Cock and Lion, London W1, 1961 (Photograph John Maltby, courtesy of Scott Brownrigg)

THE previously untold history of the organisation that put design at the forefront of Britain’s post-war recovery is the subject of a new exhibition touring to Liverpool.

Held at John Moores University’s Academy gallery, the show traces 30 years of the London-based Design Research Unit responsible for some of the country’s most important design produced after World War II.

Formed by poet and art critic Herbert Read, advertising entrepreneur Marcus Brumwell and designers Misha Black and Milner Gray, the RDU pioneered a model for group practice, bringing artists and designers together with scientists and technologists.

The exhibition is the culmination of two years’ research by curator Michelle Cotton, who became interested in the organisation while studying for an art history degree.

“The two designers’ company broke up when World War II broke out and they started working for the Ministry of Information on propaganda exhibitions,” she explains.

“Then towards the end of the war they started talking about how the future of Britain really depended on good design and how there was a massive task ahead to redesign public transportation systems and get those factories that had gone into producing munitions back into commercial production.”