‘All the Things in Life: Design, Advertising and Photography in The Architectural Review’, in Pylot, Issue 9 (Autumn/Winter 2018).

The text and photographs in this feature are taken from advertisements that appeared in the English architectural journal The Architectural Review between 1960 and 1969. The copy is showing its age but the images still feel fresh some 50 years later. Part of this is surely their appeal to the current trend for mid-century design, and for photographs with a retro look and feel. Objects and images like these are a clear signal of cultural nous and good taste. But the items featured in these advertisements appeared on the market at the tail end of longstanding debates about the form and function of domestic goods. From the mid-19th century onwards, artists, designers and other creatives took part in a lively exchange of opinion not just about the way that objects looked, but about the way they were made, their social and political value, and how they were presented to the buying public.