One of the founding partners of Pentagram, Kenneth Grange's CV reads like a list of iconic British products. During a career spanning half a century he has designed the UK's first parking meters, the Kodak Instamatic, the Kenwood Chef, razors for Wilkinson Sword, typewriters, loudspeakers, Anglepoise lamps, Parker pens, London taxi-cabs, and - arguably his crowning glory - the distinctive nose cone of the Inter-City 125. It is fair to say that few industrial designers have influenced so many areas of our lives.
The Engineer interviews Grange on his long career. Here's a snippet,
The designer's role, he said, is to make sure a product marries form and function in a way that will satisfy both marketing people and end users.
He said: '[a marketing department] might come to us with a brief with a strong fashion component but that might not have a strong slant on whether its functionally is as good as it should be. The designer has to use his wits to keep all these things in balance, one without the other is a lost opportunity - that is the nub of the designer's role.'
But Grange does not see much evidence of this fine balance today and believes that the disproportionate influence of the marketing department has changed the role of the designer for the worse.
o
Favorite This
Q
Comment
Share your thoughts
Join over 240,000 designers who stay up-to-date with the Core77 newsletter.
Subscribe
Test it out; it only takes a single click to unsubscribe