Despite severe cutbacks in the production of consumer goods during World War II (1939-45), the concept of 'good' design continued to be of importance and was supported by the Utility Scheme introduced in Britain in 1941. The system was devised to ensure that the civilian population continued to have some access to consumer goods. Responsibility for the creative development of these products was placed in the hands of a number of chief practitioners of the day, including Enid Marx, who represented the field of textile design. Her brief was to design uncomplicated patterns that could be produced within the technical and cost restrictions imposed by wartime austerity measures. The textiles that she developed were generally of a geometric or abstract nature with small scale repeating patterns. Marx was critical of the eventual choice of rust, green, blue and natural for the designs, condemning rust as 'most deplorable and responsible for much of today's low standards of public taste'.