Philips 20 inch TV - Ian Edgar

This 20inch black and white television was designed by Ian Edgar in the mid 1960s.  During this perio Ian worked on a 12inch, and 17 inch which I have posted about previously.

Philips 20 inch black and white television designed by industrial designer Ian Edgar in Sydney in the mid 1960s.

'a design life' 17-71 Exhibition - Opening

Design Institute of Australia members, friends and family attended the opening tonight of 'a design life' 17-71 an exhibition of the career of DIA industrial design Fellow, Robert Ian Edgar. DIA Hall of Fame automotive designer Phillip Zmood opened the exhibition and shared his reflection on industrial design practice in Victoria and in particular the critical responsibility, both he and Ian shared as design managers, to develop and foster talent in the industry locally. Philips and GMH were critical industrial design studios in Victoria that provided graduates with a career opportunity and Ian and Phillip often shared experiences of design practice and design management.

Opening of 'a design life' 17-71 exhibition at the Design Gallery - Design Institute of Australia.

Curator Ian Wong, Phillip Zmood, and Ian Edgar at 'a design life' 17-71 exhibition opening.

Ross Williams, Paul Taylor, Ian Wong and Peter Carr share fond memories of manually drafted drawings while examining an early Philips radio casing sheet by Ian Edgar.

Industrial designer Paul Taylor and Associate Professor Arthur de Bono from Monash University pictured with presentation featuring renderings by the Philips CID team from the early 1980s.

Industrial designer Mark Armstrong concept sketch featured in the exhibition 'a design life' 17-71. 

Flyer for 'a design life' 17-71 exhibition curated by Ian Wong. 

Click image to enlarge flyer.

Related posts here including video.

Australian Design Awards - Philips CID

The team lead by industrial designer Ian Edgar at Philips Centre for Industrial Design won many Australian Design Awards, a Prince Phillip Prize and were awarded the Industrial Design Gold Award in 1984.

Australian Design Award winning refrigerators from Philips CID Melbourne Australia.

BMC - Ian Edgar's first job

Ian Edgars first job at the age of 17 was with British Motor Corporation in Sydney. His first job was to draft by hand a technical drawing of a BMC van. Videos featured in this post were shot in 2009 and record Ian revisiting this work after a period of more than fifty years.

At the age of seventeen Ian Edgar began his industrial design career drafting this technical drawing of a BMC van. March 1957

BMC van similar to the model drafted by industrial designer Ian Edgar in his first week as a professional designer.

Award winning Australian industrial designer discusses his first job as a professional industrial designer at the age of seventeen.

Industrial designer John Holt at his desk at BMC in Sydney. circa 1957

Industrial designer Jim Harris at his desk at BMC in Sydney. circa 1957

Sketches by industrial designer Ian Edgar for BMC Austin ute.

Philips CID - The designers

Philips Centre for Industrial Design in Melbourne Australia was an award winning team of industrial designers based in a studio in Clayton. Over two decades from the mid 1960s to the mid 1980s this studio attracted the most talented industrial design graduates across Australia to apply for a position that would offer an exciting international career. The Philips global policy established under Knut Yran provided opportunities to travel and work at the Philips CIDC Eindhoven for these young Australian industrial designers. The experience of working in Eindhoven with legends like Syd Mead and amongst the global talent employed by Philips was career changing for most who had this unique opportunity.

Syd Mead rendering for Knut Yran and Philips CIDC Eindhoven.

Classic Philips house style rendering on grey canson paper by Ian Edgar for the 465 Deluxe colour television. This work was completed by Ian whilst in Eindhoven in 1975.

Those Australian's who are known to have worked at Philips CID Melbourne are listed below.

Industrial Designers - Clayton

Robert Ian EDGAR

Robert PATAKI

Graham DUELL

Guido CALKOEN

John WESTWOOD

Barry CRONE

David NAIRN

Mario MATKOVICH

Ross WHITEHEAD

John HADLEY

Andrew MORAN

Barry QUANTRELL

Mark ARMSTRONG

Don ROBERTSON

Jon SEDDON

Andy VONG

Ray DUNCAN

Greg FOSTER

Daphne FLYNN
Alfons van MAANEN

Carol PATSIAS

Stephen HOLMES

Warren HALL

Peter MARPLES

Jan HUYBOOM (Netherlands)

Gerry WEST (US/Australia)

Product Engineering

Ross WILLIAMS

Graphic Design

Lesley McGEE

Debbie RITCHIE

Model Makers

John HOBEN

Ken EADES

Alan TURNER

Administration

Liz KING

Pat ROGERS

Kathy ELY

The trip to Eindhoven recorded in the passport of Ian Edgar like so many of the Philips CID team.

