Dorothy Braddell
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Dorothy Braddell (1889–1981) was a mid 20th century British writer and designer who had "a significant impact on the design of kitchens and domestic appliances" and on ideas about more efficient home management. She occasionally used her husband's name, Darcy Braddell, as a pseudonym in her writings.


Biography

Dorothy Adelaide Bussé was born in London in 1889. She attended
King's College, London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public university, public research university in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV ...
, and then undertook further art studies at the Regent School Polytechnic and at the
Byam Shaw School of Art The Byam Shaw School of Art, often known simply as Byam Shaw, was an independent art school in London, England, which specialised in fine art and offered foundation and degree level courses. It was founded in 1910 by Byam Shaw, John Liston Bya ...
, where she won a National Gold Medal for decorative design. In 1914 she married Darcy Braddell, an architect. Braddell began her career working as an illustrator but after World War I moved into advertising. One of her clients was the petroleum consortium
Shell-Mex and BP Shell-Mex and BP Limited was a British joint venture between petroleum companies Shell and BP. It was formed in 1932 when both companies decided to merge their United Kingdom marketing operations,Reference and contact details: GB 1566 SMBP Title: ...
, for which she produced a series of posters and other promotional materials that expressed the company's commitment to environmental sensitivity. Another client was the food company
Crosse and Blackwell Crosse & Blackwell is an English food brand. The original company was established in London in 1706, then was acquired by Edmund Crosse and Thomas Blackwell in 1830. It became independent until it was acquired by Swiss conglomerate Nestlé in 19 ...
. She also produced several public-service posters emphasizing the importance to health of cleanliness in the kitchen, using the tag line "Where There's Dirt There's Danger." Braddell showed her designs at high-visibility exhibitions such as "British Art in Industry" at the Royal Academy (1935), the "Britain Can Make It" exhibition at the
Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (abbreviated V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen ...
(1946), the British Pavilion of the
Paris Exhibition Paris Exposition or Paris Exhibition can refer to * French Industrial Exposition of 1844 * Exposition des produits de l'industrie française, held intermittently from 1798 to 1849 * Exposition Universelle (1855), the Paris Exposition of 1855 * Expos ...
(1937), and a number of Daily Mail Ideal Home Exhibitions. During the 1930s, her design work aligned with the prevailing
Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...
aesthetic. From the 1930s to the 1950s, her interior design work focused on ways to make domestic management easier for women. She paid special attention to the kitchen and the ways that good planning combined with well-designed appliances and workflows could reduce domestic labor. For example, in the 1933 Daily Mail Ideal Home Exhibition she showed a plan for a small country house that combined the kitchen with the living room, while in the 1937 British Pavilion she showed a modern kitchen for a weekend house. She also worked directly with companies such as the Parkinson Stove Company on labor-saving appliance design, and she played a part in making the
AGA cooker The Aga Range Cooker is a Swedish range Kitchen stove, cooker. Invented and initially produced in Sweden, since 1957 most production has been located in the UK. In 2015, the British AGA Cooker manufacturing company, AGA Rangemaster Group, was a ...
a symbol of the mid-century British kitchen. Braddell also wrote on domestic design and management for various publications. She was involved in creating the British Council for Art and Industry's 1937 report entitled "Working Class Home: Its Furnishing and Equipment." She worked into the 1960s and died in 1981. The Victoria and Albert Museum holds some of her papers, including artwork produced for advertising; designs and photographs; and day books.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Braddell, Dorothy 1889 births 1981 deaths British designers British women artists Alumni of the Byam Shaw School of Art Alumni of King's College London Writers from London