The Royal College of Art Provost’s Circle Medal: Designers and Makers Record Philanthropy

With the establishment of the College’s first donor recognition society, the Provost’s Circle, in 2014 came the opportunity to bring together some of the most creative makers in the College, to delve into the College’s historical traditions by working collaboratively on a commemorative medal to celebrate the generosity of the Circle’s members.

Established in 2014, the Provost’s Circle recognises substantial philanthropic contributions made by an individual, or by a company, foundation or other organisation to the Royal College of Art, by inviting donors and donor organisations’ representatives to become lifelong Provost’s Circle members. The Provost’s Circle has five founding members, including individuals, RCA alumni, trusts and foundations and corporate organisations.

Myth-making is also an established tradition at the College. When Robin Darwin became Principal in 1948, he imposed an invented tradition of historical romanticism, founding the Oxbridge-inspired Senior Common Room and the elaborate Convocation ceremony. First held in the Concert Hall of the nearby Royal College of Music in 1949, and now sending graduates out into the world from beneath the august dome of the Royal Albert Hall, this annual event is eloquently described by RCA Council member and biographer Fiona MacCarthy as an ‘invention involving formal gowns and academic hoods, flourishes of trumpets and a ceremonial silver mace […] featuring a dodo at one end and a triumphant phoenix on the other’.

The juxtaposition of the extinct dodo and the regenerative phoenix is inherent to the new myth that Darwin introduced into the narrative of the post-war College. Reborn among the ashes of the Blitz, Darwin’s RCA would be regenerated through an infusion of new academic blood and a new style of learning through practical interaction. This vision ensured the College’s survival, repositioning it towards training designers for industry, and the vibrant, collaborative breeding ground of artists and designers that we recognise today. 

Richard Guyatt, then Head of the newly constituted School of Graphic Design, designed the phoenix that is represented in so many post-Darwinian artefacts, from the mosaic on the floor of the Henry Moore Gallery, to the Senior Common Room tableware. In 2014, Guyatt’s centenary year, in a climate of reduced national funding for higher education, the College understands that it must once again be dynamic, responding to change with innovation and growth.

Provost’s Circle members empower the RCA to develop, explore and expand, and so Dean of Communication Neville Brody was commissioned to update Guyatt’s phoenix for the Provost’s Circle crest. Symbolising the transformative, real-world  impact of visionary benefactors, Brody’s design combines a reworking of Guyatt’s abstracted marque alongside lettering in the College’s bespoke font Calvert-Brody, designed in collaboration with eminent typographer Margaret Calvert.

To realise the design in metal, Irene Gunston, RCA Foundry manager, first produced a maquette using plaster and modelling wax, carving out the designs and pressing them in clay to make a positive relief. The medal design is deliberately structural and tactile, referencing traditional sources including early Renaissance artist Pisanello’s mapped reliefs. The final model was moulded in rubber, to allow the multiple wax copies needed for the ‘lost wax’ casting process.

In the College foundry, Gunston worked with technician Drew Cole to allow students to assist with wax working, investing, pouring the metal and patinating. The wax copies were dipped in liquid ceramic shell layers, dried and heated to 900 degrees Celsius, to harden the shell and melt out the wax. The empty space was filled with liquid bronze, and, after the molten metal had solidified and cooled, the outer shell was chipped off. The metal casts were ground and filed before being given their final colour, waxed and engraved, to be ready for presentation.

Meanwhile, MA Textiles student Charlie Hetheridge had won the commission for the presentation bag. Based on her graduate project, using felt and foiled printing, she combined in her design a pragmatic object-based solution, and an innovative take on an established ‘puff’ screenprinting process, in which microspheres expand with heat to give a raised print, to produce a striking presentation pouch.

Bestowing the medals to donors for the first time in June 2014, Sir James Dyson said: ‘Each one of you here tonight has made a lasting contribution to the life and legacy of the College. Your generosity has transformed lives, ensuring that the best minds and brightest talent receive the tools, training and support that they need to achieve their full potential through the RCA. I am delighted that we have the opportunity to come together to celebrate these gifts, and look forward to watching this group grow and flourish along with the College.’

The Royal College of Art would like to thank The Abraaj Group, Basil Alkazzi, Lydia and Manfred Gorvy, Lady Helen Hamlyn, and the James Dyson Foundation.