Remembering Sir Kenneth Grange – 1929-2024
It is with great sadness that we heard about the passing of the hugely influential British designer, Sir Kenneth Grange.
Although we are not currently publishing, we felt it necessary to delve into our archives and celebrate his life and work as reflected in Design Week over the years.
Publisher David Coveney looks back at Grange’s genius for everyday design.
Growing up in England, I fondly remember using many of Kenneth Grange’s designs. My grandmother’s Morphy Richards iron, my school homework done with prized and colourful Platignum Platpens, and later, my claim on the family’s Parker fountain pen.
At the time, I had no idea who had designed these items, but I vividly recall enjoying their simple and affordable beauty. The colours and shapes were significant to me.
Grange’s work spanned a wide array of objects, from pocket-sized items like pens and the Kodak Instamatic 33 camera to larger designs such as the TX1 London Taxi and the Inter-City 125 train. Few British people have not encountered or used a Kenneth Grange design.
In our 1996 article “Kenneth Grange’s gold-standard designs“, Michael Evamy spoke with Grange about his extraordinary body of work. He pointed out how effectively Grange had responded to the changing contexts of post-war Britain.
“Grange is a designer who has been consistently resourceful, inventive and conscious of his responsibilities; whether in the optimistic but frugal Fifties or the nervous Nineties,” he wrote.
Amid his many successes, Grange also reflected on his “most abject design failure” – a postmodern Kenwood toaster with fluted corners that was a commercial flop. It was a rare example where he abandoned his design instincts, in which function always came first, followed by style.
15 years later, to mark the Design Museum’s Kenneth Grange retrospective, John Stones also looked at the then-octogenarian’s legacy.
Joe Ferry, then a designer for Intercontinental Hotels Group, noted, “With [Raymond] Loewy it was about streamlining, and with the Bauhaus it was about form following function. But Grange spoke about joy and was interested in the consumer’s point of view.”
He added, “If you speak about design today, people think ‘designer,’ which means something expensive and elitist, but he showed that design can add value to everything.”
Grange himself was aware of this impact. “It is a piece of good fortune to have been working at a time when one designed things for ordinary people. I like that, it appeals to me a lot,” he said. “Obviously, one is thrilled if there is praise from one’s peers, but I never set out to design for design’s sake; that was never my lot.”
On social media, tributes have poured in from many directions – designers yes, but also people who used and loved his products, from train enthusiasts to photographers.
Pentagram, which he founded in 1972 with Alan Fletcher, Colin Forbes, Theo Crosby and Mervyn Kurlansky, wrote a fulsome tribute, which also picked up on his democratic design vision.
“He embodied the ethos that good design should be about improving people’s lives, and that this shouldn’t be reserved for a select few. Kenneth’s elegant and meticulously crafted designs shaped the world around us and continue to do so.”
We extend our sincere condolences to Grange’s friends, colleagues, family, and his wife, Apryl. His legacy will continue to inspire and influence the design world for generations to come.
A timeline of Sir Kenneth Grange’s life and achievements:
1929 Born 17 July London
1944-47 Educated at Willesden College of Art
1947-48 Technical illustrator, The Royal Engineers
1952 Joins Jack Howe & Partners as a designer, working on products to accompany architectural projects and exhibitions
1958 Goes independent, having won a major contract to design an exhibition for the Atomic Energy Authority in Geneva. Sets up Kenneth Grange Design
1960 After working with Jack Howe on the Kodak pavilion at the World Fair, and having been overheard criticising the company’s products by Kodak’s director of development, Grange is invited to design a camera. It becomes the first model to make a profit for the company, which until then was only in the business of selling film. The association lasts 20 years and produces a string of products including the Instamatic
1961 Redesigns the Chef, his first product for Kenwood. Over 130 products and 35 years later, Grange still works with the company.
1963 Wins the Duke of Edinburgh’s Prize for Elegant Design
1969 Becomes a Royal Designer for Industry
1970 Association begins with Wilkinson Sword, yielding 11 mass-produced razors, plus knives and garden tools
1971 Having won several Design Council Awards, he becomes industrial design advisor to the council (later a council member)
1972 Founds Pentagram, with graphic designers Alan Fletcher, Colin Forbes and Mervyn Kurlansky and architect Theo Crosby. Early successes under Pentagram include the Parker 25 pen and the InterCity 125 high-speed train
1977 Association begins with B&W Loudspeakers
1982 Appointed consultant design director to Thorn EMI
1984 Awarded CBE
1987-88 President of the Chartered Society of Designers
1993-95 Chairman of the Design Business Association
1996 Head of the Products Panel for the third BBC Design Awards
2001 Awarded the Prince Philip Designers Prize
2003 Joined Anglepoise as design director where he designed the Anglepoise Type 3 desk lamp
2011 Honoured with the Design Museum ‘Making Britain Modern’ exhibition accompanied by his autobiography of the same name
2013 Knighted for services to design
2024 July 21 passed away, survived by his wife, Apryl
2025 The V&A East Storehouse will display Sir Kenneth Grange’s archives
I was privileged to work at The Design Council in the late 70s and be in meetings with Kenneth Grange chairing
I also didn’t fully appreciate his support and the opportunities he facilitated,at the time
An icon but generous