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running during the day, and part of the apprenticeship is thus served in the schools. Side by side with these classes of designers and apprentices are those for teachers. The new ideal of applied art to provide some form of handicraft for children from the earliest days produces students who leave school with appreciation and experience of good craftsmanship and a genuine understanding of fitness for purpose. Schools are cultivating a proper sense of beauty as a very necessary part of the curriculum. The art schools are staffed with men and women of practical experience, often working as individual craftsmen or for industry, and because of these associations they have become a powerful influence in creating a demand for better things and providing the means to supply it.
KENNETH HOLMES.
THE FORD CAR
Dear Sir,—Mr. Hanson’s article on the Ford in last month’s Design omits one point which seems to me of fundamental importance—the comparative lightness of all Ford cars. Within limits, which Ford’s engineers have exactly calculated, this must give enhanced speed. In Mr. Ford’s My Life and Work he mentions, if I remember rightly, the fact that wood contains 30 per cent, of water. The absence of woodwork, especially in the new Ford, is conspicuous. Again, “the doors are quite massive,” your contributor writes, but compared with other makes they are surprisingly hollow, though very strong. In fact, the Ford car is a very competent harmony of utility and good looks.
I congratulate you on DESIGN.
FRANCIS HUGHES.
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CURRENT ACTIVITIES
D.I.A. ANNUAL TOUR
NORTHERN ITALY AND THE DALMATIAN COAST, 18TH AUGUST TO 2ND SEPTEMBER, 1933
The D.I.A. has arranged this tour to enable members to visit the Milan Exhibition of Decorative and Industrial Art and Architecture, and also to see something of Dalmatia, a country at present comparatively little known, but very easy of access from Italy.
Three days will be spent in Milan, two in Venice, one in Verona, and the party will then go by Yugoslavian boat to Dubrovnik and back, calling at Split, Makarska, Korkula and Hvar, and spending four days in Dubrovnik. The total inclusive cost will be £30 for the sixteen days. This will include second class travel on the Channel steamer and on the Continent, and first class travel on the Adriatic steamers.
If sufficient members wish to do so, an extension of the tour will be made to Sarajevo, the old capital of Bosnia, and to Trieste. This will involve an extra four days, extending the tour until 7th September, and an additional cost of five guineas.
Further particulars may be obtained on application to the Secretary of the D.I.A., 6 Queen Square, London, W.C.i.
M. A. R. S.
A Modern Architectural Research Group under the leadership of Mr. Wells Coates (Hon. Secretary, Mr. F. R. S. Yorke) is announced in the architectural papers, which is to be officially associated with the International Organisers of Modern Architecture. Its function is to unite in common research work those who are united “in the realisation of the necessity for a new conception of architecture and its relation to the structure of society.”
ROYAL SOCIETY OF ARTS
The tenth annual competition of Industrial Designs will take place in June at the Imperial College of Science, South Kensington, S.W.7.
THE DESIGN AND INDUSTRIES ASSOCIATION
NOTE ON ITS CONSTITUTION AND AIMS
The D.I.A. was formed in 1915 for the purpose of improving the design of the everyday things of life, and from the first it has been composed of manufacturers, retailers, designers and teachers who are actively engaged in various walks of life, all of which contribute to the same end of a better- designed civilisation. The main outward activities of the Association have been evening and lunch time meetings, the holding of exhibitions, and the publication of a journal and occasional pamphlets, such as the Cautionary Guides. A less obvious activity is that it serves as a meeting ground for manufacturers and designers, and that its members all strive in their own business or private capacity to improve the standard of design. In fact, it is often said that members get from the Association just what they put into it, and perhaps a trifle more. The minimum subscription for firms is two guineas and for individual members 1 0s. 6d., but the minimum to include copies of Design for To-day has been fixed at one guinea per annum. The head offices are at 6 Queen Square, London, W.C.i, and there are branches or groups at Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol and Northampton, with others in process of formation. The President of the Association for 1933 is Mr. Frank Pick, and the Chairman of the Council Mr. J. C. Pritchard.
“BRITAIN IN BOOKS”
An interesting exhibition of books, maps, pictures and models, designed to show the connection of books with places, can be seen at Messrs. J. & E. Bumpus, 350 Oxford Street, London, W. 1.
