Designing Children

Sir John Sorrell and Lady Frances Sorrell in conversation with Andy Payne

Sir John and Lady Frances Sorrell launched their now legendary agency, Newell and Sorrell, in 1976, and were behind the groundbreaking redesigns of many of the U.K.’s most renowned organizations, including British Airways, the BBC, and the Royal Mail. In 1999, they established the Sorrell Foundation to help inspire creativity in schoolchildren throughout Britain by teaching the importance of good design—often from the client’s perspective.

Lady Frances Sorrell on design guidance
So we helped the kids find out how to be a good client, we gave them the top tips of how to be supportive rather than just say, “No, that’s rubbish.”

Sir John Sorrell on teaching design
It’s also the fact that kids are all consumers of design, all their lives they’ll be consumers of design, so helping them to be better consumers and more aware consumers, I think is very important.

Lady Frances Sorrell on consumer research
It’s like trying to take a product to market and not asking consumers. Would any sensible design agency do that, would anyone do that? Would any major company take a product to market without asking consumers? Well that’s what happens to young people, they don’t get asked.

Sir John Sorrell on course selection
And my father said, “I think you better take that class, it’s the only one that looks like it’s got any money in it.” And it was the class that said, “Commercial art.” After my first year of course they changed it to “Design.”