Wikipedia

Kenneth Grange

Sir Kenneth Henry Grange CBE PPCSD RDI (17 July 1929 – 21 July 2024) was a British industrial designer, renowned for a wide range of designs for familiar, everyday objects.

Kenneth Grange in October 2016 with an InterCity 125 power car, the nose cone for which he designed in the 1970s.

Early life

edit

Kenneth Henry Grange was born on 17 July 1929, in east London.[1] His mother was a factory worker and his father a policeman.[2] The family later moved to Wembley, north London. In 1944, he attended the Willesden School of Arts and Crafts, being awarded a scholarship to study commercial art; lettering and drawing.[2][3] Grange's father was a banjo player in the Metropolitan Police minstrel band and Kenneth, who had developed a keen interest in jazz and big-band music, went dancing weekly at the Town Hall in Wembley.[2] After his father retired from the police force he took a job with a brewery and the family moved to Marylebone and then Elephant and Castle.[4]

After studying commercial art at Willesden College of Technology between 1943 and 1947[5], Grange then spent a year in Architectural practice at Arcon.[6] During National Service, between 1948 and 1949, Grange was posted in the Royal Engineers as a technical illustrator producing instruction manuals.[2]

Career

edit

Grange's career began as a drafting assistant with the architect Jack Howe in the 1950s. From 1950 until 1956 he worked as an assistant to a series of architects and as a scene painter for the BBC at Alexandra Palace.[2][7] However, his independent career started rather accidentally with commissions for exhibition stands, and by the early 1970s he was a founding-partner in Pentagram, an interdisciplinary design consultancy.[8]

Grange's career spanned more than half a century, and many of his designs became – and are still – familiar items in the household or on the street. These designs include the first UK parking meters for Venner, in 1958, kettles and food mixers for Kenwood, razors for Wilkinson Sword, cameras for Kodak, typewriters for Imperial, clothes irons for Morphy Richards, cigarette lighters for Ronson, washing machines for Bendix, pens for Parker, Reuters computers, and regional Royal Mail postboxes.[9]

In 1968, Grange was also responsible for the aerodynamics, interior layout and exterior styling of the nose cone of British Rail's High Speed Train (known as the InterCity 125[10]). Having initially only been commissioned to redesign the paintwork, he presented a restyled exterior design to the British Rail board, who accepted the more efficient design.[7]

In 1993, he designed the Adshel bus shelter.[2] Grange was also involved in the design of the 1997 LTI TX1 version of the famous London taxicab.[11] He has carried out many commissions for Japanese companies.

One quality of much of Grange's design work is that it is not based on just the styling of a product. His design concepts arise from a fundamental reassessment of the purpose, function and use of the product. He has also said that his attitude to designing any product is that he wanted it to be "a pleasure to use".[12] Grange was a pioneer of user-centred design, aiming to eliminate what he saw as the "contradictions" inherent in products that fail to embody ease-of-use.

 
Kenneth Grange's Kodak Instamatic camera (c. 1963)

After retiring from Pentagram in 1997, Grange continued to work independently. This work included door handles for Ize Ltd., desk and floor lamps for Anglepoise,[13] and a chair for the elderly for Hitch Mylius.[14]

The First Production HST power car, 43 002, was repainted by Great Western Railway in the original British Rail Inter-City livery, and then named in his honour by Grange on 2 May 2016 at St Philip's Marsh GWR HST depot in Bristol, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the first passenger services of the Intercity 125.[15] Grange later visited York in October 2016, and 'signed' power car 43 185 using spray paint.[16] Grange was the Honorary President of the 125 Group which has restored the original prototype HST Power Car and aims to preserve operational examples of the subsequent production HST vehicles when they are finally retired from service. After withdrawal from GWR service, 43002 joined the National Collection in September 2019 and went on display at Locomotion.

From 2005, Grange had been a visiting Professor at the Royal College of Art.[6]

Personal life and death

edit

Grange married Assunta Santella in 1952, Philippa Algeo in 1971 and Apryl Swift in 1984.[2] Grange bought his home in Hampstead, north London in 1969.[4] He shared his time between Devon and London.[7][17] In an interview with The Times in 2020, Grange was asked what his most curious design was. He answered: "My coffin. When my mother died, we had to choose from a photo album of coffins. I couldn't leave Apryl to bury me in one of them, so I made my own. And that's what we've got standing in the hall in Devon, serving as a bookcase until I go."[4]

Grange died on 21 July 2024, at the age of 95.[18] He was survived by his wife Apryl.[19]

