Ronald David Carter (30 December 1927 – 16 November 2020) was a British designer known for projects like the Stanley knife and LeShuttle, which carries vehicles under

the Channel The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or (Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kanaa ...

Early life and career

He trained at the Leicester College of Art (now

DeMontfort University De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) is a public university in the city of Leicester, England. It was established in accordance with the Further and Higher Education Act in 1992 as a degree awarding body. The name De Montfort University was ta ...

), simultaneously spending a good part of 2 years in an engineering works. He served in the Navy. Demobbed in 1948 he returned to full-time study in the industrial design (engineering) department of the

Central School of Art and Design The Central School of Art and Design was a public school of fine and applied arts in London, England. It offered foundation and degree level courses. It was established in 1896 by the London County Council as the Central School of Arts and Cr ...

. He went on to a variety of industrial design positions and then in 1960 he set up on his own as a consultant, going on to employ a growing team of engineers, designers, model-makers and assistants as David Carter Associates. When designing, he created models preferably full size and made of cardboard early on in his process, "just to get an idea of how big it is", he said. The Stanley knife went through at least six cardboard iterations before he was happy with the result. In 1970, when household telephones were supplied exclusively by the

Post Office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...

, he was commissioned to design a new rotary-dial model that would sit on a table or shelf, or be mounted on the wall. "We were asked to make this telephone cheaper to produce than the existing model," he told

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

. It was the process by which designs were developed and delivered that truly interested him. As a result he often assigned the

intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, cop ...

rights to his clients, rarely applying for

patents A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...

himself. He insisted that this was not an act of altruism but the only practical way to ensure the efficient execution and dispatch of a design contract.

"I don't want to become an entrepreneur who just pushes designs out one after another," he said.

Simultaneously, he started teaching at the Birmingham College of Art and Design, where his head of department was the late

Naum Slutzky Naum Slutzky (28 February 1894 in Kiev, Russian Empire (now Kyiv, Ukraine) – 4 November 1965 in Stevenage, England) was a goldsmith, industrial designer and master craftsman of the Bauhaus. In the art history literature his first name is s ...

, who had been one or Carter's teachers during his time at the Central, and whom Carter identifies as a powerful influence in his work. Under Carter's continued leadership the David Carter Associates became DCA Design Consultants in 1975 and later renamed itself as

DCA Design DCA Design International is one of the world's leading product design and development consultancies and is based in Warwick, England. The company was founded in 1960 and now employs more than 130 people. DCA specialise in many areas of product d ...

in 1986. He retired from DCA in 1992, though the company continues to trade to this day from its traditional home and headquarters on Church Street,

Warwick Warwick ( ) is a market town, civil parish and the county town of Warwickshire in the Warwick District in England, adjacent to the River Avon. It is south of Coventry, and south-east of Birmingham. It is adjoined with Leamington Spa and Whi ...

in the UK. Also he continued to teach at the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It offe ...

. Carter's

industrial design Industrial design is a process of design applied to physical Product (business), products that are to be manufactured by mass production. It is the creative act of determining and defining a product's form and features, which takes place in advan ...

work has won many prizes including: * Design Centre Award (1961) for the Orbit castors, for Joseph Gillot & Sons Ltd. * The Prince of Wales Award for Industrial Innovation (1981–85) * The Duke of Edinburgh Prize for Elegant Design (also known as the Prince Philip Designers Prize) for a Gas-Flo system for the Wales Gas Board (1967) Carter established himself as a renowned industrial designer, becoming a member of the

Royal Society of Arts The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), also known as the Royal Society of Arts, is a London-based organisation committed to finding practical solutions to social challenges. The RSA acronym is used m ...

, the

Design Council The Design Council, formerly the Council of Industrial Design, is a United Kingdom charity incorporated by Royal Charter. Its stated mission is "to champion great design that improves lives and makes things better". It was instrumental in the prom ...

, the

Society of Industrial Artists and Designers A society is a Social group, group of individuals involved in persistent Social relation, social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same Politics, political authority an ...

and the

. Carter was president of the Society of Industrial Artists and Designers during 1974–75, was appointed

Royal Designer for Industry Royal Designer for Industry is a distinction established by the British Royal Society of Arts (RSA) in 1936, to encourage a high standard of industrial design and enhance the status of designers. It is awarded to people who have achieved "sustained ...

in 1974, from 1972 to 1984 he was deputy chairman of the

and was a trustee of the Conran Boilerhouse Foundation, chairman of the Design Museum and chairman of the Royal Society of Arts Design Board in 1983. He was appointed

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(CBE) in 1980.

Personal life

His family split time between a house in

the Cotswolds The Cotswolds (, ) is a region in central-southwest England, along a range of rolling hills that rise from the meadows of the upper River Thames, Thames to an escarpment above the Severn Valley and Evesham Vale. The area is defined by the be ...

and a cottage on the coast at Tralong in

County Cork County Cork ( ga, Contae Chorcaí) is the largest and the southernmost county of Ireland, named after the city of Cork, the state's second-largest city. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. Its largest market towns are ...

. He died of complications from

dementia Dementia is a disorder which manifests as a set of related symptoms, which usually surfaces when the brain is damaged by injury or disease. The symptoms involve progressive impairments in memory, thinking, and behavior, which negatively affe ...

on 16 November 2020, aged 92. He married Theo Towers in 1953, an artist who became a freelance fashion illustrator for ''Vogue''. Theo died in 2013 and Carter was survived by their children: Steven, a copywriter; Jonathan, an architect; Jane, who is marketing director of

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

in Paris, and her twin, Helen, a HR manager for the

National Health Service The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Carter, David British industrial designers 1927 births 2020 deaths People educated at Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Alumni of the Central School of Art and Design Academics of the Birmingham School of Art British people of Irish descent People from Leicester English people of Irish descent Chartered designers