We publish this month an article dealing with the influence of weather on the history and present practice of design. In a recent issue we took speed as an element of design. It may seem at first consideration that such discussions are of purely theoretical interest but we do not believe this to be so. It is obviously impossible in a paper of this size, or indeed in any periodical, for these subjects to be comprehensively handled. Our idea is rather to suggest aspects of design which need fuller treatment in book form. What is wanted is an extensive publication—a sort of encyclopaedia of design. In this we should like to see a complete analysis of the various elements which affect design. Present thinking is so confused and uninstructed on this matter that the ground must be cleared extensively and authoritatively. There is a very widespread desire for good design and there are a number of good designers, but there is an enormous divergence of opinion even among those who are agreed on the fundamental need for reformation. A clear and comprehensive examination of what constituted good design in the past and what are the requirements of good design in any given product in the present might be of immense value in laying a logical basis of agreement among designers, manufacturers and consumers. Certainly it is worth trying.
The isolation of such elements as weather or speed is, of course, in many cases artificial, and the value of the isolation will be lost if this fact is not constantly borne in mind. For example, although weather may be the dominating influence on the design of a raincoat or a seaside shelter, it is only one of the many vital influences which affect the good design of a house. Similarly, although protection from weather is a necessary part of the design of any car, design for speed also plays its part ; and there still remain other considerations such as comfort, dependability, accessibility and so on. The value of analysis is in the end a true synthesis.
We also publish in this issue an article on the Mars Group contribution to the New Homes for Old Exhibition at Olympia. Here is an example of how a group of eminently practical architects and technicians have thought it worth while to isolate and examine one of the causes of present slum conditions—namely the history of its growth in one area. It is a narrow and merely rule-of- thumb mind which imagines that such theoretical examinations are of no practical value. It is all
very well to talk about “ getting on with the job,” but before we can do that we must be able to see quite clearly what the job is. Design as a whole— though the use of the word may be comparatively new—4s as old as civilisation ; but during the centuries the needs of man and his methods of satisfying them have become increasingly complex. The industrial revolution and the debacle of design in the later 19th century have so confused the issue that it is vital, if we are to get on with the job, that this tangle should be sorted out.
Designers themselves may tend to take a narrow view of the whole problem simply because their minds are concentrated on their particular field of design. We need trained design critics and it is to be hoped that the Courtauld Institute may help towards producing them as it will certainly help towards producing art critics, in the older use of that word. These critics must be fully aware of the history of their subjects as well as its present tendencies and while each of them may specialise on some department, it must be his business never to forget the general background. A specialist in English landscape painting, for example, would have little value who forgot the whole history of painting. We have no such body of people at present : designers and manufacturers are far too busy to study the general problems and in most cases too inexperienced as writers to present their conclusions cogently and attractively. Our ideal, therefore, of an authoritative encyclopaedia of design may have to wait ; but in the meantime something better ought to be done than the small books which have been produced hitherto, however excellent these are within their limits. Under the general editorship of a man with the leisure and knowledge to devote himself whole-heartedly to the plan of the book and to edit the contributions of individual writers something of value might be produced. One of the greatest difficulties which a paper of this type, for example, has to face is that those who know best about the design of some object on which they are invited to write will have had the least time to acquire the craft of writing. Clumsy expression, dull and wasteful prose will never appeal to the wide public or even to the educated public. Only those already keenly interested in a subject will wade through a bad presentation of it. It is time that those who have the cause of good design at heart set themselves to the design of a really good book on the subject.
