Lionel Edward Neate b. 1 January 1909

  • Designer
Neate was an industrial designer with studies at the Sydney Technical College. He was one of the first industrial designers hired by AWA, Sydney and had a parallel career as a graphic artist. He was also member of the Australian Amateur Cine Society although no films under his directorship are known to date.

Lionel Edward Neate (1909-1977)

Although his documentation is modest, Lionel Neate occupies a unique position in the history of Australian design based on a single paragraph in Charles Furey’s book-length study of industrial design. Furey writes, “AWA [Amalgamated Wireless Australasia] first engaged industrial design services in the early [1930s] when a small design department headed by Lionel Neate serviced the requirements for domestic radio receivers.”

AWA produced far more than what Furey economically describes as “domestic radio receivers”. By the 1950s, the AWA line included timber veneer cabinet “radiolagrams” (record player and radio), clock radios, the AWA refrigerator (a Westinghouse-derived design), car radios and portable radios while developing a line of television receivers anticipating Australia’s commercial TV broadcasts in 1956.

AWA was a design leader in its field and employed Neate and other well-known designers such as Carl Nielsen (from the late 1950s), Don Goodwin (from 1958), Bill Moody (from 1960), John Holt (from 1962) and Charles Furey (from 1967).

Lionel Neate was born in Katoomba, NSW in 1909 and a newscutting has him enrolled at the Sydney Technical College in 1927. Based on published examination reports, he was studying drawing and receiving “pass” marks. How he found his way to AWA’s design studios has not been determined to date but his early career seems centred on illustration and the graphic arts.

While studying at the “Tech”, he entered the 1926 Children’s Humane Poster Competition organised by Farmer’s Department Store and supported by the R.S.P.C.A. He was awarded a prize for an as-yet unidentified poster. Pursuing another prize, Neate entered the NSW Health Department’s poster competition in 1934. He received a “commended” notice for a work “Cleanliness means Health” exhibited at the Blaxland Galleries, Grace Bros.

Insight into AWA’s corporate culture is provided in an address by E.C. Parkinson, AWA’s Assistant General Manager, to a 1958 Symposium, “Design in Australian Industry”. “An industrial designer,” Parkinson says, “must of necessity restrict his work to a few industries and the products of those industries. [AWA] Management has the feeling that most industrial designers are artistic types, temperamental and difficult to harness in a production unit. […] There are some [designers] fully convinced that all management has to do is to make the products they so cleverly draw on paper. […] Mostly his [the designer’s] work is shown as drawings and unfortunately to senior men in management, there is no more frightening thing than a set of drawings. […] They just cannot understand them”.

Despite the difficulties in defining Lionel Neate’s precise role at AWA (draughtsman, stylist or designer), he was present at the creation of an Australian corporation’s industrial design tradition. AWA aggressively promoted their design leadership to market their product range. “Here … at last,” an AWA 1954 display ad in the Sydney Morning Herald reads, “is the […] RADIOLAGRAM MODEL 554, a masterpiece of elegance and tonal beauty, incorporating features that have made Radiola the finest broadcast receiver in Australia today. Only the immense resources of A.W.A. and the complete collaboration of design, technical and manufacturing units […] have made this great achievement possible…”.

Like most Australian industrial designers of his era, Neate worked across several disciplines including illustration, industrial design and as the Australian Women’s Weekly reported in 1955, cinema. He was also an active member of the Australian Amateur Cine Society serving as a director in one of their now-lost productions. Despite his work in graphic arts, industrial design and motion pictures, the notice of the probate of Neate’s estate in 1977 describes him as a draughtsman.

Born in Katoomba, NSW Births, Deaths and Marriages, ref. no. 37615/1909

Charles Furey. “The Commercial Effectiveness of products Resulting from Industrial Designing in Australia.” DIA, 1986, p.34. Furey mistakenly cites that Neate was active in the 1950s. Carl Nielsen has explained that Neate was active in the 1930s. [personal communication.]

Michael Bogle. “AWA.” Curve. Issue 18:2007, pps.46-47.

“Examinations. Technical Education, Results for 1926, Art Department, Freehand drawing, pass. Lionel Neate,” Sydney Morning Herald, 28 January 1927, p.7

“Humane Poster Competition.” Sydney Morning Herald, Monday 4 October 1926, p.4

“Health Posters.” The Sydney Morning Herald, 25 June 1934, p.11. He is recorded as living at 5 Schwebel Street, Marrickville. His death in 1977 is also recorded at this address.

ends/

28 April 2011

Writers:

Michael Bogle
Date written:
2020
Last updated:
2020