The Design Research Unit created some of the UK’s most iconic pieces of graphic design, from London’s street signs to the British Rail logo. A UK touring show, which has started at London’s Cubitt Gallery, celebrates four decades of the group’s work. The DRU was founded in 1943 by poet and art critic Herbert Read, advertising entrepreneur Marcus Brumwell, and designers Misha Black and Milner Gray. From the outset the group intended to consolidate design’s position in the world, expressing a desire to bring “artists and designers into productive relation with scientists and technologists”. The group were also highly unusual in the range of disciplines that their work spanned: they were the first practice to combine expertise in architecture, graphic design and industrial design.
Posted on Tuesday, 19 October 2010
