Kenneth Grange: a British Design Legend

Kenneth Grange (1929–2024) might not be a household name, but his designs have been part of our lives for decades. The Intercity 125 train, the Kenwood Chef and the Kodak Instamatic camera, to name a few. Grange was also one of the founding partners of Pentagram, the design studio that still looms large in the design world, and later became Design Director of Anglepoise, creating lamps including the Type 75. He also designed pens for Parker.

Anglepoise is one design name we’ve returned to more than once at Pickle. The original lamp was George Carwardine’s invention, but Grange later became an important part of its story, taking that familiar form forward for a new generation. His Type 75 is a lovely example – unmistakably Anglepoise, but cleaner and more modernist. We explored the story of the Anglepoise lamp in this illustrated infographic.

Design hiding in plain sight

What I find fascinating is just how familiar so much of his work is. You could easily have travelled on, cooked with, written with or photographed something Grange helped to design without ever knowing his name.

His career spanned more than 60 years and reached far beyond Britain, including typewriter design in Japan. But it is perhaps his mark on everyday British design that feels most familiar, from London taxis to red Post Office postboxes.

There is something rather lovely about that. These weren’t objects designed simply to sit in a gallery and be admired. Trains, cameras, food mixers, lamps and pens are things people actually use. Good design quietly becomes part of everyday life.

Form, function and a little playfulness

Reading the various tributes written about him, Grange comes across as a warm fellow with an air of humility about him. Known for his playful take on Modernism, he seems to have been motivated less by putting his own stamp on everything and more by the desire to make things better.

I think that probably explains why his work has lasted so well. There is personality there, but it never gets in the way of what the object is actually for. Form and function working together – with enough character to stop things becoming dull.

An admirable quality to be sure.

“No one and nothing is perfect – Improvement is the only responsible approach one can take in design as in life.”

(Images: Above; Kenneth Grange at home in 2014, next to one of his hugely successful Anglepoise lamp designs. Photograph: Joel Redman via The Guardian. Title image; combination of Grange’s works, images from Anglepoise.)