Raymond Elston was an abstract artist, textile designer and furniture designer. He was influenced by abstract expressionism and modernist principles, working primarily in furniture design, the fashion industry and, to a lesser extent in fine-art.
Little is known of Elston's early life. He attended the Central School of Arts and Crafts between 1948-51, where he was taught by Victor Pasmore and studied contemporaneously with Anthony Hill and Terence Conran.
In 1951 Elston, "a trained fashion designer", worked with Terence Conran, making denim clothes for the Lancashire-based textiles company David Whitehead, as well as making wood and metal furniture with Conran and Gill Pickles. He shared lodgings with Anthony Hill in Sloane Court West after Conran moved out.
In 1964, Elston was designing interiors and furniture for Contract Interiors Ltd at 203 Kings Road, London S.W.3. Some of his work is illustrated in Conran's books.
Elston had been an "Ordinary Country Member" of the Chelsea Arts Club in London since at least 1993. In 1994 he was interviewed by Nicholas Ind, the author of a book titled "Terence Conran: The Authorised Biography", in which he recounted his early experiences with Conran and Anthony Hill.
Elston's artistic style, based on his mobiles, stabiles and furniture designs, was abstract and modernist.
Elston is largely remembered for his mobiles, however the main body of his work throughout his life was involved with designing and manufacturing textiles, and later furniture design and decoration - initially with his friend Terence Conran.
Examples of Elston's work can be found in exhibition photographs of mobiles taken between 1951 and 1953, and later in books published by Conran and others.
Elston exhibited his work with Terence Conran, Adrian Hill and other members of the Constructionists, between 1951 to 1953. Neither Elston nor Conran contributed to subsequent fine-art shows; Conran was dissapointed with the lack of interest in his work.