Paul B. Clark (born 1940) is a designer, design historian, model rocketeer and curator whose designs established his reputation with the birth of British

pop culture Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop!, a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Albums * Pop (Gas al ...

in the 1960s. By printing silk-screened Pop decoration onto cheap, mass-produced products, Clark was among a group of young designers who undermined accepted ideas of good taste, by elevating everyday items into fashionable objects. Clark's interest in science and space travel led him to create model rockets for international competitions as well as commercial model rocket kits. He is the founder of the British Space Modelling Association. His archive is located at the

University of Brighton Design Archives The University of Brighton Design Archives centres on British and global design organisations of the twentieth century. It is located within the University of Brighton Grand Parade campus in the heart of Brighton and is an international research r ...

Education

Paul Clark was educated at

Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood Small things grow in harmony , established = , closed = , coordinates = , pushpin_map = , type = Independent day school , religion = Church o ...

from 1954 to 1958. Following a two-year intermediate art course at Hammersmith College of Art, London (1959-1961), Clark joined the Central School of Arts and Crafts where he began an Industrial Design NDD course. In 1984 Clark graduated with an MA in Cultural Studies from 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 ...

Career

Early career

Clark began his career assisting ceramic designer Michel Caddy in his studio whilst a student at Central School of Arts and Crafts on the Industrial Design course. There he was involved in graphic design and also gained experience designing various of 3D materials and ceramics. In 1962 he decided not to return to Central School of Arts and Crafts, instead establishing himself as a freelance graphic designer and a maker of accessories for the kitchen. There was a revival of interest in Victorian and Edwardian style and one of his first products was a range of knob stoppered storage jars. Also at this time, Clark developed an interest in Letraset, designing and applying for a provisional patent on his own display lettering system.

The 1960s

As a Pop designer in the

swinging London The Swinging Sixties was a youth-driven cultural revolution that took place in the United Kingdom during the mid-to-late 1960s, emphasising modernity and fun-loving hedonism, with Swinging London as its centre. It saw a flourishing in art, mus ...

era, Clark's work was particularly popular in the boutiques of London's

Carnaby Street Carnaby Street is a pedestrianised shopping street in Soho in the City of Westminster, Central London. Close to Oxford Street and Regent Street, it is home to fashion and lifestyle retailers, including many independent fashion boutiques. Stre ...

such as Gear. He also supplied Kleptomania in Kingly Street, which was run by Tommy Roberts who later opened the famous Mr Freedom in the Kings Road. In 1965, David Phillips, the China & Glass buyer Woollands of Knightsbridge - the London department store - held a British Fortnight promotion and commissioned designs from Clark and other designers from the era. This led to Clark's iconic

Union Jack The Union Jack, or Union Flag, is the ''de facto'' national flag of the United Kingdom. Although no law has been passed making the Union Flag the official national flag of the United Kingdom, it has effectively become such through precedent. ...

mug for which he is most well known. For the opening reception he devised a novelty handout called 'Instant Patriot Outfit'. This was a small gold foil folder with a folded Union Jack inside it, with the slogan 'Be British' printed on it. It was subsequently given to guests at the opening event of the British Pavilion at the 1967 Worlds Fair in Montreal. Woollands closed in 1967 and David Phillips went on to become Terence Conran's chief buyer at

Habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

Clark was aware of the work of the upcoming young Pop artists and was particularly influenced by issue 32 of the Royal College of Art's magazine 'Ark'. This included a 'Kit of Images' with an actual card target and he subsequently used the target motif in his designs for mugs, dishes and coasters. A dynamic symbol of the era, it was originally derived from American artist Jasper Johns' series of target paintings, and developed by Peter Blake in the early 1960s. Along with the Union Jack, the target symbol fitted well with the mid-sixties trend for design derived from

Op art Op art, short for optical art, is a style of visual art that uses optical illusions. Op artworks are abstract, with many better-known pieces created in black and white. Typically, they give the viewer the impression of movement, hidden images ...

and hard edged abstraction. Typography also featured strongly in Clark's designs for mugs, dishes and clocks. By 1968, Clark was known as "the pop clock man".

