The Visual Arts Data Service (VADS) is delighted to announce that the Design
Council Slide Collection is now searchable on-line via the VADS website
(http://vads.ahds.ac.uk/search.html).
The Design Council Slide Collection contains nearly 3000 fully catalogued
images covering a wide range of subjects including tableware, furniture,
lighting, toys, domestic appliances, textiles, wallpapers, office equipment,
engineering components and machinery. Other areas of design such as
architecture, town planning, interior design, graphic design and corporate
identity are also included. The addition of this resource to the
collections already on-line means that VADS now provides more than 6000
images and records covering many areas of late 20th century design, for use
in research, learning and teaching. The collection was digitised as part of
the JISC Image Digitisation Initiative (JIDI).
The Design Council Slide Collection originated in 1945 from the Picture
Library of the Council of Industrial Design (CoID), a precursor to the
Design Council. The CoID had been established by the British government the
previous year "to promote by all practicable means the improvement of design
in the products of British industry", and to this end it sought to foster a
critical awareness of design among manufacturers, retailers and consumers.
Many of the images in the collection illustrate the aesthetic and
technological developments of the period, as reflected in the design history
of various kinds of objects and the emergence of new product types. Due to
the national role of the Council, the emphasis is mainly upon British design
from 1945 to 1990, but there are also many images illustrating design from
other countries and from earlier periods. The collection also contains a
large number of original and unique images that record many of the Council's
own activities, including its annual design award scheme introduced in 1957,
and the various exhibitions and other events that it organised or
contributed to in the UK and abroad. In 1995, the collection was deposited
on permanent loan to the Manchester Metropolitan University's Department of
History of Art and Design.
VADS delivers the Design Council Slide Collection via its Internet catalogue
as part of its archiving of high quality digital resources for use in
research, learning and teaching. VADS is a part of the Arts and Humanities
Data Service (AHDS), funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Board (AHRB)
and the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC).
Brenda Brinkley
Information Officer
Visual Arts Data Service
Surrey Institute of Art & Design, University College
Falkner Road
Farnham
Surrey GU9 7DS
Tel: 01252 892723
Fax: 01252 892725
email: [log in to unmask]
|