David Carter (industrial designer)


David Carter RDI, CBE, FRSA was born in Leicester in 1927. He trained at the Leicester College of Art, simultaneously spending a good part of 2 years in an engineering works. He served in the Navy, where he was in radar, and in 1948 returned to full-time study in the industrial design department of the Central School of Art and Design. he went on to a variety of industrial design positions and then in 1960 he set up on his own as a consultant, going on to employ a growing team of engineers, designers, model-makers and assistants as David Carter Associates.
Simultaneously, he started teaching at the Birmingham College of Art and Design, where his head of department was the late Naum Slutzky, who had been one or Carter's teachers during his time at the Central, and whom Carter identifies as a powerful influence in his work.
Under Carter’s continued leadership the David Carter Associates became DCA Design Consultants in 1975 and later renamed itself as DCA Design International Ltd in 1986. He retired from DCA in 1992, though the company continues to trade to this day from its traditional home and headquarters on Church Street, Warwick in the UK.
Carter’s industrial design work has won many prizes including:
Carter established himself as a renowned industrial designer, becoming a member of the Royal Society of Arts, the Design Council, the Society of Industrial Artists and Designers and the Royal College of Art.
Carter was president of the Society of Industrial Artists and Designers during 1974–75, was appointed Royal Designer for Industry in 1974 and was a trustee of the Conran Boilerhouse Foundation, chairman of the Design Museum and chairman of the Royal Society of Arts Design Board in 1983. He was appointed a commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1980.