Industrial Design
Alongside silversmithing Mellor was stimulated by the relatively new design potential of stainless steel. His "Symbol" cutlery, manufactured from 1963 at Walker & Hall’s purpose-built modern factory at Bolsover in Derbyshire, was the first high-quality stainless steel cutlery to be produced in quantity in the UK. Mellor was subsequently commissioned by the government to redesign standard issue cutlery for canteens, hospitals, prisons and the railways, reducing the traditional 11-piece place set to five pieces and cutting production costs enormously.
Mellor’s work for the Midlands engineering firm Abacus in the design of street lighting, bus shelters, public seating and litter bins made considerable impact on the street scene: around 140,000 of his bus shelters having been installed since they were first produced in 1959. In 1965 he was commissioned by the Department of the Environment to redesign the national traffic light system as part of a total overhaul of traffic signage. Mellor’s redesigned traffic lights are still in use.
Read more about this topic: David Mellor (designer)
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