Making Britain Modern

Sir Kenneth Grange

Design Director of Anglepoise since 2003, Sir Kenneth Grange began his illustrious career as a technical illustrator whilst in National Service. He subsequently made his reputation as an industrial product designer and in association with four partners founded Pentagram, now an international design practice with offices in USA, Germany and London. Grange’s remarkable work spans half a century and his user-centered, often quintessentially British designs have helped shape the parameters of everyday life for so many. Not only everyday household brands like Kenwood, Parker, Kodak - and of course Anglepoise - have received the Kenneth Grange treatment but also the InterCity 125 train, the regional Royal Mail postbox and the latest London BlackTaxi.

A British Product Designer

Accolades for Grange’s influence as a foremost British product designer have naturally followed. Twice winner of the Prince Philip Designers Prize with a string of Design Council Awards to his name, Grange is a Royal Designer for Industry, Gold Medalist of the Chartered Society of Designers, holds six Honorary Doctorates including at the Royal College of Art where he is visiting professor and an FX Lifetime Achievement Award. In 1983 the Victoria & Albert Museum staged a one-man show of his work. Grange was similarly honored in Tokyo in 1989 and again at the Design Museum ‘Making Britain Modern’ exhibition in London in 2011. In 1984 Grange was appointed CBE and in 2013 he received a knighthood for services to design. Image: Designed & illustrated by Tom Rowe. Commissioned by The Design Museum for the Kenneth Grange Retrospective

A Minor Miracle of Balance

Sir Kenneth Grange for Anglepoise

Having previously identified the Anglepoise as his favourite design and a ‘minor miracle of balance’, Sir Kenneth Grange became Design Director of Anglepoise in 2003. His first Anglepoise design was the Type 3™ desk lamp, which launched in 2003. Kenneth continues to design stand out lights for Anglepoise, including the Type 75™, which formed the basis of collaborations with Margaret Howell and Paul Smith.