DIA Fellow, Roger Putnam FDIA sadly died in May this year; the passing of an important presence in Australian mid-century design.  Roger first joined the Industrial Design Institute of Australia in 1972 and was nominated as a Fellow (FDIA) in 1997.

An influential figure in the area of furniture design and manufacture, Putnam began his career in London in the sixties, as assistant to the renowned English designer Robin Day, best known as the creator of the famous Hille Chair, one of the first moulded plastic shell chairs in the world.  He trained at RMIT in Interior Design in the early sixties and did post graduate studies at the London College of Furniture, before returning to Australia.

His return passage to Australia from London was a happy circumstance. Low English salaries meant that he need to accept a paid role for his passage back to Melbourne, and he became a professional guardian to underage, unaccompanied migrant children on the long voyage. It was at this time he met Jenny, his future wife, who was a companion guardian on the voyage. They were married for thirty plus years, before Jenny succumbed to cancer in the late nineties. 

Born Roger Guy Brett Putnam in Rayners Lane near Pinner in the United Kingdom, he migrated to Australia with his family at the age of twelve in 1953, and grew up in Mt Eliza. His father, Ernest George Putnam, was a furniture maker and restorer, with a successful business on the peninsular.  His early advice to his son was “don’t get involved in furniture.” However, as Putnam later explained, ‘the genes prevailed’.

In re-establishing himself in Melbourne, he lectured in Industrial Design at the Prahran Technical College under the leadership of Lenton Parr, and it was here that he established life long friendships with designers Chris Palmer and Val Austin.

Putnam’s transition from academia to the workforce saw his early work in the design and manufacturer of furniture for the hospitality sector in Melbourne. He worked with Alan Kerr of Kerby Furniture,  who were manufacturers of high-end retail domestic furniture. He left Kerby to establish his own company, Sumna Furniture. His work included fit outs of the Savoy Plaza Hotel and the Adelphi Hotel, and later freelance work for the top design practices of the day with the establishment of Design Ecru. Following this work Putnam spent a productive period with Expo Solutions in Melbourne, where he joined his younger brother Geoff, a successful industrial designer, who also trained at RMIT, and they produced wonderful exhibition displays for major corporate entities. and Geoff won the Guild Furniture Best Stand Award for the design of the Sumna Furniture stand in Melbourne.

Putnam did important work in building design prototypes for some major design figures, such as Kjell Grant, designer of the famous Montreal Expo Chair, and he worked closely with commercial furniture suppliers, such as Innerspace, to provide bespoke manufactured boardroom pieces. He reflected often on the early skills he was taught by the renowned Don Chapman, Lecturer in Furniture Design at  RMIT, in producing full size drawings for furniture piece production, a skill which now seems lost.

Putnam’s work, together with Maudie Palmer, in helping setting up the Tarrawarra Museum of Art, was highly successful. This wonderful Gallery in the Yarra Valley, designed by the brilliant Alan Powell, has amazing flexibility in the control of the internal spaces, as Putnam devised highly clever, mobile portable walls, which store away seamlessly in unobtrusive side wall spaces. He continued on to work for Palmer, the inaugural gallery director, as the Facilities Manager for the Gallery for several years. Tarrawarra is of course a major Victorian Gallery established by Eva & Marc Beson and continues to thrive and grow in reputation.

He continued on to work for many galleries, such as Heidi, and McClellan Sculpture Gallery, and this set a new direction for his design practice. In recent time his health deteriorated and he tapered off accepting commissions, with just the occasional project occupying his time. His contribution to the design profession was recognised by the Design Institute of Australia in awarding him a Fellowship in the early 2000’s. He had been a member of the Institute since 1972, when he was proposed by Lionel Suttie, a future National President, and seconded by the renowned Grant Featherston. 

Putnam was a quiet achiever and continued to be engaged to the end with friends and colleagues in the design sphere. He will be sorely missed by Guy, Sophie, Alex, as well as Geoff and Simone,

Geoff Fitzpatrick OAM, LFDIA
Design Ambassador