Another Type of Designer - RIP, Robin Day

[Peter Pallotta]

Britain's Robin Day passed away, at 95.  One of Britain’s most influential post-WWII furniture designers, he designed the "polyprop” chair -- that white, molded plastic seat on a enameled tubular steel base that is found in millions of schools, auditoriams and offices around the world.

"Comfortable, durable, inexpensive, lightweight, easy to maintain" says his obituary of the chair he invented. He'd first shown his work in 1951, during the Festival of Britain, a futuristic display of British ingenuity intended to help propel England from its postwar doldrums.

Mr. Day considered "his work to be just that: work. He never employed a staff, never adopted the computer as a design tool and thought nothing of sitting at the drawing table for 12, 14 or 16 hours a day."

In 2005, he summed up his design philosophy:  "Things should work well; they should function. [Construction techniques, materials and economics are relevant].  Along with that, hopefully, some poetry and pleasantness in terms of looks. But these practical things are essential. Without it design is a waste of time.”

Peter
 

[RJ_Daley]

So he is the Robert Bruce Harris of his field of furniture design... ?   

[Charlie Goerges]

I think we should spend a little more time looking at design in other fields here on GCA. I think a greater awareness of design will sharpen our intellects in ways that will help us understand and enjoy golf course design better. Thanks for making us aware Peter.

[RJ_Daley]

Charlie, that certainly takes us back to Tom MacWood's 'Arts and Crafts' thesis and observations.

Probably before your time here on GCA, Charlie, but an old poster named Jeremy Glenn, a GCA in Canada, used to raise the notion or question of early GCA following the "English tea garden" era of aesthetics. 

[Peter Pallotta]

RJ, Charlie -

what brought Mr. Day to mind (to post about him here) was a recent thread about introverts and extraverts, and correcting for our essential biases.  Well, in areas that I'm interested in - e.g. writing and music -- I have been both inspired and crippled by my own bias - that bias is that only excellence and true greatness is worth the effort; it's the only goal worth striving for. I know what great music and great writing is; and in my own attempts at both I have been unable to settle for anything less (for putting out into the world anything less)-- which means that I have not produced anything at all.  And so someone like Mr. Day and his vey popular work - that chair -- is very appealing approach to me (because it is so different from mine), i.e. the fact that he focussed so much on practicality and function and new ways of doing things....and got the poetry almost as an afterthought.  And of course, the parallels (and related questions) about gca are obvious.

Peter  

[RJ_Daley]

In 2005, he summed up his design philosophy:  "Things should work well; they should function. [Construction techniques, materials and economics are relevant].  Along with that, hopefully, some poetry and pleasantness in terms of looks. But these practical things are essential. Without it design is a waste of time.”

In order to understand, I'd be interested to know if Mr Day ever designed something artistically elaborate, not just functional, but truly a work of art.

If so, I'd think of a GCA like Tom Bendelow.  He designed for the functional and common usage side of golf in order that many could enjoy a version of it.  But, it is also clear with Bende, that he also understood and could create in the higher form of GCA than the so-called and misstated, 18 stakes on a Sunday afternoon.  He did take over American Park Builders, and brought innovation and more elaborate and artful designs such as Medinah, Oly Fields, etc. 

I think if the would be artist can come up with something simple and functional, yet on another plain demonstrate craft and creativity in the art that may not be necessarily aimed at mass usage, that walking on both sides of the creativity street is a more impressive feat.

[Dan Herrmann]

I'd check out http://cooperhewitt.org/ - this is the website of the Smthsonian's  Cooper Hewitt Museum of design.  (Unfortunately, it appears to be the only Smithsonian museum that charges a fee - $15, but maybe it's because it's in New York)