Skip to main content
Story

Tribute to Tom Karen OBE

Designer Tom Karen speaking on screen. He is holding up a white piece of paper with the words 'The magic ingredients of a successful product' in a red border. Shelves with materials are visible in the background.
  • Written byCat Cooper
  • Published date 04 January 2023
Designer Tom Karen speaking on screen. He is holding up a white piece of paper with the words 'The magic ingredients of a successful product' in a red border. Shelves with materials are visible in the background.
Tom Karen OBE, speaking as part of the Design Transforms lecture series in 2020.

"From trucks to toys, double decker buses and a popemobile or two": A Central Saint Martins tribute on the passing of Industrial Design alum, Tom Karen.

Tom Karen brought us a much-adored range of British designs, including the Reliant Scimitar GTE, Bond Bug sporty three wheeler, Aston Martin show car, the Raleigh Chopper bicycle, Leyland’s range of truck cabs and the Kiddicraft marble run.

In November 2020, our Product, Ceramic and Industrial Design programme had the pleasure of hosting Tom as part of their Design Transforms annual lecture series.

Watch: 'The magic ingredients of successful design' by Tom Karen, for the Design Transforms Lecture series. With an introduction from Nick Rhodes, Reader - Programme Director of Product Ceramic and Industrial Design Programme, Central Saint Martins.

I worship good form. Every 3D object to me is a piece of sculpture. It has to have soft and hard shapes and every line and every form needs to have a logical beginning and end.

— Tom Karen OBE
I’m deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Tom Karen. He was a passionate, committed designer with an agile, playful, and inventive mind. We had the privilege of hosting a lecture by Tom in November 2020, when at the age of 94, he shared his insights on what makes design “good”. He was typically passionate, lucid and informative. Always willing to advise and support young designers’ development, Tom was a significant figure on the British industrial design scene. His contributions are innumerable, creatively, technically and as a human invested in industrial design that delights.

— Nick Rhodes, Reader - Director of Product Ceramic and Industrial Design Programme, Central Saint Martins

Tom Karen was born in Vienna in 1926, and spent his childhood in the former Czechoslovakia. One of his grandfathers was the Viennese painter Arthur von Ferraris; the other an engineer who ran the family business in bricks and cement. He fled the country after the German occupation in March 1939, to Belgium and then France, reaching the UK in the middle of the war in 1942.

Tom studied aircraft engineering at Loughborough and spent ten years in that industry, then studied industrial design at the Central School, now Central Saint Martins. After that he worked in Ford’s design studio.

He then worked for David Ogle Associates, Hotpoint and Philips and was invited to take charge of Ogle in 1962. Ogle Design became a major UK industrial Design Office, leading in design with engineering and human factors support, model/ prototype making and the development and manufacture of dummies for safety research.

During his ‘retirement’, Tom saw both the need and the opportunities to redesign many products. He gave talks, ran workshops, mostly for young children and made toys - the kind you can’t buy - for his grandchildren.

On 10 February 2009, Central Saint Martins welcomed Tom for 'Make more with less', in conversation with Dr Stephen Hayward at London's Cochrane Theatre.

Read more about Tom's life and career in obituaries published in Wallpaper*, and The Guardian.