Marking the 50th anniversary of the Britain Can Make It (BCMI) exhibition, this collection of essays, documents and commentaries is a re-examination of a major design initiative in the immediate post-war period. BCMI encapsulated many of the problems which the newly-founded Council of Industrial Design was to face over the following decades: the tensions between a state-funded body, with its metropolitan bias, and British manufacturing industry located in the industrial regions; persuading the public that "good" modern design had a key role in everyday life; and the manifestation of a particular set of social and cultural values in the selection of exhibits and the means of design propaganda. The book draws on the documentary sources in the Design Council Archive.

Marking the 50th anniversary of the Britain Can Make It (BCMI) exhibition, this collection of essays, documents and commentaries is a re-examination of a major design initiative in the immediate post-war period. BCMI encapsulated many of the problems which the newly-founded Council of Industrial Design was to face over the following decades: the tensions between a state-funded body, with its metropolitan bias, and British manufacturing industry located in the industrial regions; persuading the public that "good" modern design had a key role in everyday life; and the manifestation of a particular set of social and cultural values in the selection of exhibits and the means of design propaganda. The book draws on the documentary sources in the Design Council Archive.