David Mellor (designer)
| David Mellor | |
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The former Hathersage gas works which was converted into the David Mellor cutlery factory
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| Born |
David Rogerson Mellor 5 October 1930 Ecclesall, Sheffield, West Riding of Yorkshire, England |
| Died | 7 May 2009 (age 78) |
| Occupation | Designer |
| Known for | Design for Bus Shelters, Cutlery, and the Traffic Light System. |
| Children |
Corin Mellor (Born 1966) Claire Mellor (Born 1970) |
Corin Mellor (Born 1966)
David Rogerson Mellor,CBE, FCSD, RDI (5 October 1930 – 7 May 2009) was an English designer, manufacturer, craftsman and retailer.
Regarded as one of the best-known designers in Britain, Mellor specialised in metalwork and especially cutlery. He also produced many other designs, including for bus shelters and the traffic light system in use across the UK.
Mellor was born in Ecclesall, Sheffield, where his father was a toolmaker for the Sheffield Twist Drill Company. From the age of eleven, Mellor attended the Junior Art Department of Sheffield College of Art, receiving an intensive training in craft skills. He made his first piece of metalwork – a sweet dish – at this early age.
He studied at the Royal College of Art in London from 1950. Mellor's first cutlery, "Pride", designed while he was still a student, is still in production. Mellor also studied at the British School at Rome.
Returning to Sheffield, Mellor set up a silversmithing workshop-studio making one-off pieces of specially commissioned silverware. His work included a collection of modern silver tableware commissioned by the government for British embassies in a drive to give Britain a more forward-looking image.
Alongside silversmithing Mellor was stimulated by the relatively new design potential of stainless steel. His "Symbol" cutlery, manufactured from 1963 at Walker & Hall's purpose-built modern factory at Bolsover in Derbyshire, was the first high-quality stainless steel cutlery to be produced in quantity in the UK. Mellor was subsequently commissioned by the government to redesign standard issue cutlery for canteens, hospitals, prisons and the railways, reducing the traditional 11-piece place set to five pieces and thereby reducing costs.
Mellor worked for the Midlands engineering firm Abacus Municipal on the design of street lighting, bus shelters, public seating and litter bins. Around 140,000 of his bus shelters having been installed since they were first produced in 1959. In 1965 he was commissioned by the Department of the Environment to redesign the national traffic light system as part of an overhaul of traffic signs. Mellor's redesigned traffic lights are still in use.
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Wikipedia