The desire to modernise went hand in hand with tradition especially when in 1953 then Princess Elizabeth became the Queen. This was the first time the cameras were allowed to broadcast the ceremony. The modern met the traditional and that I believe must have boasted the national pride.
In the '60s, things started to take different turn. In Michael Wolff's words (design consultant): 'It will be a great day when furniture and cutlery design...swing like the Supremes' (1965).
This painting 'Mirror' (1964-6) by Frank Bowling shows the interior of a flat that does not look much traditional to me. Yes, indeed. We must not forget the 'Pop' movement of the '60, the recession and 'Punk' in the '70s, the 'theatrical' of the '80s and the 'cool' of the '90s.
Artists and designers challenged the values of their parents rebelling through fashion, music, home interiors, film and other areas.
Fashion and music of '70s
is depicted in this image - 'Diamond Dogs' photo of David Bowie by Terry
O'Neill. The exhibition had a number of songs of that era shown and played on a
loop in one section of the second gallery so wherever you went you would be
exposed to the music. The music, the costumes, the make-up. I must say, I found this a bit heavy at times but can see that if we did not go through this we would not be where we are now with design and innovation.
Walking through such atmosphere, one could imagine the
interior design through 'Torsion Box Shell' chair by Brian Long. To be honest,
one could get away with thinking that this chair was designed now not in 1970.
The shape and certain simplicity, the form. I am not sure about the colour
though, that is my only reservation.
My favourite was the image of the cover
for the 12" single 'True Faith' by New Order (1987) by Peter Saville (designer) and Trevor Key (photographer). The exhibition had
two pictures of the leaf on show, one with a blue and one with a red background.
Displayed next to each other, it was the two strong colours and the beauty of
the falling leaf that worked for me. Apparently, a ground-breaking 'dichromate' process was used when designing the cover however, I cannot find any
information that would easily explain what the process is all about so feel
free to let me know. 
At the end of the second gallery, I went past this dress (and photographs from the design process) by Alexander McQueen from the Autumn Winter 2009 collection. Put the form of the dress aside for a moment, I was drawn to the print on the fabric. When looked closely, you realise the repeated silhouette of a bird going from small to big in the direction of the dress, starting from a tight corset to gradually opening into a dramatic structure of the skirt.
This brings us nicely to the third and final gallery 'Innovation and Creativity'. I walked in past Jaguar, looked at a maquette of Concord and the room further opened revealing other products; shavers, radios, Dyson hoover, a section on computer software and gaming,... Yes, this gallery was more technical filled with industrial design. Once more, celebrating British design.
'Falling Light' by 'Trojka' was designed for Swarovski (Crystal Palace). These are computer-controlled LEDs.
What you can see on the left is a section of LED lights (with magnifying glass under each) that would move up and down when being switched on/off sending light drops of various sizes onto the floor. This created illusion of light drops that you can see on the right. Fun to observe and interesting ever-changing design to walk on.
I got carried away when photographing these drops that I was asked to stop. (If only my camera was less noisy...)
Filled with artistic touch, I looked beyond the usually visible scenery on my way home. What I discovered was a little cul-de-sac I had gone past so many times before but did not notice.
The camera flattened the 3D scenery into a pleasant 2D patched image. And this introduces me to my next post. Therefore, have a great rest of the weekend and see you next week with another post. Kx
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