Kenneth Townsend. Illustrator for Ceramics, Glass, Games and more.

Kenneth Townsend (1931-99) managed to capture the humorous side of life through his art, drawings

and writing. He was based in Hastings and is known to have worked as a freelance designer for

Hornsea Pottery, Chance Brothers (glass), Cuckoobird Productions (textiles) Merit (games) and

James Galt and Co Ltd (toys). He was also the art director for Pickpocket Books from 1991-1998.

His cartoons are certainly endearing, whimsical and unforgettable. They are mostly found

on standard 6in. (15cm) white ceramic tiles, for which there are well over 30 known designs.

The same style is seen in the Scenes of London slumped glass trays produced by Chance Brothers,

in Smethwick, Birmingham. These were produced in 1972 and came as a set of six, plus a lone

one featuring a Scottish Piper (1973) and a rarely seen Shakespeare series (1974).

This range extended further the figures seen only on Ken’s independantly produced tiles.

He also designed Books, Textiles and Games, such as Snap, Marble Fun and Remember Remember.

A lovely quirky, fun style. Thanks to the Kenneth Townsend site for the words here and much more

visual information on Kenneths’ amazing work. Please check it out.

Many thanks to planetmithi on flickr for the kind use of her image and also to Adelle and Justin from H is for Home, for their superb images, and which made this blog possible.