Episode 22: Terence Conran

The late Sir Terence Conran could claim to have done more to bring good design to post-war Britain than any other individual. He was a genuine believer in the power of good design to make life better and never lost his zeal despite going on to father a vast business empire.

He believed everyone had the right to good design and the pleasure and enjoyment it could bring. No design ascetic, he enjoyed comfort, convenience, food, drink and a whole lot more to the full.

For me, he represented so many things I believed in and his influence was enduring and deep. He deserves a permanent place in design history.

Transcript

Kevin: 0:01

Hello, hello and thrice hello. Welcome to another episode of Make Life Better by Design with me your host, Kevin Drayton. Now, the late Sir Terence Conran has been a design hero of mine for many years, decades actually. And after he died in 2020, uh, I wrote an article about him, um, for the website that I was running at that time. Well, worn out as I'm with all this podcasting lark, I thought, I know I'll turn it up and use it again, uh, to put on the podcast. No. Could I find it? Could I Heck, it's gone. So after I got over the annoyance, I thought to myself, well, it's a good opportunity to think about him again and think about why he is such a hero of mine. Terence Conran was a passionate man. He had a passion for good design, but he also had passion for food, and I think the good things in life generally. He had a sensual, emotional passion about everybody's right to a good life. There's no doubt that he was a modernist. But he didn't have that sort of austere intellectual air that the Bauhaus tended to generate in a lot of people. His chain of shops, Habitat, which he started in 1964, democratized modernism because he showed it alongside simple, often handcrafted products that survived in well modest cultures'cause they did exactly what they were meant to do; they didn't cost a fortune and they could take the knocks of typical domestic life. Quite a few manufacturers thought they were bringing modernism to the masses by making cheap, quirky, colourful goods that owed a lot to a, what I think of as a watered down version of Festival of Britain Design. They allied that, of course, to the great tradition of salesmanship that concentrated on telling people that they wanted and needed whatever it was they produced, uh, without bothering too much about anything else, as long as this stuff shifted. Conran's belief in the power of good design to make life better was absolute and unshakeable. Good design to Conran meant functional, well made, affordable and delightful. Habitat products lasted. They had a, a charm about them that made homes smile and carried not one whiff of inferiority. Post-War Britain still contained a lot of big heavy brown furniture. There was also a continuing belief in the value of antiques, and we added to that, uh, quite a bit of utility furniture that seemed to whisper,"I know you can't afford good stuff, but believe me, I'm really good. And you may even come to like me eventually." Well, along with one or two other designers, Terence Conran saw that modernism allied to traditional craft could be aspirational, democratic, a force for good and affordable. Those with open minds took Habitat to their hearts very quickly, hence the growth of the business. Those with, uh, more inflexible minds took rather longer. It's interesting that Terence Conran's schooling and his early arts college education saw him understand the relationship between what you might call pure design and actually making things, uh, hand work, craft, and, and he understood that need to bring those two aspects together. Only connect, in other words. So he had this innate understanding of the relationship between product and production that you can see in so many of the items that were on sale in Habitat stores. It's interesting that the other passion Conran was known for was food. In fact, his very first venture, commercial venture, business venture was the Soup Kitchen, which he set up in London all the way back in 1953. But he soon turned to furniture and household goods with the launch of Habitat, and then returned to his love of food after the inevitable dilution of the Habitat ethos as it got bigger, others got involved and took over his empire. So he returned to food and started to set up a series of restaurants and Terry Conran's restaurants were about good design just as much as about good food. And yet each restaurant had an individuality that seemed impossible if the core principles were not gonna be diluted. Not a bit of it. Book a table at any Conran eatery and you were guaranteed great food and comfortable surroundings, whatever the price point. His commitment to and passion for design. Yeah, there's no need to say good design-'cause he knew no other kind led him to projects far beyond Habitat. With projects such as the Design Museum, which was first set up as the Boiler House in the V&A museum and then moved, uh, first of all to Shad Thames and then on again. He also authored a series of books which offered insight into what good design looked like. And quite late in his career, he actually returned to genuine hands-on designing after decades as more of an entrepreneur and businessman. That passion, that belief in design and his wish to get hands on with it, never left him. Never at all. I find it hard to think of anyone who maintained that level of belief and commitment. Who exhibited that belief in pretty much everything he did throughout his life. I mean, yes, his homes were bigger, uh, and probably more luxurious than many people's, but certainly you'll see Habitat furniture in them. And later the rather more elaborate Conran Shop, uh, furniture and goods. But essentially they felt homely, welcoming. They felt as though you could enjoy yourself living in them. Terence Conran undoubtedly believed in the good life. He believed about it for everyone, for all of us. He certainly made a lasting impression on me. And if you don't know a great deal about him or indeed about the early days say of Habitat. And it's not only the stores by the way, uh, which were a great design influence. They produced, uh, in the early years catalogues, uh, hard print catalogues that I wish to goodness I'd kept all my copies because they were an inspiration and I presume if you have a full set nowadays might be worth a bit of something. Not that I would let them go until I shuffle off the mortal coil myself. Well, there we are as ever, if you have been very many thanks for listening. I hope to throw in the occasional further hero of mine, uh, but there's nobody I can think of better than Sir Terence, uh, to be the first. So thanks again and I look forward to seeing you- well, I'm not gonna see you but I look forward to talking to you in the next episode. Meanwhile, go and make life better. Thank you. Goodbye.