The Question of 'Good Design'. Wedgwood's Role in the Shaping of Public Taste in the 20th century (c.1936-1986)

“好设计”的问题。

• 批准号: 2607561
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Leeds
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2607561
• 关键词: Question; Good; Design; Wedgwood; Role

This project interrogates how and why Wedgwood as a commercial company actively shaped public and professional understanding of 'good design' through its production and its consumption during the mid-decades of the C20th. This research project will examine how and why the company participated in these discussions around 'good design', how they positioned themselves within them nationally and internationally, what relevant bodies its representatives were members of, and how they contributed to and shaped debates via their roles as company representatives in trade circles. It seeks to establish how this was reflected in company politics and product design together with consumption practices. The project will interrogate a period spanning from before the Second World War (beginning with the 'Hambleden Report' of 1936, which triggered the restructuring of the RCA in 1948) to the retirement of Arthur Bryan in 1986 (the first non-family chairman of the company, who had taken over from Josiah V in 1967). This period also encompassed a time of rapid business expansion and the amalgamation of many smaller ceramic firms. This will be located in an international and contemporary context, looking at representative examples of products and company politics from other progressive British, German, Scandinavian, and US-American manufacturers, such as for example Midwinter (as part of the Meakin brand taken over by Wedgwood in 1970), Rosenthal, Arabia (today, as part of the Iittala group owned by Fiskars - owners of the Wedgwood group since 2015) and Lenox in the United States.

这个项目询问如何以及为什么韦奇伍德作为一个商业公司积极塑造公众和专业的理解“好设计”通过其生产和消费在C20年代中期的几十年。该研究项目将研究公司如何以及为什么参与这些围绕“好设计”的讨论，他们如何在国内和国际上定位自己，其代表是哪些相关机构的成员，以及他们如何通过他们作为公司代表在贸易界的角色来促进和塑造辩论。它试图确定这是如何反映在公司政治和产品设计以及消费实践。该项目将调查从第二次世界大战前（从1936年的“汉布尔登报告”开始，该报告引发了1948年RCA的重组）到1986年亚瑟布莱恩（该公司的第一位非家族董事长，他于1967年接替了约西亚五世）的退休。这一时期也包括了快速的业务扩张和许多较小的陶瓷公司的合并。这将位于一个国际和当代的背景下，从其他进步的英国，德国，斯堪的纳维亚和美国，美国制造商，例如仲冬产品和公司政治的代表性例子看，（作为Meakin品牌的一部分，于1970年被Wedgwood收购），Rosenthal，阿拉伯（今天，作为Fiskars拥有的Iittala集团的一部分-自2015年以来一直是Wedgwood集团的所有者）和美国的莱诺克斯。