Administrative history
Fredrick C Ward was born on 26 July, 1899. Initially Ward trained as an artist in the School of Art at the National Gallery of Victoria but found he had an inclination towards drawing and pattern rather than painting. While a student Ward contributed illustrations to various magazines as well as having drawings published in the Bulletin. He became a cartoonist and illustrator for some weekly magazines but found himself being attracted the emerging modernist movement, especially through its expression in furniture design. The movement was especially exciting since it was considered by Ward as the "province of the young and radical...and a threat to the established social order". He began manufacturing furniture in 1927 in a converted studio with two other young enthusiastic craftsmen. After three years working as a free lance designer, Ward was asked by the Myer Emporium, in 1931, to open a modern furniture department. It believed that a market existed for contemporary designed furniture. By 1940 the studio had done some good work in bringing attention to new forms of furniture design but the Second World War diverted the attention of many of those designers working in the studio.
During the war Ward served with the Department of Aircraft Production as Liaison Officer between the Commonwealth Government, RAAF, RAF, and USAF and became involved in the manufacture of the wooden based Mosquito aircraft.
Following the war Ward attempted to bring the Myer group back together but found most wanted to establish private design practices.
The following three years was spent by Ward lecturing at the newly established School of Architecture at Melbourne University and working at a small private practice which continued to design furniture for the Myer Emporium. He responded to the need for inexpensive furniture by setting up Patterncraft through the Australian Home Beautiful magazine in 1947. This concept allowed the home handyman, through the use of full sized patterns which gave a list of requirements and instructions, to make good solid furniture using only basic hand tools. Fred continued to design for Patterncraft into the 1950s.
In 1949 Ward was appointed as Design Consultant to the Australian National University, working with Professor Brian Lewis in the design of the first building, University House. This position offered a great deal of latitude in design since it involved the design of equipment and furnishings for laboratories, lecture theatres, and libraries. The design Unit, as it was later to be called, also provided advice to other universities and government departments including the National Capital Development Commission in Canberra. The quality of furniture and furnishings of University House and other buildings within the ANU earned him a profile as reputable designer.
In 1961 he retired from the position of University Designer at the ANU and went overseas where he became the first Australian delegate to attend an Assembly of the International Council of Societies of Industrial Designers, and represented the Industrial Design Council of Australia. While overseas he studied the furnishing of libraries, art galleries, museums and universities on behalf of the National Development Commission and the ANU.
On his return Ward was asked by Dr Coombs to become Design Consultant to the Reserve Bank of Australia. Ward also advised the Department of external affairs on the furnishing of Australian embassies and designed furniture for the offices of the National Capital Development Commission in Canberra. In 1967 he designed furniture ordered by Lady Casey for the Aides' Quarters at Admiralty House, Kirribilli, New South Wales.
As recognition for his outstanding work in industrial design and for his pioneering efforts in promoting industrial design in Australia, Ward was awarded the Essington Lewis Award in its inaugural year, 1964, and in 1970 received an MBE for his contribution to Industrial design.
Ward is accredited with being instrumental in establishing the Society of Designers for Industry, the first professional body of industrial designers in Australia. This group later became the Industrial Design Institute of Australia (IDIA). The IDIA fostered Ward's belief that only through the creation of a national body that fostered better design in Australian manufacturers could a better understanding of the significance of good design be achieved.
Ward was also prominent in setting up the Industrial Design Council of Australia (IDCA) in 1956-57 with Derek Wrigley, Peter Hunt and Ron Rosenfeldt. They were keen on setting up a body that could officially sponsor better design such as was being done with the Council of Industrial Design in Britain.
Ward's furniture design is characterised by his pioneering use of unstained Australian timbers. He resisted the trend of using dark stains to imitate the heavy European timbers. Among some of the timbers he used to make furniture were Australian blackwood, myrtle, coachwood, walnut, fiddle-back and whitegum. While the material he used was considered good use of Australian resources his design was considered practical since it showed restraint in the use of line and was noticeable for its absence in unnecessary ornament
Robin Boyd in 1952 wrote the following praise of Fred Ward;
One furniture designer, Fredrick Ward, had been making simple wooden pieces since 1927...producing a wide range of light, square satisfying units. He worked almost exclusively in wood, with an infectious enthusiasm for its grains and colours. He discovered the beauty of Australian timbers unknown to furniture making and left them unstained for the first time. He devised details some twenty years in advance of regular design; louvred loud-speaker grilles; slanting, handless drawer fronts; cupboard doors in a chequer-board pattern, and so on.
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