Honours

edit

Grange was awarded CBE in 1984[2] and knighted for services to design in the 2013 New Year Honours.[20][21] Grange's designs won ten Design Council Awards, the Prince Philip Designers Prize in 1963, and in 2001 he was awarded the Prince Philip Designers Prize[22] – an award honouring a lifetime achievement. He won the Gold Medal of the Chartered Society of Designers, and was a member of the Royal Society of Arts' élite Faculty of 'Royal Designers for Industry'. Grange was awarded honorary Doctorates by the Royal College of Art, De Montfort University, Plymouth University[23], Heriot-Watt University, and the Open University.[5]

The Design Museum held a major retrospective exhibition of Grange's work, July–October 2011.[24] The RSA has an audio recording of Grange in a discussion of his work.[25]

In media

edit

In April 2022 Grange was featured in the BBC Two series Secrets of the Museum.[26]

edit
Selected products designed by Kenneth Grange
  •  
    Bantam Post Box, 1999.
  •  
    Kenwood Chef model A701a, 1960. This version from 1981.
  •  
    The London-Taxi LTI TX4, built in 2007.
  •  
    High Speed Train 125 (HST 125) power car 43002 Sir Kenneth Grange, 'Steam' museum, Swindon
  •  
    Photo camera. Kodak, Brownie 44A,

References

edit
  1. ^ "People of Today Index, People of Today, People | Debrett's". Debretts.com. Archived from the original on 11 August 2014. Retrieved 19 September 2015.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Obituaries, Telegraph (23 July 2024). "Sir Kenneth Grange, doyen of industrial designers who ranged from Kenwood mixers to the InterCity 125 – obituary". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 23 July 2024.
  3. ^ "Kenneth Grange the Hampstead designer who finds beauty in the useful". Ham & High. 8 August 2011. Retrieved 23 July 2024.
  4. ^ a b c Burroughs, Katrina (23 July 2024). "Sir Kenneth Grange interview: "I designed my coffin. It's standing in the hall"". www.thetimes.com. Retrieved 23 July 2024.
  5. ^ a b "Variset W 75". V&A. Retrieved 23 July 2024.
  6. ^ a b "Glasgow School of Art: Archives & Collections". gsaarchives.net. Retrieved 23 July 2024.
  7. ^ a b c Cooke, Rachel (16 July 2011). "Kenneth Grange: half a century at the forefront of British design". The Observer. ISSN 0029-7712. Retrieved 23 July 2024.
  8. ^ Cross, N (2001) "Achieving Pleasure From Purpose: the methods of Kenneth Grange, product designer", The Design Journal Archived 17 November 2007 at the Wayback Machine, Vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 48–58.
  9. ^ Kenneth Grange at the Boilerhouse: An Exhibition of British Product Design, The Conran Foundation/Boilerhouse Project (V&A Museum), London, 1983.
  10. ^ Julian May "The 125 at 30" Archived 21 January 2007 at the Wayback Machine, BBC News, 15 September 2006. Retrieved 3 March 2009.
  11. ^ "Kenneth Grange's greatest hits - in pictures". The Guardian. 17 July 2011. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  12. ^ Cross, N (2011) Design Thinking: Understanding How Designers Think and Work, Berg, Oxford and New York, chapter 3.
  13. ^ "Sir Kenneth Grange". Anglepoise. Archived from the original on 28 November 2016. Retrieved 27 November 2016.
  14. ^ "Kenneth Grange".
  15. ^ "43002 Livery Unvailing @ SPM Open Day 02-05-16". YouTube. 2 May 2016. Archived from the original on 11 February 2021. Retrieved 2 May 2016.
  16. ^ "Sir Kenneth Grange 'signing' 43185... Almost". YouTube. 2 October 2016. Archived from the original on 6 June 2023. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
  17. ^ inFeatures, Hugo Macdonald published Contributions from Jonathan Bell (23 July 2024). "We remember Kenneth Grange, the British industrial designer, who has died aged 95". wallpaper.com. Retrieved 23 July 2024.
  18. ^ "Sir Kenneth Grange obituary: industrial designer". The Times. 23 July 2024. Retrieved 23 July 2024.
  19. ^ "In Memory of Sir Kenneth Grange, 1929–2024". Archived from the original on 22 July 2024. Retrieved 22 July 2024.
  20. ^ "Knights Bachelor" (PDF). Cabinet Office. 29 December 2012. Archived (PDF) from the original on 30 December 2012. Retrieved 29 December 2012.
  21. ^ "No. 60367". The London Gazette (Supplement). 29 December 2012. p. 1.
  22. ^ Prince Philip Designers Prize Archived 21 November 2018 at the Wayback Machine, Design Council
  23. ^ "Renowned designer shares his expertise". Plymouth Unversity. Retrieved 23 July 2024.
  24. ^ The Design Museum (2011) Kenneth Grange: Making Britain Modern, Black Dog Publishing, London.
  25. ^ [1] Archived 8 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  26. ^ "Secrets of the Museum".
edit
 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kenneth Grange.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kenneth_Grange&oldid=1236299117"