Pioneering Design

This week in celebration of what would have been Sir Misha Black's 100th birthday the ICSID (International Council of Societies of Industrial Design) are honouring him for his contributions to the industrial design community. I'll be honest here, I didn't follow this link because I was interested in the man, in fact I had never heard of him. What drew me in was his 1946 design for an electric bicycle that he unveiled at the 'Britain can make it' exhibition, an invention of his own designed to promote manufacturing in Britain following the Second World War. And this is what reeled me in... You could be forgiven for thinking that this is a perhaps an over styled modern design but if you know your trends then the dynamic fluid curves are unmistakably those of the 40's - 50's, but what it does is display the progressive forward thinking of designers at the time following a period of intense international instability.

Having studied mid-20th century history at school (mainly political) I was interested to read how industrial design played a major role in turning around an economy was flat on its back. In his new exhibition Black included a section called the 'benefits of good design', where he promoted good design as a force for social change.

What interests me most about this article is that as Black was so influential in the rebuilding of a shattered economy through industry it lead me to thinking that as we come out of recession what is the state of British Industrial Design now. As many smaller consultancies and manufacturers were wiped out, what role does Industrial Design play today?