Misha Black

Sir Misha Black OBE (16 October 1910 – 11 October 1977) was a British architect and designer. In 1933 he founded with associates in London the organisation that became the Artists’ International Association. In 1943, with Milner Gray and Herbert Read, Sir Misha Black founded Design Research Unit, a London-based Architectural, Graphic Design and Interior Design Company.

He was born in 1910 in Baku, Russian Empire (now Azerbaijan) into wealthy Jewish family. From 1959 to 1975 Black was a professor of industrial design at the Royal College of Art in London, England. During his tenure at the Royal College of Art, he became President of the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (Icsid) from 1959 to 1961. He was also a Fellow of the Chartered Society of Designers, and winner of the Minerva Medal, the Society's highest award. He was knighted in 1972. Between 1974 and 1976 Black was President of the Design and Industries Association.

Black is remembered largely for his iconic design of the Westminster street name signs; the black/brown/orange/yellow moquette originally used by London Transport and also the West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive in the late 1970s onwards; and for 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. He also designed the that was used on the Victoria line between 1967 and 2011. On July 27, 2003 at Salisbury station, a preserved Class 52 D1015 named "Western Champion" was unveiled carrying temporary "Sir Misha Black" nameplates.

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