History

Keracolor –  the History of a true British design Icon of the 20th Century

For a moment in time, the world was transfixed on where we would be going…..off to the moon and beyond. Politics,culture, communications, technology….all of these were exploding into uncharted areas. And design was transformed too. Furniture, clothing, transportation,automation, communication – nothing would ever be the same again. Space age design has it’s roots in a popular era most commonly called “Mid-Century Modern design:This type began in the mid 50’s and is best epitomized by the work of Charles Eames and peers, and continued thru the 60’s and perhaps early 70’s as well.

An offshoot of this design trend involved space age influences. The movie “2001” by Stanley Kubrick epitomized the clean rounded shaped, biomorphic design that held fast in culture for around 8-10 years. Other movies in a similar vein included Woody Allen’s “Sleeper”, the television series “Star Trek” in the US, and the hit “Space 1999” in the U.K.  Among the most radical changes to occur were to the electronics of the era. Radios, stereos, turntables, TVs – everything changed,and how it was presented to the “user” made all the difference in the world. In the late 1960’s, TV’s began to change in design. First, the addition of the Saarinen tulip base occurred to many “normal” televisions. Then, the cases themselves become both smoothed on its corners as well as having integrated pedestals as well. In 1968 a British designer by the name of Arthur Bracegirdle designed and put into production the Keracolor television, the worlds first perfectly spherical TV made from Fibreglass, which was to become one of the greatest British design icons of the 20th Century

keracolor

The design registered, spherical format is unique and indeed the receivers are those of the future but available TODAY in fact” “Keracolor 1970”