Part 4 Project 1 Stage 2

Stage 2: An in depth study of Lucienne Day 1917 - 2010

Introduction

I have chosen to look more closely at the work of Lucienne Day because her designs were the background to my childhood in the 1950’s.  I was very much aware of these new designs without realising their significance.  My parents were not “modern” and I was so envious of some of my friends who had these different and exciting items in their homes.

Lucienne Day spent a lifetime “creating”.  She created the textiles we know so well but she also created a happy home life with her husband Robin and daughter Paula and later a wonderful garden.

Lucienne and Robin Day had a marriage lasting almost 70 years.  Lucienne died on 30^th January 2010 at the age of 93 and her husband died in November of the same year.  They had lived to see a new appreciation of their work by a generation that wartime deprivation hadn’t influenced.

Lucienne and Robin met at a dance at the Royal College of Art in 1940 and they married in 1942.  He was the designer who developed the polypropylene stacking chair so widely used in public spaces. At the time it would have been natural for Lucienne to abandon thoughts of her own career in design but she always saw homemaking as central to her identity (Casey, 2014)

However, she found the energy and commitment to become a leading post war designer.

Early career

In the early days home was a small upstairs flat but it was furnished sensitively with “make do and mend modernism” (Casey, 2014).  As the business developed a property that could double as a home and a workspace was sought and they took a lease on 49 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea.  The terraced house became transformed into something of an advertisement for Scandinavian design, with smooth, clean lines and Robin’s modern furniture very evident.  Lucienne’s designs were used sparingly; she preferred plain woven wall hangings.  In 1964 they created a cottage bolthole in Midhurst, Sussex where the family could escape at the weekend and “play” without being so much on display.  Lucienne could indulge her passion for gardening and she created a beautiful garden from what was a wilderness.   After nearly 50 years it was time to say goodbye to the house at Cheyne Walk.  They moved to Chichester only eleven miles from the cottage.  Many of their items of furniture were modified to resemble the Cheyne Walk home they had loved.

Lucienne was the commercial brains behind the design business.  In her foreword to In the Spirit of the Age Paula Day recalls

She ran all the administrative and financial sides of the design practice and when the Day corner in the world had to be defended, I think it was usually she who did the fighting. (Casey, 2014)

The 1950’s were a time of great change.  There was a post war boom in housing with houses being considerably smaller than pre war.  There was a general acceptance that even the relatively affluent were unlikely to have any help in the home.  It was a time when open plan design changed the way people used their living space.  But most of all there was a reaction to wartime drabness and austerity
.

Designers like Arne Jacobson and the Eames, another husband and wife team, designed furniture that looked futuristic and the fabrics that Lucienne Day created complemented  the style perfectly.

At the start of their careers both Robin and  Lucienne Day chose to teach and develop the design side of things slowly.  She produced designs for dress fabrics but found the business cut throat.  However, the main reason for moving away from the fashion market was her lack of control of the final design.  Once her design had been bought by a manufacturer it was further developed by a design team who chose the scale, colour and repeat.  Often Lucienne found it hard to recognise her own work.

The world of furnishing fabric was much more stable than that of fashion and it was to this market she turned.  She was influenced by contemporary artists such as Miro, Calder and Klee.  A trip to Scandinavia with Robin in 1947 was highly influential in developing her ideas about good design and by the time of the Festival of Britain everything was in place for her to hit centre stage.

The Festival of Britain was held in 1951 on the South Bank in London and featured only products made in Britain.  The aim was to exhibit

real goods to go into real shops and be available to real people. (Stewart, 1987)

Robin Day was asked to produce several features for the exhibition and one was a low cost room setting.  He needed an affordable textile and turned to his wife for something suitable.  At this time Lucienne had been feeling that her designs weren’t progressive enough and she proceeded to produce Calyx which was bold, stylised and new.  The pattern drew on her love of plants and symbolised growth and a fresh start. 

Lucienne explained

Calyx is not a floral pattern, I tried to give it a sense of growth and although abstract, it is, in fact based on a plant. (Casey, 2014)

Calyx 1951

Working for Heal’s

Although she had done a little work for Heal’s this is the point where Lucienne and Heal’s became almost inseparable. To Heal’s chagrin they hadn’t had work selected for the exhibition and this was a way for them to have work displayed.  Tom Worthington of Heal’s was certain that the Calyx design would fail. He paid Lucienne only ten guineas and fortunately was proved very, very wrong.  Calyx went on to receive a host of design awards and was responsible for pushing Lucienne’s career several rungs up the ladder.

Although she was never contracted to Heal’s in a formal way Lucienne would present four or six designs each year for which she was paid a fee.  She had complete control over her work and both Tom Worthington and Lucienne shared a belief that good design should be available to all.  Lucienne Day and Heal’s continued their collaboration for well over twenty years.

Calyx was inspirational for other designers both in the 50's and now:

Marian Mahler 1953

Dandelion clocks by Sanderson

http://www.heals.co.uk/

I even unwittingly designed our garden gate with some Calyx shapes included but my inspiration was the Sanderson print.

Dandelion clock on my gate

I found that similar shapes occurred in Angie Lewin’s work as well:

Spey birches - Angie Lewin  http://www.angielewin.co.uk/

In recent times many of the designs of the 1950’s have re-emerged.  A walk around John Lewis soft furnishing department is testament to its popularity.



This is a page from the April 1954 edition of Ideal Home.  It shows the extent to which Heal's and Lucienne were committed to each other.

