Sir Gordon Russell was one of the twentieth century’s most influential furniture designers.
The influence of the Arts and Crafts movement can be seen in his earliest pieces, the beautifully detailed Paris Cabinet which cemented the reputation of the Broadway workshops and its craftsmen, winning the Gold Medal at the Paris International Exhibition in 1925.
Where Gordon Russell differed from many of his predecessors and contemporaries however, was his willingness to embrace new technologies. Gordon Russell believed that it was through a blend of hand and machine - by ‘teaching the machine manners’ as he put it - that good design could be made affordable, and accessible to all.
Gordon Russell went on to become Director of the Council for Industrial Design (now the Design Council) and in his role as Chairman of the Utility Furniture Advisory Committee during the Second World War, his aim to design furniture that was affordable for all found new expression. He was Knighted for his services to design in 1955.
“[My Grandfather] …was a design pioneer, much more than just a designer and a maker, he was interested in how it worked in the space it lived in.” - Jonathan Russell, Grandson of Sir Gordon Russell