Underline: Giles Round

Underline is a series of art commissions for the Victoria Line by artist Giles Round, and his design office Design Work London (DWL), as part of the Art on the Underground project on the London Underground. DWL revisits the values and vision of Arts & Crafts exponent William Morris who believed that great art should be for everybody. The project also celebrates the legacy of Frank Pick, managing director of London Underground in the early 20th century who commissioned many of the great design tropes of London Underground including the Johnston typeface and Harry Beck’s Tube map.

DWL’s designs utilise historical models of production, and worked in partnership with Craven Dunnill Jackfield to manufacture the ceramics, delivering a project which provides a critical lens to examine contemporary aesthetics and the hierarchies between applied and fine arts.