Barbara Brown

British-born in 1932, Barbara Brown studied at Canterbury College of Art and then the RCA.Whilst atthe RCA, Brown sold her first fabric to Heal’s and subsequently designed for them for the next two decades. Like Lucienne Day, she was working for Heal’s ‘without contract on an exclusive basis’. Her‘Complex’pattern won the CoID(Design Centre) Award in1968 and‘Spiral’ and ‘Automation’, two printed furnishing fabrics for Heal’s, won two CoID awards in 1970. Her success earned her the title ‘Heal’s Golden Girl’. Her strongly geometric designs were synonymous with 60s Britain. Brown also acted as a consultant for other companies in Europe and USA. In 1964, she created‘Focus’, a pattern for a range of ceramic tableware designed by David Queensberry and made by W R Midwinter Ltd. Brown taught in the 3D design department at Guildford school of Art in Guildford, Surrey and Hornsey College of Art in Crouch End, London.