I can’t help but think that the Day’s would be delighted with the continued popularity of a style they influenced so much.

After the success of Calyx Lucienne returned to the black pen work she loved.  Her designs were simple and set against a one colour background.  This reduced the production costs and made the fabrics more competitive.  Graphica was one of  Lucienne’s most minimal designs and one of her favourites. It was bought by Heal’s in 1953.

Graphica 1953

These more linear patterns were widely copied by less talented people and Lucienne warned that

This kind of crude modern work can bring the whole school of abstract design into disrepute and encourage a situation where reactionary and sentimental styles seem a desirable change. (Casey, 2014)

Herb Anthony” designed for Heal’s in 1956, was one of the last of the linear designs.

Herb Anthony 1956

The designs now became much larger, more bold and flowing. One such  design is “Linden” from 1960.  It is roller printed on cotton and was yet another award winner.

Linden 1960

They were designed for architects and interior designers.  Lucienne still used the natural world as her inspiration but was also inspired by Astrid Sampe who was her contemporary and later her friend and collaborator.  They both shared the same philosophy regarding the function of textiles in an architectural setting.

Heal’s were delighted with this move a more up market approach as they were eager to move into the contract market and supply textiles for schools and the like.

It is interesting to learn that Lucienne worked in a similar way to how I am being taught.   This image shows her original artwork for “Silver Birch” with pencil lines obvious.

Artwork for Silver Birch 1956

In the example below the artist has used cut out paper to make the flower motifs.

Artwork for Poinsettia 1966

Branching out

During the latter part of the 1950’s Lucienne branched out into ceramic, wallpaper and carpet design.  She only worked with the most prestigious companies.  Lucienne Day was invited to design a series of patterns for ceramics by the German manufacturer Rosenthal.  Working in a three dimensional way was at first challenge but Lucienne was given total support at Rosenthal even to the extent of having her own studio at the German factory.   

She approached designing on china in the very practical way she tackled most things: she painted directly onto the ceramic blank.  In that way she could see exactly how the pattern behaved. In the first year of working with Rosenthal Lucienne produced ten designs.  Her first two designs were named after London streets, “Bond Street” and “Regent Street”.

Bond Street 1957

Regents Street (including table linen) 1957

Working with Rosethal opened up new opportunities for Lucienne.  Rosethal had a policy of bringing together their designers frequently and she found these meetings very stimulating (Casey, 2014)

In later years Lucienne reflected

Although I worked for Rosenthal for twelve years, I was never quite happy with the medium.  I missed the texture of the fabric. (Casey, 2014)

By the mid 50’s there was a move by the carpet industry to update itself (amid resistance from some manufacturers).  In 1956 Tomkinsons Ltd, under the guiding hand of managing director Commander Michael Tomkinson asked Lucienne to design some patterns for their Axminster range.  This very successful partnership lasted for several years and produced more bestsellers and award winners. 

Tesserae – a carpet design for Tomkinsons 1957

The Tesserae pattern was given a Designs of the Year award in 1957. The selection committee chose the design

Because of its sparkle and contemporary character of its pattern, which on account of its scale is admirably suited to the small size house. (Casey, 2014)

 It retailed at 42s 6d (£2.12) a yard and was 27 inches wide.

In 1959 Tomkinsons  took over a small firm that specialised in good quality contract carpeting aimed at architects and interior designers.  The firm was I & C Steel and it was for them that Lucienne designed Big Circle in 1963.  It became a best seller.

Big Circle 1963

Lucienne’s work with the carpet industry came to an end in the mid 60’s probably because Tomkinsons made some economies.

Silk mosaics

By 1976 Lucienne had become very involved in producing what she called Silk Mosaics and concentrated less and less on her business-related work.  Her inspiration was once again Klee and Miro but she also looked to Josef Albers and Alexander Girard (Casey, 2014).  At a time when she might have begun to take life easy her creative spirit was fired anew and she found great freedom to explore this new idea without the constraints of commercialism.

The new work was created with silk which was cut into very small pieces and sewn together by hand by her assistants.  A classic  mosaic was about 6ft by 4ft and made of up 6,000 patches of shot silk.  Paper templates were used as in traditional patchwork and they were left inside the silk. Lucienne designed as she always had by arranging ideas on paper. This time she worked on a large scale.

In 1990 John Lewis commissioned a piece that Lucienne called “Aspects of the Sun” for their new store in Kingston upon Thames.  It was made up of 5 different panels and took 2 years to complete.

Aspects of the Sun 1990

The difference in scale to her earlier work is hard to comprehend but this shows Lucienne inspecting Aspects of the Sun in situ.

Inspecting Aspects of the Sun

This sort of work was for a very select clientele and demanded exhibition space as opposed to the average home.  She had several exhibitions in several countries and the work sold well.

In interview with Andrew Casey Lucienne said

I am very proud and pleased that I was able to change direction and that the new direction did become successful.  It was a big step to take from designs which were comparatively inexpensive and made in hundreds of yards, to very elitist one offs. (Casey, 2014)

The word iconic is thrown around with gay abandon but it is clearly one that should apply to Lucienne Day – not just her work but the person too.

Note

Most of the images in this essay are scanned from Casey 2014.  Any other sources are clearly labelled.

Bibliography

Casey, A. (2014). In the Spirit of the Age. Suffolk: Antique Collectors Club.

Stewart, R. (1987). Design and British Industry,. John Murray Ltd.