Antiques and Collectables for Pleasure & Profit SUMMER 2013 | Page 16

The parents of
australian modern design
GeoRGe NelSoN (1908-1986) IS cReDIteD
AS beING INStRUmeNtAl IN bRINGING
eURopeAN moDeRNISm to tHe UNIteD
StAteS oF AmeRIcA, bUt AUStRAlIA’S
coNNectIoNS to tHe eURopeAN moDeRN
movemeNt AlSo emeRGeD IN tHe pRe- AND
poSt-WWII peRIoD, WRIteS cAtHy DAlby.
he 7 Australian Designers Display is a small display
presented at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney in
conjunction with the George Nelson exhibition. It
profiles seven Australian designers who brought modern
design to Australian living.

T

Gordon Andrews (1914-2001) was born in the Sydney suburb of
Ashfield. His career was extensive, embracing industrial design,
graphic design and development of exhibition concepts and design, as
well as photography.
Trained at the Sydney Technical College, Ultimo and the East
Sydney Technical College, Andrews gained his formative experience
in graphic design with the advertising agencies Samson Clark Price
Berry in Sydney and Stuart, London in the 1930s.
Andrews is probably best known for designing the $1, $2, $5, $10,
$20 and $50 paper notes for the Reserve Bank of Australia. Released
in February 1966, they were the first decimal currency bank notes to
be issued in Australia and the designs won almost universal applause
and acclaim. He also designed the interior for the NSW Government
Tourist Bureau in Sydney in 1961, and the New Zealand Government
Tourist Bureau in 1965; the Australian coat of arms; the logo for the
Reserve Bank; several sets of postage stamps; furniture, including the
iconic Rondo chair, which was first on show in the Olivetti showroom
in Sydney in 1956; lighting and even saucepans.
In the introduction to his pictorial autobiography, A Designers Life
(no apostrophe), Jennifer Blain wrote: ‘Gordon Andrews is a pioneer
in industrial and graphic design, a cultural hero who merits a place
alongside those depicted on his banknotes. A quiet revolutionary,
visionary and eccentric, he has both enhanced and radicalised
Australian design standards. Thanks to him, Australia ceased to be
represented at world trade fairs by a pyramid of IXL jam tins and a
huddle of moth-eaten, stuffed koalas.’
Frances Burke (1907–1944). Born into a Melbourne family
involved in the textile trade in Flinders Lane, Burke initially trained at
Melbourne Technical College (now RMIT) and studied painting at the
National Gallery School. Burke founded Australia's first textile screenprinting business, Burway Prints, in Melbourne in 1937, and gained
excellent reviews when she exhibited her designs the
following year. In 1942 she was commissioned to create designs for the
Australian Embassy in Washington, but she is best known as a fabric

In 1955, Gordon
Andrews became
the first Australian
designer to be
elected as a Fellow
of the UK Society
of Industrial Artists
and Designers.
He was also
awarded
membership of
the UK Faculty of
Royal Designers for
Industry in 1987
and was a member
of the Alliance
Graphique
Internationale.

Top: A 1950s
domestic group in the
Powerhouse collection
comprising Douglas
Snelling armchair and
coffee table, Martin
Boyd coffee set,
Frances Burke textile
‘Seapiece’ and a
bubble-style lamp.
Right: Gazelle chair
designed by Gordon
Andrews, Australia,
1957.

60
Antiques and Collectables for Pleasure & Profit

designer and an adventuresome
retailer of modernist furnishings
through her shop, New Design P/L,
which was opened in 1948. Her
designs were often showcased in the
houses designed by modern architects
such as Robin Boyd and Roy Grounds.
Her textile designs feature abstract
appropriations of Aboriginal designs
and Australian flora and fauna.

Alistair Morrison (1911–1988)
was a pioneering typographer,
graphic designer, industrial designer
and author. He was born in Melbourne
and educated at the National Gallery of