Council publications ('Design' magazine)

The files in DCA/27 constitute the single biggest concentration of material about the Council"s journal 'Design'. All but 3 of the 11 remaining files relate to it. They cover surveys, sales, promotion, and the Minutes of meetings of the 'Design' magazine committee between 1966 and 1978. Another file relates to a competitor journal, 'Design for Industry'. The other 2 files concern the format of proposed booklets "The Birth of an Egg Cup", originally associated with the "Britain Can Make It" exhibition, and "What is a Design Centre?'.

The Council disseminated its message using a wide range of publications. Initially these were produced in association with HMSO, although relationships with commercial publishers developed later. Some were accompaniments to Council-organized activities such as conferences, courses, displays and exhibitions. Other items were intended to stand alone. Its most important publication, launched in 1949, was the monthly periodical 'Design', aimed at a wide but specialist readership. This remained in production until 1999.

The surviving files have been retained in their original numeric order as allocated by the Council"s Registry. This means that records in a series do not necessarily have consecutive file numbers, and may not be located together.

Record created by Lesley Whitworth, with minor amendments by Sue Breakell, August 2010.

Gillian Naylor and Ken Garland, "Design Magazine – A Conversation", in Jeremy Aynsley and Kate Forde (eds), 'Design and the Modern Magazine', Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2007.