The democratic design philosophy of Charlotte and Peter Fiell

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If you love design, the books of Charlotte and Peter Fiell are for you. They talk to Sue Ward about their work

Sue Ward: As a husband and wife writing team you are phenomenally successful, what do you think is the reason for this?

Charlotte Fiell: Both of us are self-confessed design obsessives and have a passionately held interest in how the practice of design has come to shape human history. Each of us, however, has our own areas of specialization, I’m the expert on the Arts & Crafts Movement, American Moderne, graphic design and digital technologies, for example, while Peter is far more knowledgeable on furniture design, military design, aircraft and, of course, muscle cars. This spread of interest is really important when we come to write a book as it makes the way we approach a subject much more comprehensive than if we were working individually.

SW: Can you tell us how you met and how the writing teamwork started?

Peter Fiell: We both trained on the Sotheby’s Works of Art course at different times and were introduced by mutual friends who had also studied there. Within three weeks of meeting we were engaged, which was pretty quick but we both knew we’d found our soul mate. Shortly afterward we opened our first gallery together on New King’s Road specializing in post-war design, and slightly later wrote our first book Modern Furniture Classics since 1945 – and that’s how it started, we never intended to have writing careers, it just sort of happened.

SW: How many books have you written, jointly and separately?

CF: We have written/edited 40 books jointly, and then I have written a further four with other co-authors, which are on photography and fashion rather than design. The only book that I’ve written completely by myself is Hairstyles: Ancient to Present and that was really born of my personal interest in how the concept of female beauty has been subject to change over the centuries and how hair has always been symbolically linked to sexual desirability, even today.

SW: Your latest title, The Story of Design, is a beautiful book; as design historians did you make the design and layout decisions?

PF: We were highly involved in all aspects of making the book. Although a graphic designer laid it out for us, we worked closely with them especially at the final stages to ensure that the design and layout were as perfect as possible. So in effect we art-directed the book, but certainly we could in no way claim to have designed it!

SW: Why did you title your book ‘The Story of Design’, given we now generally talk of histories - A History of ...  etc. Why such a title?

CF: We had always wanted to write a book on design history that functioned in much the same way as Ernst Gombrich’s best-selling The Story of Art – a comprehensive yet straightforward, and above all accessible, introduction to the subject. So you could say that making the decision to use the word ‘story’ we were paying homage to Gombrich. But over and above this, we felt that using the word ‘story’ rather than ‘history’ in the title also reflected the narrative threads that consistently run through design history, and it was these that ultimately make it more of a readable story than a dry history of facts and dates.

SW: Military design is rare in design histories being a highly specialized sector, and so what was the thinking behind including it? 

PF: We have never understood why other design historians so often ignore military design as if it didn’t exist, when generally it is the sector where the most research and development into new materials and technologies is undertaken. Similarly, developments within military design have often caused huge social and political changes, not only determining the outcome of wars and how people have lived during periods of conflict, but also subsequent peacetime industries, in particular manufacturing. So to disregard military design is to miss out a crucial aspect of design history, and ultimately social history. Henry Ford, for example, was hugely influenced by the developments into standardization and interchangeability that took place at the Springfield Armory during the American Civil War. Ultimately these led to the pioneering mass production of his Model T automobile, which lowered costs and made the car affordable to a vast number of people, thus democratizing car ownership for the very first time.

SW:You state that designers aim for a better world.Do you think the general public are better educated about design now than, say, ten years ago? What have been the changes that you have noticed, if any?

CF: People are definitely way more design savvy now than ten years ago, especially the under 35s who have grown up or come of age in a digital environment where information about the latest design currents is much easier to access. Also, in terms of education, there are far more specialized design programmes offered at undergraduate level than there ever were. Additionally, over the last ten years more research into design history has been undertaken and a large number of books have been published on many different aspects of design, thereby increasingly disseminating information. During this period, a very vigorous design collectors market has also emerged thanks not only to contemporary and 20th-century design fairs but also to eBay – and this in turn has made people more knowledgeable about what design is and often how much designed artefacts are worth!

SW: Apple has gone from being a very small player in the computer market to one of the biggest companies in the world, very much on the back of strong design. Are there any other companies out there that you think are having or could have a big impact with their product design?

PF: That’s quite a difficult question, certainly Samsung is making design waves at the moment, but there are also a lot of firms out there that have a deeply entrenched commitment to good design, indeed it could be said to be running through their company DNA, such as Alessi, Dyson, Sony or Vitra. Often it is these types of company that go on to attract the best design minds thanks to their reputation and so their long-term commitment to design excellence is in many ways self-perpetuating. Ultimately it is these types of company that have had and will undoubtedly continue to have the biggest impact on the development of product design.

 SW: You see design as an essentially technical problem-solving activity, but what about the role of design as a marker of status, class and taste – are these markers important to you?

CF: Certainly from a designer’s point of view, design is about problem solving, but you are right that design can also be a signifier of the end user’s status, class and taste. However, these markers are actually quite ephemeral because fashion changes so fast, what might be deemed the height of chic in one era might then be seen as utterly crass in the next, such is the fickleness of fashion. When design is guided by real functional needs rather than fashion or styling, it is generally less susceptible to the whims of taste and therefore ultimately more enduring.

SW: As I have been in the art publishing business for some years I am very aware that you have produced books for many publishers including Taschen. Do you always want to produce titles for the category of publisher who produces accessible books enjoyed by the general educated public, and is this also the philosophy behind Goodman Fiell?

PF & CF: Absolutely, we don’t see the point of publishing books unless they are accessible and can be enjoyed by a general readership. Of course, there will always be a need for more overtly academic tomes as well, but frankly we would rather write books for the many rather than for the few. It is this democratic philosophy that underlies the types of book that Goodman Fiell are publishing and that we will continue to develop because it not only makes sense from a writing point of view but also from a commercial one.

SW: Thank you for talking to Cassone.