Sir Misha Black Awards 2016 Presented at the Royal College of Art
Today, the RCA hosts the award ceremony for the 2016 Sir Misha Black Awards, at which the 2016 Sir Misha Black Medal for Distinguished Services to Design Education will be awarded to renowned designer and educator Margaret Calvert (OBE, RDI, AGI), and awards for Innovation in Design Education will be given to the Arts University Bournemouth and Professor Catherine McDermott of Kingston University.Â
The Sir Misha Black Medal for Distinguished Services to Design Education was instituted in 1978 as a memorial to designer and teacher Sir Misha Black, who was Professor of Industrial Design at the RCA (1959–75). Four bodies with whom Sir Misha Black was closely associated instituted the Medal – the Royal College of Art, the RSA Faculty of Royal Designers for Industry, the Design and Industries Association and the Chartered Society of Designers. In 1996, the Royal Academy of Engineering joined, in recognition of the growth of design studies in engineering universities. Previous winners include David Pye (1991), Ettore Sottsass (1999) and Ravi Naidoo (2015).
Margaret Calvert, selected for the 2016 Medal, cites Sir Misha Black as first introducing her to teaching in the 1960s. Black established the DRU (Design Research Unit) alongside Milner Gray in the late 1940s, creating one of the first interdisciplinary design practices with clients in industrial design, architecture and graphics, and the RCA's influential Department of Design Research with Bruce Archer. Black approached Calvert from his position at the RCA. Calvert was later Acting Head of Graphic Design at the Royal College of Art from 1987 to 1991, retiring as Senior Tutor in 2001. She continues in private practice working from her London-based studio.
Calvert is best known for radically reworking the British road sign and designing the accompanying Transport and Rail Alphabet fonts, alongside colleague Jock Kinneir. Her typeface ‘Calvert’, initially designed for the Tyne and Wear Metro, is the Royal College of Art's house font, in conjunction with ‘Calvert Brody’, which she developed in 2012 with Dean of Communication Neville Brody. More recently she designed ‘New Rail Alphabet’ a digital version of ‘Rail Alphabet’ and ‘New Transport‘, and a digital version of the original ‘Transport’ lettering for the UK Government’s website. Both were created in collaboration with Henrik Kubel, one of her former Royal College of Art students.Â
Professor Sir Christopher Frayling, who represents the College of Medallists on the Awards Committee and was a colleague of Margaret Calvert at the RCA, says: ‘Margaret Calvert’s road signs, with their distinctive colours, lettering and silhouettes of children crossing or men at work or a running deer or a standing cow, are literally everywhere. We pass, and obey them, every day. And yet her name is little known outside the world of graphic design.’Â
Frayling emphasises that alongside her influential design, Calvert has ‘taught generations of art school graphic design students her rigour and her values’. He notes that her selection for the award was made ‘at a time when "healthier cities" are very much on the design agenda; it is the right year to be presenting the Medal to the unsung designer who has been making our roads safer for half a century’.
The Sir Misha Black Award for Innovation in Design Education was inaugurated in 1999 to recognise those who, by contributing to the theory and or practice of Design Education in the UK through innovation and vision, have ensured the education of designers has been measurably improved and the profile of design education enhanced. Previous recipients include Professor Adrian Forty, Bartlett, University College London (2003), and Professor Tony Dunne, Royal College of Art (2009).
At the ceremony, a 2016 Award for Innovation in Design Education will be presented to the ArtsUniversity Bournemouth (AUB) for its innovative approach to design teaching, with particularly recognition for their creation of The Gallery, an onsite space that hosts international and touring exhibitions, and for commissioning the first purpose-built drawing studio in the UK for over 100 years. A second Award for Innovation in Design Education will be given to Professor Catherine McDermott of Kingston University for her innovative teaching and pioneering work in establishing the Curating Contemporary Design MA, in collaboration with The Design Museum, London.
On the Art University Bournemouth Award, present Principal and Vice Chancellor Professor
Stuart Bartholomew, has commented: ‘The Arts University is deeply honoured by
the decision of the Sir Misha Black Awards Committee… We believe that our long
tradition of specialist education in arts and design continues to contribute to
the success of UK creative industries and international recognition for the
quality of innovative design.’
The Awards will be presented at a ceremony to be held at 6pm on Thursday November 17 at the Royal College of Art. Margaret Calvert will deliver an address entitled ‘Finding a way...’.Â