Full Description
Inspired by the Great Exhibition of 1851, the Festival of Britain followed soon after the austerity of the war years. The major events were focused around the twenty-seven-acre bomb site around Waterloo Station, although events happened throughout the UK.
The Festival was almost immediately unfashionable amongst commentators. It was viewed with suspicion by political conservatives and quickly dismantled. An establishment orthodoxy quickly emerged that called into question the Festival's objectives.
This political ambivalence towards the Festival is confounded by the popularity of the Festival amongst collectors, social historians and anybody interested in post-war British culture and society. This book is the first to present the story of the Festival of Britain, held in 1951, through its souvenirs. These objects were produced to commemorate The Tonic to the Nation. Retrospectively, they testify to the enormous popular appeal of the Festival.
Festival of Britain 1951, the most recent addition to the popular
Design series, places these souvenirs and objects into their historical context and explains the continuing appeal of these modest artefacts.
The
Design series is the winner of the Brand/Series Identity Category at the British Book Design and Production Awards 2009, judges said:
"A series of books about design, they had to be good and these are. The branding is consistent, there is a good use of typography and the covers are superb."
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GPO ISBN: 9781851495962
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FHK Henrion ISBN: 9781851496327
David Gentleman ISBN: 9781851495955
David Mellor ISBN: 9781851496037
E.McKnight Kauffer ISBN: 9781851495207
Edward Bawden and Eric Ravilious ISBN: 9781851495009
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Harold Curwen & Oliver Simon: Curwen Press ISBN: 9781851495719
Jan Le Witt and George Him ISBN: 9781851495665
Paul Nash and John Nash ISBN: 9781851495191
Rodchenko ISBN: 9781851495917
Abram Games ISBN: 9781851496778
About the Author
Paul Rennie is Head of Context in the School of Graphic Design at Central St Martin's, London and is a member of the Festival of Britain Society and has a collection of Festival souvenirs, ephemera, posters and textiles.