Talk

Online Talk: A Network of Designers: The Faculty of Royal Designers for Industry by Susan Bennett MA

26 September 2025
18:00
£7

This talk will look at the background to the award and highlight the work of RDIs from the early years to the present day

The distinction of Royal Designer for Industry (RDI) was instituted in 1936 by the Royal Society of Arts in acknowledgement of the importance of good design in everyday life. This is the highest accolade awarded to designers with only 200 individuals able to hold the title at any one time, and non-UK designers recognised as Honorary RDIs. Both Gordon Russell and his brother Dick were awarded this distinction and served as Masters of the Faculty of RDIs. This talk will look at the background to the award and highlight the work of RDIs from the early years to the present day.

Susan Bennett MA was Curator/Archivist for the Royal Society of Arts for twenty-five years and has continued to research its rich and varied history as Honorary Secretary of the William Shipley Group for RSA History. She put together a resource on the RDIs who exhibited at the 1946 Britain Can Make It exhibition for the University of Brighton Design Archives (see https://blogs.brighton.ac.uk/royaldesigners/category/designers/) and acts as administrator for the Friends of the Gordon Russell Design Museum.

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