Sir Terence Conran has infiltrated modern British consciousness to an extraordinary degree, leaving his mark on everything from high-street retail to high-end restaurants, from flat-packed living rooms to airport terminals. This exhibition at the Design Museum manages the impressive feat of distilling such breathtaking scope into a manageable scale. Divided into a streamlined series of rooms, the story flows from Conran’s art school beginnings, through a thematic and chronological exposition of his career, to the present day.

Despite the remarkable diversity of his practices, an artful attention to well-crafted detail shines throughout. The concave seat of his signature Cone Chair (1951), for example, is woven in wicker on black metal legs. Such pared-down material eclecticism is reflected in the aesthetic of Conran’s highest-profile commercial venture, the founding of Habitat in 1964. The concepts that it pioneered - mail order catalogues, flat-packed furniture, and modular units - are now industry standard. Even the novelty of a room-set in a sixties shop, as wonderfully recreated in the exhibition, cannot be overstated. A rare cross of artisan and businessman, Conran has indeed been incredibly influential over the way we live now.

This wonderfully curated exhibition begins with six huge pencils stacked outside the entrance. They have each been labelled with a role associated with the production or marketing of furniture: Retailer, Designer, Educator, Maker, Restauranteur, and Entrepreneur. Such a simple signpost serves as a powerful indication of both Conran’s multifaceted talent and the fact that it has remained firmly grounded. Despite his immense success, he has never forgotten the humble pencil; ‘I have always been concerned with the practical aspects of design’, one quotation reads, ‘I have never designed anything that I wouldn’t know how to make myself.’

Until Mar 4

THOMAS BROOKS