Enid Marx

Enid Marx (1902-1998) was a pioneering designer who mostly famously created  seating moquette fabric for London Transport.

In the 1920s she was already a successful textile designer specializing in hand-blocked prints and patterned wallpaper. It was in the 1930s that London Underground decided to seek out new talent and approached her along with other female designers such as Marion Dorn.

Enid wanted to ensure that the seating was practical and wouldn’t look too dirty after daily use. She chose geometric patterns in muted or dark colours and named them after places in London, ‘Belsize, ‘Bushey’ and ‘Brent’.

Later on, she opted for more highly contrasting tones such as the example below called ‘Shield’. This pattern was used in the late 1940s to refurbish older trains. It breaks away from the straight lines of the earlier moquettes.

As well as her London Transport work, she continued to produce textiles, posters, woodcuts, engravings, linocuts, packaging, book jackets and illustrations, calendars and greeting cards.

Fabric design for London Transport