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The Design Archive at Brighton: serendipity and strategy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 June 2016

Jonathan M. Woodham
Jonathan M. Woodham*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Arts and Architecture, University of Brighton, Grand Parade, Brighton BN2 2JY, UK
*
Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

The Design Archive at Brighton University, until 2004 known as the Design History Research Centre Archives, houses a number of collections which are of great value to UK and international design historians. These include the Design Council Archive and that of ICOGRADA (the International Council of Graphic Design Associations), as well as material relating to two well-known designers, James Gardner and F. H. K. Henrion. These archives, which actually relate to one another very well, were acquired somewhat serendipitously, but future additions will be chosen as the result of a more strategic planning process.

Type
Research Article
Information
Art Libraries Journal , Volume 29 , Issue 3 , 2004 , pp. 15 - 21
Copyright
Copyright © The Art Libraries Society 2004

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References

1. Known until 2004 as the Design History Research Centre Archives at the University of Brighton it was decided to re-title them as The Design Archive at the University of Brighton in order to reflect their contemporary as well as historical significance and also the fact that two of the major archives are ongoing deposits of thriving organisations.Google Scholar
2. Woodham, Jonathan M.. ‘Redesigning a chapter in the history of British design: the Design Council Archive at the University of Brighton’. Journal of design history vol. 8 no. 3 1995, p.225–229.Google Scholar
3. First established as the Council of Industrial Design (COID) in 1944.Google Scholar
4. See, for example, Moriarty, Catherine. ‘A backroom service? The Photographic Library of the Council of Industrial Design.’ Journal of design history vol. 9 no. 1 2000, p.55–65,Google Scholar
and Maguire, Patrick J. and Woodham, Jonathan M., eds. Design and popular politics in postwar Britain: the Britain can make it exhibition of 1946. Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1997.Google Scholar
5. Subsequently both posts have been developed and put on a permanent basis by the University.Google Scholar
6. See, for example, the Designing Britain 1945-1975. The visual experience of post-war society project that built up a series of digital teaching and learning packages commissioned from authors from different institutions, utilizing the Design Council Archives and the design collection at the Bournemouth Institute of the Arts. This was a funded contribution to the DNER initiative for Learning and Teaching.Google Scholar
7. Entitled The ICOGRADA Archive: ‘lost histories’ and future prospects, it was presented in October 2003.Google Scholar
8. The materials deposited on loan by ICOGRADA to the Design Museum, London, have yet to be removed to Brighton.Google Scholar
9. Entitled The future Design Council: a blueprint for the Council’s future purpose, objectives, structure and strategy, it was presented to Ministers at the DTI.Google Scholar
10. Commencing in the early 1970s with a Research Assistantship programme in design history that resulted in the doctorates of Penny Sparke, Suzette Worden, Hazel Clarke and others.Google Scholar
11. These can be seen at http://scran.ac.uk/.Google Scholar
12. De Majo had links with the Council of Industrial Design/Design Council, especially the large-scale Farm and Factory Exhibit, Ulster, for the 1951 Festival of Britain. The De Majo Archive has never been catalogued or put into the public domain and remains in the hands of Mike Hope.Google Scholar
13. Henrion’s analytical approach to corporate identity design can be seen in his 1967 book Co-ordination and corporate image, which he co-published with mathematician Alan Parkin.Google Scholar
14. Through Professor Bruce Brown, Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Architecture.Google Scholar
15. Where the author made a presentation on design archives, focusing on the ways in which the ICOGRADA Archive provided a unique opportunity to recover the ‘lost’ graphic histories of countries that do not feature in most histories of graphic design.Google Scholar
16. The other archive collections include those of Paul Clark, Bernard Schottlander, W. Mayall and Vokins.Google Scholar