Astor - Radio Corporation

Radio Corporation was a major Australian manufacturer of radios and televisions marketed under the brand Astor.

Iconic Australian Astor football radio.

Astor brand Radio Corporation television factory in the 1950s

Astor television's being assembled in Melbourne. 

Astor refrigerators from the 1960s.

Philips Clayton - Jan Huyboom

The Philips Centre for Industrial Design in the suburb of Clayton in Melbourne Australia was one of many studios established by Philips worldwide. The Centre was established in the 1960s soon after Philips purchased from Pye, the factory of the Australian television and radio manufacturer Radio Corporation. Radio Corporation was famous for the iconic Australian Astor brand of radios, televisions and whitegoods. The factory had the capacity to manufacture black and white television picture tubes.

Jan Huyboom, a Dutch industrial designer came to Melbourne as manager for the Centre for Industrial Design during the 1970s. The centre soon became a major employer of the industrial design graduates from programs at RMIT, Gordon and Prahran. Design management at Philips, a global design leader, has been well researched and documented and the establishment and success of this centre in Melbourne has in my view had a major influence on industrial design practice in Victoria. 

The current exhibition 'a design life 17-71' demonstrates the influence of the Philips design management on one young industrial designer, Ian Edgar, and also the influence on the many talented staff that Ian would go on to manage at the Centre for Industrial Design.

Jan Huyboom and industrial designer Ian Edgar pictured at the Philips Centre for Industrial Design in Clayton, Victoria, Australia.

A design life 17-71 - Ian Edgar retrospective

Ian Edgar's first job started on Monday March 3rd 1958 following his 17th birthday on the previous Friday February 28th. This week Ian celebrated his 71st birthday and continues to practice as an industrial designer.

Ian's career as an industrial designer is celebrated in an exhibition 'A design life 17-71' now open at the Design Gallery of the Design Institute of Australia.

The exhibition is a work in progress evolving over two weeks in the space and will have a formal opening event on Thursday March 22nd.

Industrial designer Ian Edgar on the drawing board at Philips in Melbourne.

Ian Edgar with staff at Philips Centre for industrial design; Don Robinson, Ian Edgar, Graham Duell, Mark Armstrong, John Hadley, and Ross Whitehead.

Ian Edgar with Federal Science and Technology Minister Barry Jones.

Murray Camens - Philips Roller Radio design icon.

Murray Camens studied industrial design in South Australia before following his career to London. Murray first worked for Conran before gaining a position with Philips in Eindhoven.

I met Murray in 2010 at his office in Amsterdam during my PhD research into Philips CID in Melbourne. The iconic Roller Radio was often a feature of my lectures to students on design practice so I was delighted to learn of the Australian connection. It has taken over twelve months but I have recently added a bright yellow Roller Radio to my collection.

Iconic Roller Radio by industrial designers Murray Camens, Graham Hinde and Bob Vranken

Industrial designer Murray Camens.

Text below from an interview with Robert Blaich. Here

In the mid 1980′s a Philips Consumer Electronics marketing survey revealed that by the age of 20 brand loyalties are already well established. The study also had some bad news for Philips. It documented that young people in Europe considered Philips Consumer Electronics products as stodgy and uninteresting to young people and that they preferred Japanese products. A Youth Task Force was established to study the problem and set the course for action.
As a member of the Task Force I proposed that we concentrate on the “Life Style” of the Youth” (A new term at the time) and we put forth a new design of a radio-cassette recorder called the “Roller”

