January 11, 2024

Sir Kenneth Grange Has Most of Us Beat in the Game of (Design) Life

Photo courtesy of the V&A https://www.vam.ac.uk/blog/museum-life/an-interview-with-sir-kenneth-grange-product-designer
Photo courtesy of the V&A https://www.vam.ac.uk/blog/museum-life/an-interview-with-sir-kenneth-grange-product-designer
Photo courtesy of the V&A https://www.vam.ac.uk/blog/museum-life/an-interview-with-sir-kenneth-grange-product-designer
Photo courtesy of the V&A https://www.vam.ac.uk/blog/museum-life/an-interview-with-sir-kenneth-grange-product-designer
https://www.anglepoise.com/designers/sir-kenneth-grange/Photo courtesy of the V&A https://www.vam.ac.uk/blog/museum-life/an-interview-with-sir-kenneth-grange-product-designer

It's from 2022, but I love this interview with Sir Kenneth Grange, the renowned and - in my opinion - under-appreciated industrial designer. Responsible for products ranging from parking meters, food mixers, the Kodak Instamatic 55x, parts of the Intercity 125 train (a personal childhood fave, and vehicle of choice for UK-based children of divorce), Polaroid sunglasses, mailboxes, and so much more - and a founding partner of Pentagram* … this man has led a full life. I would love to be able to see some of his notebooks in person. I still have all of mine since around 1997, but - so far at least - they're probably not going to be considered as valuable. Here's a link to photos from a Pentagram exhibit of his work from 2011. Here's another interview from 2014. Do yourself a favor and read about his life, and imagine living in a time where being told "have a go if you think you can do better" could be taken seriously.

*including a link in case you've never heard of them.

Photo courtesy https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2011/jul/17/kenneth-grange-design-in-picturesPhoto courtesy of the V&A https://www.vam.ac.uk/blog/museum-life/an-interview-with-sir-kenneth-grange-product-designerPhoto courtesy of the V&A https://www.vam.ac.uk/blog/museum-life/an-interview-with-sir-kenneth-grange-product-designerhttps://www.design-is-fine.org/post/85946791139/kenneth-grange-brownie-vecta-camera-1964-for