgh Weavers, and Warners; ceramics by Wedgwood and Michael Cardew. Read More →
The 1940s and 1950s the age of the Graphic Designer. Designers, illustrators, and artists used their talents to disseminate information.Read More →
Morton joined his family’s Morton Sundour Fabrics in 1931 and oversaw the company’s first screen-printed fabrics. He was the artistic director and principal designer of Edinburgh Weavers in Carlisle, which was established in 1928 as Morton Sundour’s creative design unit from 1932 to 1935. From the 1930s, he was a supporter of the Modern movement, commissioning works from well-known painters and artists.Read More →
She was a juror of the 1922 Carnegie International competition, Pittsburgh. She designed both the shapes and the decorations for the 1933—34 Circus range of tableware produced by Arthur J. Wilkinson, Burslem, under Clarice Cliff’s supervision.Read More →
Roger Fry was a British painter, writer, art critic, designer, and lecturer. He was born in London. Between 1885 – 1890, he studied natural sciences, Cambridge University, and Académie Julian, Paris, 1892. Read More →