britain’s royal mail prints sets of 10 stamps celebrating 20th-century british design classics. ‘polypro – pylene chair’ by robin day for hille, 1963.
britain’s most famous 20th-century furniture designer dies at age 95.
Lucienne and Robin Day, the British answer to Charles and Ray Eames. Unlike the Eames, Robin and Lucienne Day did not design together, she did textiles and he did furniture. They trained before WWII but only got to design properly after the war.
lucienne passed away earlier this year. 1917-2010.
They both believed that good quality, affordable designs could improve people’s lives. Robin for his infamous Polyprop chair that has graced the bottoms of schoolchildren everywhere. The manufacturer estimates that they still produce about 500,000 of the chairs annually. A design classic, they are hard-wearing and have stood the test of time of 50 years.
Lucienne’s Calyx textile print for Heals brought new colours and motifs to the dull postwar table. Inspired by modern art, she produced over 70 abstract prints for them over the course of two decades. Twelve of Lucienne’s textile prints, including her Calyx design, have been digitally printed and re-released.
The Days became such style icons during the 1950s that Smirnoff featured them in an advertisement.
Resources:
the guardian – robin day
new york times – robin day
bbc – robin takes control
victoria&albert musuem – 10 stamps
the guardian – lucienne day
design museum – lucienne day