The design was based on a concept by a young English Designer Graham Hinde (who’s in practice called GRO Design in Eindhoven, The Netherlands). Together with designers Murray Camens and Bob Vranken the idea was developed and Philips launched it with much fanfare. It caught the fancy of young people in Europe and was very successful. The “Roller” has been celebrated in design award competitions and was featured in articles about product design trends. It became a “Design Icon”. The “Roller” was also the spark for a full scale program called “Moving Sound” The program was designed to capture the hearts and minds and lifelong loyalty of young people worldwide. “Moving Sound” was also a breakthrough for Philips in introducing a coordinated program of promotional materials . Design was the key element in driving the highly directed marketing and communications effort; Product Graphics, and Packaging design were the basis on which all subsequent sales displays, advertising and promotional material were developed. The term “Moving Sound” indicated that the radios were portable ( moveable) and that they Moved You (Emotionally)

From the “Moving Sound” program was conceived as a long term strategy in which successive generations of products, promotion and advertising would be launched. Each year a new “Moving Sound” series would be introduced, just as sportswear and other fashion products present new looks to the fashion conscious youth. The “Moving Sound” program had benefits not only to Electronics but to Philips image in general. ” Moving Sound” was in it’s fifth generation by 1991 and had sold millions of radios. The “Roller and Moving Sound” programs are excellent examples of a Design Led program. We did the basic research, designed the products, packaging and display materials and strongly influenced the advertising design. The designers themselves were young and multi-national ( English, Australian. American and Dutch)

Ian Edgar - Career

My PhD research continues in earnest and today I was fortunate to interview at length award winning industrial designer Ian Edgar. Ian began working as an industrial designer at the age of 17 and has lost none of his passion for the career.

Award winning industrial designer Ian Edgar.

Barry Crone - Philips CID Clayton

The Philips Centre for Industrial Design CID at Clayton in Victoria was a major employer of graduate industrial designers in Melbourne. RMIT alumnus Barry Crone worked in glass packaging before joining the studio in the mid 1970s.

The Philips KJ 658 and KJ 258 was one of the first color televisions in Australia and Barry recalls the challenge of "holding" design intent and creative features as the product was engineered for production. You had to fight for your details.  "I still remember all of the battles that had to be fought and won over the engineers to achieve this outcome." Barry recalls. The engineers would say "Can’t have the illuminated number off-centre to the actual switch" or  "can’t attach the slide controls from the top of the knob – must be on the centre". 

It is often said that design is in the detail and as you can see Barry achieved the details he desired in the production television.

Australian designed Philips KJ 658 and KJ258 push button color televisions by industrial designer Barry Crone.

Brochure for Australian designed Philips push button color televisions.

Blade Runner - No 1 Sci-Fi Film

Blade Runner has been voted number one sci-fi movie of all time beating Star Wars and other classics in the recent total film poll. Syd Mead's collaboration with Ridley Scott is legendary, beginning with the vehicles but expanding to many key elements of the film. Syd's work inspired many Victorian industrial designers who worked alongside him in Eindhoven with Philips and he continues to inspire current RMIT industrial design students.

Original Syd Mead visual for the spinner - Blade Runner 1982

Visual futurist Syd Mead, Bernie Walsh and current final year student Angelo in the RMIT industrial design wacom lab.

Rob Pataki - Police Radio FM320

The FM320 UHF radio was designed by Robert Pataki whilst a senior industrial designer at The Philips Centre for Industrial Design at the studio in Clayton, Victoria. This product was used in police vehicles and so will have played a part in many significant operations by Victoria Police. The design was awarded an Australian Design award.

Australian Design Award winning product the Philips FM320 radio designed by Robert Pataki

Concept renderings on canson paper for Philips FM320 Radio by industrial designer Robert Pataki. 

Packaging design for Philips FM320 radio by Robert Pataki.

Ian Edgar - Archive images

Ian Edgar's significant contribution to industrial design in Victoria began in Sydney, where he was born and educated. Initially working for British Motor Corporation and then Kriesler, Ian is one of the countries pioneers in industrial design. We spoke about his archive recently with these images from the Phillips "Modular 12" portable black and white television.

Industrial designer Ian Edgar with print of b+w television detail drawing.

Philips "Modular 12"b+w television designed by industrial designer Ian Edgar 1967

Engineering drawing of handle for Philips b+w television designed by Ian Edgar 1967.