New documentary film on British designers Robin & Lucienne Day

	The Initiative for Architecture and Design on Film announces the world premiere screening of its latest documentary, Contemporary Days: Robin and Lucienne Day Design the UK.
Robin and Lucienne Day

The ninety-minute film premieres on May 15, 2010 at the National Geographic Museum in Washington, DC. A question and answer session with Director Murray Grigor and Cinematographer Hamid Shams will follow the screening.

Robin and Lucienne Day transformed British design after World War II with striking furniture and textiles that signaled a new era of modernist sensibilities for everyday living. Robin’s revolutionary furniture designs introduced materials such as plastic, steel and plywood to homes, offices and schools.

His stacking polypropylene chair endures as an icon and now graces a Royal Mail postage stamp.

Commemorative British stamp with Robin's chair, Manufactured by Hille, 1963

Lucienne’s abstract textile designs brought accessible elegance into the homes of postwar British consumers.

Helix Fabric - Lucienne Day - Manufactured by Thomas Somerset, 1970.
Printed Linen (Collection of Jill A. Wiltse and H. Kirk Brown III)

The Days’ fresh design approaches, including their contributions to the Royal Festival Hall in 1951, helped fuel the artistic and commercial awakening that led Britain out of the devastation of World War II.

Armchair for the Royal Festival Hall - Robin Day, 1951

The film traces the Days’ personal and professional progression over the course of their careers, spanning more than seventy years—from their days at the Royal College of the Arts in the 1930s, through their long heyday at the forefront of British design, to their recent rediscovery by new generations of design aficionados.
World Premiere Screening.

Hillestack chair - Robin Day - Manufactured by Hille, 1959

Herb Antony Fabric - Lucienne Day - Manufactured by Heals, 1956

World Premiere Screening: 'Contemporary Days: Robin and Lucienne Day Design the UK'.
Design Onscreen-The Initiative for Architecture and Design on Film.
Saturday, May 15th, 2010
Washington, DC
7:30pm film start time (run time: 90 mins)
Tickets must be purchased in advance via the Design Onscreen.

The May 15th premiere event has been scheduled to coincide with the opening of 'Art by the Yard: Women Design Mid-century Britain', an exhibition featuring Robin and Lucienne Day’s work, among other influential British designers, at Washington DC’s Textile Museum. The exhibition at the Textile Museum is from May 15 through September 12, 2010.