Projects and exhibitions | University of Brighton Design Archives

Collections • Collaboration • Research

Black and white photo of Festival of Britain showing view of Skylon with pedestrians at dusk. Dome of Discovery on the left.

60th Anniversary of the Festival of Britain 2011

This year an exciting and diverse range of projects engaged with the extensive holdings in the Design Archives relating to the Festival of Britain. These include 77 files and over 400 photographs in the Design Council Archive dealing with the design of the various pavilions on the South Bank, papers and photographs in the F…

Diagram of the organisation of United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO)

Archiving Design Organisations 2011

Archiving Design Organisations A Design Archives seminar funded by the Design History Society Faculty of Arts, University of Brighton Monday, 6 June 2011  10 – 3pm The Design Archives at the University of Brighton hold the archives of three major design organisations – the Design Council, the International Council of Graphic Design Associations (ICOGRADA) and…

Black and white photo showing exhibition display on the making of whiskey at Farm and Factory Exhibition, Northern Ireland. Festival of Britain 1951

The Festival of Britain

Dr Harriet Atkinson joined the Design Archives as Faculty Fellow in 2010. As the first Fellow to be nominated by the Design Archives, her expertise and research profile achieves a strong fit with a range of research interests across the Faculty and with the resources of the University of Brighton Design Archives particularly. Dr Atkinson’s…

Black and white photograph of the Diploma of The Faculty of Royal Designers for Industry awarded to Robert Yorke Goodden.The leather scroll case is placed on top.

‘Towards an Atlas of the Design Profession’ 2011

A Collaborative Doctorate between the Design Archives and the Chartered Society of Designers. In September 2010 the Design Archives welcomed Leah Armstrong as its first AHRC-funded collaborative doctoral student. We are delighted to be working with the Chartered Society of Designers on this project. The core task of Leah’s research is to explore the disciplinary reach and…

Page from File 27, Series 14B (The Homes and Gardens Pavilion, Festival of Britain)'The Pattern of English Education'. Text shows diagram of education patterns starting in 1750 - 1900.

Look-Here! project 2011

A significant series of photographic images relating to the 1951 Festival of Britain, can be found among the holdings of the Design Archives within the Design Council Archive. Many of these are accessible online from the Visual Arts Data Service (VADS). Involvement in the Look-Here! Project, co-ordinated by VADS and funded by JISC, which works…

Poster shows a black and white photo of a woman in a scarf feeding bullets into a machine gun operated by a soldier. The background is a yellow star against red and blue- the colours of the National Liberation Front (Viet Cong) flag.

Designs for Solidarity 2008

Taking a poster held within the University of Brighton Design Archives as a starting point, this display considered how photography was incorporated in graphic contexts as part of campaigning strategies in opposition to US intervention in Vietnam. This conflict was identified as emblematic of struggles against imperialist aggression worldwide: as Che Guevara famously described in…

Installation view showing framed photographs on front left wall, coloured lampshades hanging from ceiling and on back left wall and black plastic moulded chair on a white plinth front right.

Indoors and Out: Bernard Schottlander 2008

A joint exhibition project between the Henry Moore Institute, Leeds and the University of Brighton Design Archives, this retrospective of Bernard Schottlander’s work explored the overlaps between his sculpture and design, and traced how the elegant interior forms of his furniture and fittings were transposed into public sculpture. By taking his work outside, into the…

A breakfast table setting for two, which is part of the 'Britain at Table' display in The Design Centre, July - September, 1956. Formica-topped table, two stacking chairs 'Jason’, Irish linen tablemats and napkins. 'Green Wheat' stoneware. Electric coffee percolator. Water jug and glasses. Cutlery and flatware with walnut handles.

Gabriel Kuri – Brighton Photo Biennial 2006

As artist-in-residence at the University of Brighton Design Archives, Gabriel Kuri’s intervention As Selected for the Design Centre, London moved photography quite literally out of the archive and into the public arena. Taking as his starting point a pristine black and white image from 1956 of domestic tableware from the Design Council Archive, Kuri’s project reflected on…

Drawings of KLM plane, KLM minivan, KLM boarding stairs, KLM plane tail, and KLM bus.

Air World – Vitra Design Museum

Design and Architecture for Air Travel This major touring exhibition originated by the Vitra Design Museum included graphic material from the F H K Henrion Archive. Luggage tags, timetables and other Celebrating the aesthetic of the golden age of air travel, a time when flying still retained something of the attraction of the unusual. The…

Black and white graph showing the use of the Design Centre

Cultures of Consumption 2005

In 2005 Design Archives’ Deputy Curator Lesley Whitworth concluded her contribution to the multi-disciplinary ‘Cultures of Consumption’ research programme. This ambitious 5 year programme was jointly funded by two UK research councils, the first such initiative by the ESRC and AHRC, and brought together leading researchers from across the social sciences, arts and humanities, to study consumption…

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