Opened late last year and running until 9 February, Pop Art Design at the Barbican is an exhibition exploring how commercial design influenced the art of the 50s and 60s and how that art in turn influenced design. If it's a period of art and design you're unfamiliar with the exhibition provides a really nice introduction, while there are a couple of things on show that might be new to the already initiated. One such revelation to me was the work of Alexander Girard, an architect who trained in Italy and Britain before moving to New York and beginning to work across architecture, interior and exhibition design, typography, furniture and fabrics. He became Director of the Fabric Division at Hermann Millar in the 1950s and most of his best work was done for them. Pop Art Design includes some of his wallpaper patterns, ceramic objects and mural designs while a little look online brings up a whole host of brightly-coloured playful patterns for fabric and other applications. Girard's work is fun and frivolous and I can't believe I'm only finding out about it now! Though I realise as I've looked through his archive of work, some of his stuff (such as the wooden Vitra dolls pictured at the bottom) is familiar, I just never knew the designer behind it. I'm certainly glad that now I do...
