Kenneth Grange is Britain’s leading product designer, his prolific career spans over 50 years and he is responsible for designing some of the most iconic and familiar products and appliances that shape our daily lives.
Kodak cameras, the silhouette for the Intercity 125 train, Kenwood food mixers, Parker pens, and the re-design of the London Taxi Cab are just some of his well-known designs.
This exhibition, ‘Making Britain Modern’, is Kenneth Grange’s first UK retrospective and it will celebrate his work, his design journey and the role he has played in making Britain modern.
In 1968 Grange designed the iconic exterior and interior layout for the High Speed Intercity 125 train for British Rail.
Unveiled in 1976, the Intercity’s distinctive and futuristic aerodynamic cone nose caught the mood of the time and set the standard for high-speed train design still referenced today.
More recently, in the 1990s, Grange has produced distinctive designs that have become part of our landscape, from the re-design of the London black cab, the Taxi TX1 in 1998, to the Adshel bus shelters of 1993 and the Rural Post box for Royal Mail in 1998, these familiar designs shape our streetscape and continue Grange’s work in street design that started with his parking meter for Venner in 1958.
Today Grange continues to work with British companies including Anglepoise, furniture designer Hitch Mylius and fashion designer Margaret Howell. Still at the centre of the design community, he was made a Royal Designer for Industry in 1969, awarded a CBE in 1984, has an impressive five honorary doctorates and continues to
The exhibition will be designed by James Irvine and Jasper Morrison with graphics by Graphic Thought Facility.
Making Britain Modern will run until October 20 2011 at the Design Museum in London, open from 10:00-17:45 daily.
