Design and Industries Association
1915 Established to improve standards of design in manufacturing industry and everyday life, following the example of a similar German organisation. The Association sought to promote better understanding between manufacturers, designers, and retailers and to foster "a more intelligent understanding amongst the public for what is best and soundest in design."
Founder members included Harold Stabler, Ambrose Heal, Cecil Brewer, and Harry Peach.
Early DIA exhibitions were devoted to printing, textiles, and household goods and the Association also organized seminars and lectures on design matters. In its early phases it also geared itself to promoting design in everyday life, as in the 1920 exhibition of Household Things at the Whitechapel Gallery in London.
From 1922 the DIA developed its profile through the publication of essays and captioned photographs of objects that were seen to embrace ideas of ‘Good Design’.
The DIA also sought to involve itself with wider issues of town and environmental planning, in line with many of the activities of the Campaign for the Preservation of Rural England (CPRE).
1932 Launched Design in Industry but this lasted for only two issues
1933 Design for To‐Day ran from 1933 to 1935
1936 Trends in Everyday Life lasted for only two issues in 1936.
WWII Worked closely with the Army Bureau of Current Affairs, organizing exhibitions that travelled to schools on army buses. From 1942 it also organized a series of Design Round the Clock exhibitions, showing photographs of objects that people used throughout the working day, both at home and at work, as well as commuting. All photographs were captioned outlining the aspects of ‘Good Design’ in the objects portrayed.
After the war increasing competition from bodies with similar remits blunted the impact of the Association
The Association had often swung between an organization derived from the Arts and Crafts Movement and a body committed to the promotion of an emphatically 20th‐century industrial aesthetic.
See Also
Sources of Information
- [1] Oxford Reference