Roundabout
Intents and Purposes
By KATHARINE WHITEHORN • EIGHTEEN designs receive this week the official pat on the head bestowed by a Design Centre Award; and one the official laurel of the Duke of Edin- .> v..„4 burgh's elegance prize. They have all been chosen for being 'out- standing for originality, workmanship, economy or some other quality which makes a real con- tribution to their indus- tries.'
tree[ lamp, There is an innocuous
some casseroles and saucepans, and camera and an interesting plastic wall surfacing which makes the pattern by the way it catches the 'At 'There are cylindrical glass vases and some hat similar glass hanging lights--it is a pity nat a nastier version of the same thing is hanging r(un the design ceiling, too. There are some four- (Ware sensible executive desks, which conform to he British Standard for such things (I wonder when the BSI went around measuring executives? Jr (lid they just corral one standard executive and ileasure him?). The desks, though clean-limbed 1.)°1-1gh, are a relief after the austere metal-legged structures in Heal's exhibition a few months ago, vhich had an odd look of aggressive girders [bout them.
.1 he Duke of Edinburgh's award goes to a set white Spode tableware of which the judges Ppreciate the 'reticence and sensitivity'—their own reticence extends to not mentioning that the 'riginal version of the set was adorned with some aftY gold decoration, and that it was the Design Centre who suggested it would be better with-
out it. Presumably they felt that in this instance tri
-e cause of good design would not be helped by tailing a Spode a Spode. The most exciting things, to my mind, were two furnishing fabi ics, one striped, one achieving the almost Impossible by being impressive though floral. As the designs were not officially on show when I saw them, my tour took me in and out of cellars and corridors and odd corners where the 13°1 was temporarily stashed; and these fabrics Were in the room where the displays are designed. There was the usual air of shirt-sleeved integrity to be found in institutions under no obligation to stake money; and 1 found that my timid questions about practicality were received with a vague sur- prise. Having had a pair of superb curtains lose a fifth of their length even in dry cleaning, I asked If these award fabrics were shrink-proof or sun- Proof in any way. One of the designers thought the question irrelevant; another did actually admit that one of the fabrics had shrunk somewhat in his house.
The same thing happened when 1 asked whether to white PVC fabric would stay white.
'Oh well, I dare say—I mean you can wash it— nothing ever stays entirely white, does it?' it set me wondering somewhat about the other designs—about the weighty handle-less cast-iron lids on the casseroles: why not a lighter lid, as Dru ovenware have? About the attractive little camera-1 thought the whole point of the old box Brownie was that it was overwhelmingly efficient for the price just because of its clumsy great depth : have Kodak really improved the design by streamlining the little thing? And the mail-white trays in the desks might have a chance of staying white for more than half an hour if the white was glossy.
No one wants to see the design awards handed out simply on the score of practicality. But it occurred to me that they might do worse than behave like the Legion d'Honneur, who, before bestowing the honour, have the police do a few checks first.
The judges do, however, comment on these things, and their comments make illuminating reading. Apart from straightforward quantitative adjectives like 'excellent' the qualitative ones read like this: appropriate, well rooted in our best pottery traditions, rich, agreeable, gay but not coy, pleasing, satisfying; they comment upon un- obtrusive, clean lighthearted, good straightfor- ward designing without inappropriate styling. The only time they use the word 'remarkable' is for a carpet; a cal pet over which it would be kinder to draw a veil, or at least a linen drugget: per- haps it is a mark of the lofty outlook of the Design Centre that they seem to have a perman- ent blind spot about carpets. There is nothing about which the judges did or could use words like astounding, outstandingly beautiful, fantastic; and somehow one feels that it is not just linguistic modesty which restrains them. For all the attractive elegance of the de- signs there is some quality missing. People who fall violently and inconveniently in love with, sat), Faberge or Minoan pottery or Adam fireplaces know a kind of insane glee about their admira- tion; in Britain we do not commonly expect to have that throat-catching happiness about modern designs. But still it is there. I have felt .i1.4bout sOme Finnish glass and skyscrapers and a tapestry or two and the Delaware Memorial Bridge, which is one of the loveliest things in the world; I know a man who has danced, literally, with joy because a certain aeroplane was so beautiful; perhaps the 1953 Studebaker comes into 'that category. The point is that there is such a feeling; it exits
At the last conference of the Society of, Indus- trial Designl.rs we had a lot of intelligent, chat about the position and progress of design; about the relationship of the designer to industry, to 'his bank manager, to the future and so on and *on. And at the en/ of it George Him (who loplks like the bear on one of the prizewinning mugs and would be the last man in the world to resent my saying so) blew the whole thing to smitherOns by heaving himself to his feet and saying wildly: -But where is the madness?'
It may seem clumsy to diagnose at once Threat- ened Impracticality and Lack of Fever in'the 'de- sign awards—but that is inevitable they are, after all, a compromise. They are all ri.Oht and proper, sane and fine. But perhaps somewhere there is an ecstatic lunatic cofnmissionindYnine- ...
thing absolutely preposterous that will Anock these eighteen into an agreeable, . pit:losing
and appropriate cocked hal ,,;1 :
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