Perspective Designs

In 1966, Clark became the design consultant at Perspective Designs, a company set up by Philip Bidwell specifically to market the work of young British designers. They made kitchen accessories, stationery, gifts and fibre-board furniture items that were very much part of British Pop Art culture. They took over the manufacture and distribution of his mugs and dishes Perspective Designs had a retail outlet in the Fulham Road called 'Scope' which doubled as a showroom. Clark stayed with Perspective Designs until they went into liquidation in 1969. His design work at this time included the 'Disc Clock', the 'Revolutionary Clock' and a range of cheap, colourful cardboard clocks.

Ben Bowden's 'Bicycle of the Future'

In 1986, Clark created a replica of an iconic bike designed by

Ben Bowden Benjamin Douglas Bowden (born October 21, 1994) is an American professional baseball pitcher in the Philadelphia Phillies organization. He played college baseball for Vanderbilt University. The Colorado Rockies selected Bowden in the second roun ...

which had been exhibited at the

Britain Can Make It ''Britain Can Make It'' was an exhibition of industrial and product design held at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in 1946. It was organised by the ''Council of Industrial Design'', later to become the ''Design Council''. Background Ev ...

exhibition in 1947. Guided only by photos, Clark recreated Bowden's revolutionary bike for the Royal College of Art's ''Make or Break'' exhibition, curated by Dr Penny Sparke.

Teaching

Continuing his freelance graphic work, Clark began teaching on the Foundation and Graphic Design courses at the

Brighton Polytechnic The University of Brighton is a public university based on four campuses in Brighton and Eastbourne on the south coast of England. Its roots can be traced back to 1858 when the Brighton School of Art was opened in the Royal Pavilion. It achiev ...

(now University of Brighton) on a part-time basis. He taught in both the Graphic Design Department and on the Foundation Course (Department of Three Dimensional Design), with the latter role becoming full-time in 1975. In 1984 Clark returned to Brighton to teach in the Department of Art and Design History after completing his MA in Cultural Studies at the Royal College of Art. While at Brighton, Clark joined the CTI Art and Design unit, where he edited the journal OutLine and in 2000 he helped establish the Learning and Teaching Support Network (LTSN) Art Design and Communication Subject Centre.

Exhibitions

Clark's work has been exhibited at the following exhibitions: *1978 ''Alphabet Allsorts'' (curator) at Brighton Polytechnic Gallery *1981 ''Robots and Space Toys'' at Brighton Polytechnic Gallery (curated with Chris McEwan) *1983 ''Out of This World'' at Brighton Museum *1986 ''Make or Break'' at the Royal College of Art *2001 ''Les Années Pop 1956-1968'' at the Centre Pompidou *2004 ''You Never Know When You Might Need Them'' at University of Brighton Gallery *2005 ''Tin Toys'' at the University of Brighton Gallery (curator) *2012 ''Pop! Design Culture Fashion'' exhibition at the Fashion & Textile Museum, London

Bibliography

*''Bakelite-Materiale per mille usi'', Perree, Rob (contributor Clark, P.), Leonardo De Luca, 1991, *''Ben Bowden's 'Bicycle of the Future', 1946'', Clark, P., Journal of Design History, Vol. 5, No. 3 (1992), pp. 227–235 *''The Phone (Design Icons)'', Clark, P., Aurum Press Ltd, 1997, *''The Watch (Design Icons)'', Clark, P. and Ryecart, G., Aurum Press Ltd, 1999, *''Design (A Crash Course)'', Clark, P. and Freeman, J., Watson-Guptill Publications, 2000, *''Things that Go Boom or Fly, Float, and Zoom!'', Alan Bridgewater; Gill Bridgewater et al. (contributor Clark, P.), 2009, St Martin's Griffin,

References

External links

Clark's work on VADS
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clark, Paul 1940 births Alumni of the Royal College of Art British designers Living people