Retro G-Plan Furniture

Retro G-Plan Furniture

Retro G-Plan Furniture

After a long period of neglect, people are now beginning to appreciate G-Plan from this era again.

G-Plan was the brainchild of Donald Gomme, of traditional the furniture maker E Gomme. He launched G-Plan in 1952, introducing three new concepts: branding, a constant range that people could add to over time and the contemporary style.

G-Plan was the first furniture brand that people recognised. Before G-Plan people bought furniture knowing very little about who made it. Gomme's national advertising campaign made G-Plan a household name. People went into shops and asked for G-Plan by name. In the early 50s, this was not welcomed by many furniture retailers. They preferred the manufacturers to be anonymous, so customers could not make price comparisons.

The 'plan' part of G-Plan was that the range introduced a consistent style for the living room, dining room and bedroom. Gomme made the range over a number of years so people could buy just one piece at a time without worrying that that style would change.

Before G-Plan, furniture was sold in suites for the living room, dining room and bedroom. Suites were expensive and usually bought on hire purchase. G-Plan was pitched as an aspirational brand, which was more costly than average furniture. The 'plan' concept made it affordable to a much larger number of people.

The third strand to the G-Plan marketing model was the contemporary or modern style. The Festival of Britain in 1951 popularised the idea of modern design; Gomme was the first furniture maker to bring modern design to a mass market in the UK. Contemporary was a huge success. At the beginning of the 50s, most people brought traditional furniture and by the end of the decade most people bought contemporary.

After the success of G-Plan many other furniture makers followed Gomme's lead. They ditched traditional styles and started making modern furniture for the mass market. Previously modern furniture was a specialist, elite market. Other furniture makers also started to exploit the idea of brands, and other names became more well known.

However, G-Plan set the standard and became the brand people aspired to own. It was a little more expensive than most people could afford, but many thought it was worth making the sacrifice to have the best.

Taken and adapted from The G-Plan Revolution by Basil Hyman and Steven Braggs.

See also G-Plan on Retrowow.

Steven Braggs is the co-author of 'The G-Plan Revolution' with Basil Hyman, published by Booth Clibborn Editions. He is also the founder of http://www.retrowow.co.uk, a web site about retro style and the '50s, '60s, '70s and '80s.

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