Misha Black

Misha Black OBE (16 October 1910 – 11 October 1977) was a British-Azerbaijani architect and designer. In 1933 he founded with associates in London the organisation that became the Artists' International Association. In 1943, with Milner Gray and Herbert Read, Black founded Design Research Unit, a London-based Architectural, Graphic Design and Interior Design Company.

He was born in 1910 in Baku, Russian Empire (now Azerbaijan) into a wealthy Jewish family. From 1959 to 1975 Black was a professor of industrial design at the Royal College of Art in London, England. During his tenure at the Royal College of Art, he became President of the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (Icsid) from 1959 to 1961. He was also a Fellow of the Chartered Society of Designers, and winner of the Minerva Medal, the Society's highest award. He was knighted in 1972.[1] Between 1974 and 1976 Black was President of the Design and Industries Association.[2]

  1. ^ "No. 45678". The London Gazette (Supplement). 3 June 1972. p. 6255.
  2. ^ Misha Black at archINFORM