Steering a Course Between Professionalism and Commercialism: The Society of Industrial Artists and the Code of Conduct for the Professional Designer 1945-1975

Abstract

The Society of Industrial Artists (SIA), founded in 1930, was the first professional body for design in Britain. As a voluntary organization, the aims of the Society reflected the intentions of founding members Milner Gray, Misha Black, Ashley Havinden and others, who sought to carve out a professional status for the designer alongside the architect and engineer. The Code of Conduct for the Professional Designer, published in 1945, was designed as the principle mechanism through which to govern this status. For the first time in Britain, this Code set out standards of professional behaviour in design. However, like most behavioural codes, its definition of what was acceptable changed over time. This was most visible in shifting attitudes to advertising and self-promotion. Between 1945 and 1975, the Society revised its strategies in relation to advertising several times, in response to internal and external debates. Drawing on new evidence from the Society's archive, this article focuses on the frictions and dynamics of these debates. In so doing, it locates the Code of Conduct as a site from which to view changing values of professionalism in British design practice between 1945 and 1975.