Text b Good Design

Good Design is a concept based on a rational approach to the design Process whereby products are created оn accordance with the formal, technical and aesthetic principles generally associated with the Modem Movement. The Museum of Modem Art, New York staged the first Good Design exhibition in 1950, which was laid out by Charles and Ray Games designs were selected by a three-man jury and were retailed through stores with an accompanying Good Design label. The premise of Good a Design was also favorably received in Europe, especially in Germany. In 1952, Max Bill co-founded the Hochschule fur Cestaltung, Ulm to promote the virtues of Good Design that had previously been extolled at the Bauhaus. Bill also responsible for the establishment of the "Die Gutt Industrieform” exhibitions in Germany. The concept of Good Design was most notably embraced at Braun, where Dieter Rams developed a functionalist house-style for electrical products. In Britain, Good Design was actively promoted by the Design Council (founded in 1960) through exhibitions and journal Design. The Council implemented the use of its famous «kitemard» label as a seal of approval for worthy products. In the 1960s there was a reaction against the conservative conformity of Good Design and what was seen as the Establishment's dictation or good taste". The popular reactor to Good Design ushered in Post-Modernism, which brought radicalism, emotion, spontaneity and character back into mainstream design.

Kenneth Grange studied at the Willesden School of Arts & Crafts, London, and form 1944 to 1947. He trained as a technical illustrator with the Royal Engineers as part of his national service, and afterwards worked as a assistant for various London-based architectural and design practices, including Arcon Chartered Architects, Bronek Katz & Vaughan George Bower and Jack Howe & Partners. In 1958, he established his own office in London, specializing in product design, and fourteen years later formed a design partnership with Theo Crosby, Alan Fletcher, Mervyn Kurlankky and Colin Forbes shown as Pentagram. Grange Combined German Functionalism, as practiced at Braun, with a British sensibility to appropriateness, creating designs that had a sculptural purity and a no-nonsense robustness. Among his many able designs for industrial production is the Kenwood Chef-mixer (1970), the Kodak Pocket Instamatic camera (1975), the Parker 25 range of pens (1979) and the Protector razor by Wilkinson Sword (1992). He also designed the exterior body Sail’s 125 intercity high-speed train (1971-1973) and Adshel bus shelters for London Transport (1990). Kenneth Grange has received numerous awards for his design work including ten Design Council Awards for Elegant Design in 1963. Since 1985 to 1987, he served as Rector of the Faculty of Royal Designers.