Misha Black

Carnaby Street sign

Sir Misha Black (16 October 1910 – 11 October 1977) was an Azerbaijan-born British architect and designer. In 1933 he founded with associates in London the organisation which became the Artists’ International Association. From 1959 to 1975 he was a professor of industrial design at the Royal College of Art in London, England. He was also a Fellow of the Chartered Society of Designers, and winner of the Minerva Medal, the Society's highest award. Between 1974 and 1976 Black was President of the Design and Industries Association.^[1] He was responsible for designing Westminster's iconic street name signs. He also designed the famous black/brown/orange/yellow moquette originally used by London Transport and also the West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive in the late 1970s onwards. See [1] for a picture of this design.

Earlier association with railway design was the external styling of British Railways Southern Region British Rail Class 71 electric locomotives of 1958 and Western Region British Rail Class 52 diesel locomotives of 1961. On 27 July 2003 at Salisbury station, preserved Class 52 D1015 normally named "Western Champion" was unveiled carrying temporary "Sir Misha Black" nameplates. (D1015 is owned by the Diesel Traction Group [2]).

He played an active part in UNESCO.

His brother was the philosopher Max Black.

Works

• Exhibition Design (1950)

Books

• The Black Papers on Design

Selected Writings of the Late Sir Misha Black [3]

Other

• In 1943, with Milner Gray, Sir Misha Black founded Design Research Unit - a London based Architectural, Graphic Design and Interior Design Company.

References

• Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd ed.

1. ^ Misha Black at the archINFORM database

Persondata
Name	Black, Misha
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	16 October 1910
Place of birth
Date of death	11 October 1977
Place of death