An exhibition of modernist toys looks set to entertain visitors of all ages in London, with its geometric and colourful exhibits reminding us there was a time before iPads and Angry Birds.
Open until July 6 at the London HQ of Walter Knoll is the exhibition play: toys, sets, rules, curated by London-based multidisciplinary enterprise Systems. Focusing on the idea of play being a serious and formative business for children, the exhibition looks at the designers of the Sixties and Seventies who started to critically re-think the sort of toys and games with which the modern child should play. Drawing on the personal collections of the toy designers themselves, the exhibition features work from Roger Limbrick, Patrick Rylands, Fredun Shapur and graphic and toy designer Ken Garland – a group of practitioners who emerged in London in the Sixties.
Often employing systems, modules and bright, prime colours, the toys on display betray the designers’ deep modernist underpinnings. The care and craft that has evidently gone into the making of the toys stands out sharply against our contemporary backdrop of plastic and digital toys – with the toys on display there is a sense of a mission that involves far more than commerce. Indeed, Paul and Marjorie Abbatt, whose toys feature in the exhibition, employed leading architect Ernő Goldfinger to design their London shop and had travelled the world researching play in order to create toys which were functionally designed and educational.
Graphic designer Ken Garland is a prominent feature of the exhibition: not only did he design the visual identities for both Paul and Marjorie Abbatt and Galt Toys, he also designed several successful toys for Galt, which visitors can see up close. His toys express his approach to design: playful, crafted and always putting the user first.
systemsproject.co.uk
play: toys, sets, rules
Walter Knoll,42 Charterhouse Square,London
Until 6 July 2015
