{"id":67126,"date":"2024-07-23T08:55:02","date_gmt":"2024-07-23T08:55:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.anglepoise.com\/eu\/?p=67126"},"modified":"2026-05-18T13:17:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T13:17:10","slug":"sir-kenneth-grange-obituary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.anglepoise.com\/eu\/journal\/sir-kenneth-grange-obituary\/","title":{"rendered":"Sir Kenneth Grange Obituary"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n

The Anglepoise family say farewell and a heartfelt thank you to the legendary Sir Kenneth Grange, who has died at the age of 95. As Design Director from 2003 to 2024, Sir Kenneth re-defined the archetypal task light, while his work over the past 70 years helped shape the domestic life and public realm of modern Britain; the way we cook, create, consume, groom and travel \u2013 in his own words, \u201cthe sculpture of the everyday object\u201d.<\/p>\n

Kenneth\u2019s career was unparalleled in its breadth and longevity. Starting out as a young draughtsman working on the 1951 Festival of Britain \u2013 that great rebirth of the arts and industry, in a nation scarred by the Second World War \u2013 and continuing well into the 21st century, he was still restlessly designing as a nonagenarian, in the era of AI and net-zero.<\/p>\n

Along the way, creating the Intercity 125 train, London taxicab, postboxes, pens, cameras, bus shelters, speakers, razors and kitchen appliances. Just some of the 10,000+ products that left his drawing board, many of which genuinely deserve the overused moniker, \u2018iconic\u2019. He even found time to co-found Pentagram, in 1971, the first \u2018supergroup\u2019 partnership of multi-disciplinary designers, and template for the modern creative agency.<\/p>\n

While other industrial designers may have attracted a cult following and fawning fandom for products defined by a particular aesthetic, Kenneth had no rigid ideology or manifesto. He was guided instead by a curiosity, generosity and wit that endeared him to all. His was a playful take on modernism, which captured something of the eccentricity and innate visual language of these islands.<\/p>\n

Adept at imaginatively interpreting a brief, and intuitive in understanding user experience, he often developed deep and long-lasting friendships with clients; from Kenwood to Kodak, British Rail to Royal Mail. Anglepoise was no exception \u2013 as testament to this, his graceful Type 75<\/a> (launched in 2004) remains our best-selling model to this day, while our latest product, the Type 80<\/a>, was launched in his 90th year (2019).<\/p>\n

As a fifth-generation family business, people are at the centre of all that Anglepoise does. Sir Kenneth was not just a part of that wider family, he was in so many ways at the head of it \u2013 providing certainty in a world where so much seems out of balance. As the old proverb says, \u2018If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together\u2019. What a journey Kenneth, the honour and the pleasure was all ours.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Anglepoise is a minor miracle of balance\u2026a quality in life we do not value as we should\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Sir Kenneth Grange (1929-2024)<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/section>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Anglepoise family say farewell and a heartfelt thank you to the legendary Sir Kenneth Grange, who has died at the age of 95. As Design Director from 2003 to 2024, Sir Kenneth re-defined the archetypal task light, while his work over the past 70 years helped shape the domestic life and public realm of modern Britain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":66868,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":true,"content-type":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"6129,6127,30112,4986,6132,7452","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglepoise.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglepoise.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglepoise.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglepoise.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglepoise.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglepoise.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglepoise.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglepoise.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglepoise.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglepoise.com\/eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}