Design

The making of a happy home: cold milk for tea. A 1930s advertisement for General Electric

How cool is your fridge?

9 December 2017 9:00 am

Mrs Thatcher once explained that she adored cleaning the fridge because, in a complicated life, it was one of the…

‘Regent’s Park Zoo’, 1930, by Arnrid Banniza Johnston

The forgotten history of the Tube’s ‘poster girls’

4 November 2017 9:00 am

Every weekday, I travel by Tube to The Spectator’s office, staring at the posters plastered all over the walls. I…

‘Soviet Union Art Exhibition’, Zurich 1931, by Valentina Kulagina

The art of persuasion

28 October 2017 9:00 am

It’s hard to admire communist art with an entirely clear conscience. The centenary of the October revolution, which falls this…

The old ways

28 October 2017 9:00 am

I’m sitting across a café table from a young man with a sheaf of drawings that have an archive look…

The art of the football shirt

28 October 2017 9:00 am

Part canvas, part sandwich board, club kits don’t always work – but their designs can be addictive

Perception vs objective reality

21 October 2017 9:00 am

I hate to tell you this, but every time you watch television you are being duped. In fact there are…

Man machine: Fritz Kahn’s ‘Der Mensch als Industrieplast’, 1926,which shows the body not so much as a sacred temple as as a churning and industrious factory

Vital signs

30 September 2017 9:00 am

Exhibit A. It is 1958 and you are barrelling down a dual carriageway; the 70 mph limit is still eight…

iPhone 8 Plus, unveiled last week at the new Steve Jobs Theater at Apple Headquarters, Cupertino, California. The new features include a Retina HD display, A11 Bionic Chip and wireless charging

iAddicts

23 September 2017 9:00 am

For many years The Spectator employed a television reviewer who did not own a colour television. Now they have decided…

Plywood at its most curvaceous, acceptable and collectible: Alvar Aalto armchair, 1930 (left), and moulded plywood chair by Grete Jalk, 1963

Grain of truth

8 July 2017 9:00 am

We routinely feel emotional about materials — often subliminally. Which is why new substances and techniques for manufacturing have provoked…

Britain is absent from the V&A’s new Europe galleries. Are they trying to tell us something?

9 January 2016 9:00 am

Before cheap flights, trains were the economical way to discover Europe and its foibles. Personally, I enjoyed the old fuss…

The rise and fall of Sony

12 December 2015 9:00 am

Sony was the Apple of its day and more. Stephen Bayley charts its years of creativity unrivalled in the history of consumerism

Two wheels good: Belgian racing cyclist Eddy Merckx on the track, 1970

The bicycle may have triumphed over the car but it’s far from perfect

28 November 2015 9:00 am

The bicycle may have triumphed over the car but it’s far from perfect, argues Stephen Bayley

The Heckler: why we must stop Thomas Heatherwick's Garden Bridge

21 November 2015 9:00 am

Thomas Heatherwick is the most famous designer in the United Kingdom today and has an unquestionable flair for attention-grabbing creations.…

Hot seats: Charles and Ray Eames posing with chair bases

The couple behind the world’s most famous chair

29 October 2015 9:00 am

Peter Mandelson, in his moment of pomp, had his portrait taken by Lord Snowdon. He is sitting on a fine…

Edmund de Waal’s diary: Selling nothing, and why writers need ping-pong

10 October 2015 9:00 am

On the top landing of the Royal Academy is the Sackler Sculpture Corridor, a long stony shelf of torsos of…

Ravilious in Essex: ‘Two Women in the Garden’, watercolour, 1932

The only art is Essex

29 August 2015 9:00 am

When I went to visit Edward Bawden he vigorously denied that there were any modern painters in Essex. That may…

Why the boffin behind the Brompton is Britain’s greatest living designer

22 August 2015 9:00 am

Asked to name Britain’s greatest living industrial designer, most people might cite Sir Jony Ive of Apple or Sir James…

Bubble-wrap, berry-picking and the secret pleasures of destruction

25 July 2015 9:00 am

The secrets of bubble-wrap and other delicious little sensations

The new adventures of the adventure playground

25 July 2015 9:00 am

Are adventure playgrounds set to make a comeback, asks Maisie Rowe

‘Combs, Hair Highway’, 2014, by Studio Swine

Luxury isn’t the opposite of poverty but the opposite of vulgarity - but don’t tell the V&A

25 April 2015 9:00 am

Different concepts of luxury may be inferred from a comparison of the wedding feast of Charles Bovary and Emma Rouault…

Cars are our cathedrals

18 April 2015 9:00 am

Stephen Bayley hails the automobile – a miracle of technical and artistic collaboration – and mourns its demise

‘Propeller (Air Pavilion)’, 1937

Better than Robert? Sonia Delaunay at Tate Modern reviewed

18 April 2015 9:00 am

In 1978, shortly before she died, the artist Sonia Delaunay was asked in an interview whether she considered herself a…

The art of Coke

7 February 2015 9:00 am

The Coca-Cola ‘contour’ bottle is 100 years old. Stephen Bayley salutes a design classic

Ukip's logo is quite successful – in communicating a spirit of gung-ho crapness

11 October 2014 9:00 am

Now that the conference season is over, we can compare not just the party policies, but their logos too. Last…

‘I wish my boyfriend was as dirty as your policies’, 2011,by Coral Stoakes

Agitprop, love trucks and leaflet bombs: the art of protest

30 August 2014 9:00 am

Titles can be misleading, and in case you have visions of microwave ovens running amok or washing machines crunching up…