Harry Pearce and Charles Saumarez Smith have a long history of working together, first on a rebranding exercise for the Royal Academy, then Charles wrote the introduction to Harry’s book of photography, Eating with the Eyes and Harry designed Charles’s book on East London. As a result of his work on East London, Harry was commissioned to redesign the historic corporate identity for Thames & Hudson. More recently, Harry designed all aspects of Charles’s recent book, The Art Museum in Modern Times.

In this discussion, they will consider how design influences companies and cultural institutions through their branding; the nature and importance of typography and layout in book design; and other issues relating to the intersection between design and culture.

Their discussion will be facilitated by Alice Rawsthorn, author of Design as an Attitude. Alice will then join the Q&A Panel which will be chaired by the RSA Fellows’ MCICH Network founder. The MCICH Network acknowledges with gratitude consent for the image used in publicity.

Speaker biographies:

Charles Saumarez Smith FRSA worked first at the Victoria and Albert Museum, jointly running the V&A/RCA MA Course in the History of Design. He was then Head of Research at the V&A, Director of the National Portrait Gallery and National Gallery and, most recently, Secretary and Chief Executive of the Royal Academy of Arts. He is currently Chairman of the Royal Drawing School and Professor of Architectural History at the Royal Academy. He has recently written The Art Museum in Modern Times, designed by Pentagram and published by Thames & Hudson.

Alice Rawsthorn is an award-winning design critic and author, whose books include Hello World: Where Design Meets Life and, most recently, Design as an Attitude. Her weekly design column for The New York Times was syndicated worldwide for over a decade. Born in Manchester and based in London, Alice is chair of the boards of trustees at The Hepworth Wakefield art gallery in Yorkshire and Chisenhale Gallery in London. A founding member of the Writers for Liberty campaign for human rights, she is a co-founder with Paola Antonelli of the Design Emergency research platform to investigate design’s role in building a better future. Alice has been awarded an OBE for services to design and the arts.

Harry Pearce is a graphic designer, artist, photographer and Pentagram partner. He works around the world devising identities, installations, posters, packaging, books and talks. His clients include: Liberty, Thames & Hudson, The Royal Academy of Arts, Pink Floyd, John Lewis, Waitrose, WITNESS, PEN International, The Old Vic and the UN among others. He is a member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale, and since 1993 an active member of the advisory board for the human rights charity WITNESS. Harry is also the author of two books, Typographic Conundrums (published in 2009) and Eating With The Eyes (published in 2015).

The subsequent Q&A will be chaired by the RSA Fellows’ Media, Creative Industries, Culture and Heritage Network founder. Questions are invited via sofsrsa@yahoo.com up to 1000 on 7th June and on the evening via the CHAT tab on the web.

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