In the middle years of the 20th century, a group of intellectuals pioneered the multi-disciplinary design practice.
Formed in 1942 by a group of artists, architects and designers working for the wartime Ministry of Information, the Design Research Unit deftly met the increasing post-war demand for corporate identity, making their mark at the Festival of Britain (1951) before going on to work on such high-profile projects as British Rail. By the 1970s they were one of the largest and most established design offices in Europe. And yet their name, now, has been all but forgotten.
“Their work is instantly recognisable,” says exhibition curator Michelle Cotton, whose book on the practice, accompanying this Cubitt Gallery touring exhibition, is out this month. “I live in London, and you can’t travel across the city without encountering bits of their work, from the yellow lamp that light up on top of taxis, to the Victoria Line, to the design of the upholstery on some bus seats, to the enamel street signs in Westminster.”
The unique collective nature of the practice grew, in part, from its wartime origins. Working during the second world war as head of exhibitions at the Ministry of Information, designer Milner Gray, who had worked in a loose commercial collective in the 1920s alongside artists such as Graham Sutherland, held cafe meetings with fellow DRU founders, designer Misha Black and advertising entrepreneur Marcus Brumwell. Their discussions were based on the idea of a post-war unit that would use different skills to help rebuild society by bringing “artists and designers into productive relation with scientists and technologists”.
The poet and art critic Herbert Read, whose influential essay Art And Industry (1934) loosely defined the working tenets of the group, which was strongly influenced by International Constructivism, was brought on board as director.
Firm believers in intellectual culture and socially minded – incidentally, they shared office space with Mass Observation – the group held six-weekly design meetings to appraise each other’s work, often inviting a prominent scientist, artist or writer to speak. Their internal newsletter included write-ups of interesting exhibitions.
“The word ‘designer’ wasn’t really recognised then. They called themselves ‘commercial artists’,” says Cotton.
The DRUs first major project was for the luxury car manufacturer Jowett, whom Read convinced to collaborate with sculptor Naum Gabo on an artist-designed car that utilised the radical new materials nylon and Perspex in a sculpturally moulded shell.
But it was in their corporate identity work that their mark was most widely felt. When the brewery Watneys bought up a swathe of pubs across Britain, the DRU provided an identity that included five design archetypes to fit the local architectural character of each pub, while stamping them with the Watneys mark, covering everything from beer mats to bar stools.
They were responsible, too, for the corporate design of British Rail, from the company’s memorable logo to the cutlery in the on-board dining cars.
So why did the DRU fade from memory, even though the company itself endures as part of design associates Scott Brownrigg?
“Historians like individuals,” suggests Cotton. “The DRU really believed in a group way of working, that the best ideas could come from a completely linked way of thinking.” In a world where art and design frequently operate, as two entirely separate entities, the DRU is a reminder that the disciplines are fundamentally, and fruitfully, linked.
Design Research Unit 1942-72 is at the Cooper Gallery, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, Dundee, 01382 385330, www.exhibitions.dundee.ac.uk, until December 16. Turner Prize 2011 nominee Martin Boyce gives an artist talk on December 1 at 5.30pm
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