Teapot with warmer by Christopher Dresser
2021-09-22
He developed a variety of every day goods for silverware manufactures in London and Birmingham between 1865 and 1885.Read More →
David Gentleman (b.1930) British graphic artist & designer
2021-09-22
His subjects are paintings of landscapes, environmental posters and sketches of street life, and protest signs. He has written and illustrated several books, most of them are about countries and cities. He also produced several commemorative postage stamps for the United Kingdom.Read More →
Milner Gray (1899 – 1997) British Industrial & Graphic Designer
2021-09-20
Gray was a fellow student and friend of artist-designer Graham Sutherland at Goldsmiths College School of Art, London University, where he studied painting and design. He served in the Royal Engineers during WWI when he was involved in camouflage work like other famous artists and designers from both wars. Read More →
Charles Ashbee (1863 – 1942) British furniture & Jewellery Designer
2021-09-17
His design philosophy also played a role in reconciling the principles of honesty of construction and appropriate use of materials with mechanised production. Read More →
Sebastian Bergne (b. 1966) – English / Italian industrial designer
2021-08-29
The phrase ‘less is more’ perfectly encapsulates the core of these works, the quality of which can only be attained by a proper understanding of form.Read More →
What was the Society of Industrial Artists in Britain?
2021-08-11
The origins of the CSD lay in the creation in 1930 of the Society of Industrial Artists (SIA) in Britain, when the public debate was concerned with the nature and definition of both the designer and the design profession. Read More →
British Studio Ceramics a Short History
2021-08-09
In Britain, the backlash against the highly ornamented machine-made ceramics that were fashionable in the late 1800s gathered steam. Art potteries were founded by a group of creative craftspeople who William Morris inspired.Read More →
Christopher Dresser – British Industrial Designer
2021-08-03
Dresser was a one-of-a-kind designer in the nineteenth century. He is regarded as a forerunner of modern industrial design, creating simple, practical things for mass production when colleagues like William Morris and John Ruskin advocated a return to craft production based on the mediaeval guild model.Read More →
Aestheticism 19th-century art movement
2021-07-27
Aestheticism describes the European art movement of the late 19th century. It is centred on the doctrine that art exists alone for the sake of its beauty and that it does not have to serve any political, didactic or another purpose.
Aestheticism is diametrically opposite to the moralist belief, the belief that moralism (and everything else) should be the handmaiden of art instead of art (and everything else) being the handmaiden of morality.Read More →
Lucienne Day (1917 – 2010) influential textile designer
2021-07-23
Lucienne Day was one of the most influential post-war British textile designers. She developed a unique style of pattern making. READ MORERead More →
Sigmund Pollitzer (1913 – 1983) British painter, decorative glass designer and writer
2021-07-22
Sigmund Pollitzer (1913 – 1983) was a painter, decorative glass designer, and writer from the United Kingdom. He was born in the city of London.Read More →
Josiah Wedgwood British Ceramics Manufacturer
2021-07-15
He started by producing basic tableware, but by 1759, he had expanded to include beautiful items like classical vases and portrait busts. He was one of the first producers to hire artists to create product designs.Read More →
Elizabeth Peacock (1880 – 1969) British textile designer and teacher.
2021-07-13
She was best known for the eight banners commissioned by Leonard and Dorothy Elmhirst for the Great Hall in Dartington between 1934 and 1938. She was a spinner, dyer, and weaver and an outstanding teacher from 1940 until 1957.Read More →
Jessie Marion King (1875 – 1949) Scottish illustrator of children’s books
2021-07-07
Jessie Marion King (1875 – 1949) was a well-known Scottish illustrator who specialised in children’s books. She also painted pottery and crafted bookplates, jewellery, and fabric. King was a member of the Glasgow Girls, a collective of female artists.Read More →
Abram Games (1914 – 1996) British graphic and industrial designer
2021-07-03
In acknowledging his power as a propagandist, he claimed, “I wind the spring and the public, in looking at the poster, will have that spring released in its mind.” Read More →
Roger Fry (1866 – 1934) British painter, writer, art critic and designer
2021-06-29
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 →
Design Classic – Kodax ‘Brownie’ 44a Camera 1960
2021-06-29
In the early 1960s, this camera was made. It was simple to load and hold and relatively light, and it was exceptionally well constructed for such a low-cost item. Read More →
Caroline Broadhead ( b.1951 ) British Jewellery Designer
2021-06-27
She used coloured ivory in her early work. In 1977, she started producing necklaces with bound thread. In 1978, she designed a wood- or silver-framed bracelet with tufts of nylon through which the hand could be squeezed; she was a leader in the new jewellery movement that began in 1968, and she used plastic, cloth, paper, and rubber instead of precious metal.Read More →
Minnie Macleish (1876 – 1957 ) British textile designer
2021-06-22
She collaborated with Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Constance Irving at London’s Foxton textiles and Amsterdam’s Metz store. Macleish was a prolific designer during the 1920s and 1930s, creating patterns for Morton Sundour fabrics.Read More →
Harold Stabler (1872 – 1945) British ceramicist, enameller, jeweller and silversmith
2021-06-22
Harold Stabler’s lengthy, illustrious career began in the Arts and Crafts movement and extended into the modernist era. Over the 50 years or so he devoted to the arts, he created an astounding diversity of highly regarded pieces, both unique and mass-produced, in various mediums and styles. Read More →