V & A Pattern: The Fifties

Apr 27, 2010 by Jennifer Farley    No Comments    Posted under: Blog, Book Review, Design Stuff!

I bought this little book a few weeks ago and have been intending to mention it here on the blog. The Victoria and Albert Museum in London has a massive archive of designs for textiles, decorations, wallpapers and prints. This book is a small collection of 70 patterns from that collection created during the 1950’s. Some of the artists included are Joan Miro, Paul Klee and Alexander Calder. It’s a small hardback book and each page is given over to one image with some info about the creator.

Masks furnishing fabric, by Robert Stewart (1924-95), for Liberty & Co. Screen-printed linen and cotton. London, England, 1954.

At the back of the book there is a CD which has high-resolution images of all the patterns featured. The images are copyright Victoria and Albert Museum, London and are available for personal use but by contacting the museum it may be possible to use the images for commercial use. According to the V and A “our commitment to inspiring design means that securing permissions should be both reasonable and quick”, which sounds pretty good to me.

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