Design Notes

CCA Class Wrap-Up

As you've likely read, DWR and California College of the Arts had teamed up for a furniture production class in the Fall of 2006. The emphasis of the class, taught by Brian Kane, was on sustainability, developing seating solutions for contract and residential markets. We recognized the students at an event last month at the DWR Potrero Studio. We wanted to share with you the chairs that best met the goals of the class.

Tim Hundersmarck's Egg Carton Chair

Justin Champaign's Bent Maplex Chair

Kerry Bogus's Red "love" Chair.

Congratulations and thanks to all of the students who participated.

Let's hear from the students

I'm Tony Meredith, a third-year student of Industrial Design at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco. The folks at DWR asked me to write a little bit about my experience in the Furniture Design for Production class that DWR sponsored at CCA in the fall of 2006. Let me start by saying that the class was awesome. How often do you get to study furniture design with one of the few truly independent furniture designers (Brian Kane) in the U.S.? Also, we were always given great feedback from a parade of interesting designers and people from DWR, so after every crit I would go back to my workspace and really bust out the work, because I knew that the amount of hard work that I put in would be appreciated and acknowledged.

In the class, we learned to draw furniture at full-size. Which sounds a bit basic, but most of the time in school we really only draw at 1/4 scale. So, drawing at full size was a real eye-opener – not everything that looks good small works out at full size. We also were really pushed to explore new sustainable materials and manufacturing processes, so it was sort of like a treasure hunt. The class was pretty competitive (the ID students had to apply to be accepted into the class), so it was always fun to see what the other students had been working on (usually all night, the night before!) at the critiques.

The critiques were really involved and fun. Usually a group of folks from DWR would attend and give real-world feedback on what would work in the furniture market and what wouldn't. Brian would invite other independent furniture designers to attend, as well. Mark Kapka (a designer who works for the likes of Keilhauer, Metro and Offi) came to several of our formal critiques and a bunch of our more informal desk crits too. I was always happy to hear his take on my project because his input was such an even balance. The conversations about how the corner and edge details should look on my chair was really helpful and eventually influenced the final design.

All in all, the class was a great experience, and the sponsorship of DWR just sweetened the deal. For more information about me and my work, check out my website!

p.s. Final Critique, Finally

The pictures are posted of all the wonderful chairs created by the students in our Furniture in Production class at CCA. Be sure to check them out here.

Final critique, finally.

Last Friday I was lucky enough to attend the final critique at the CCA Furniture in Production class. It was inspiring to see the chairs the students had created and the quality of these prototypes demonstrated how hard they had worked. (That, and the fact they looked like they hadn’t slept in days. Ah, to be a student again.)

The students had only two weeks to make a full scale prototype, which for most of us would be a mission impossible. But what they put together rocked. There was the "throwaway" chair made of recycled paper, the "evil genius" chair out of laser cut steel, a chair created out of recycled juice boxes, a chair made out of a giant innertube, two chairs that used different types of felt and the list goes on for a total of 14 truly inspiring chairs. Kudos to the students. You can see their final projects here.

Did you miss out on the fun? Follow along with our previous CCA posts here: 1, 2, 3.

Chair Crunch

Our first ever collaboration with CCA is winding down and the Furniture for Production students are entering their final weeks of class. Material choice, in particular the refinement of the actual use of the materials, and how they attach to the frame is, hopefully, being resolved. Professor Kane will be meeting one last time with the students for one-on-one critiques in an effort to get them ready for the end of semester crunch. I’m so nervous, aren’t you?  Final presentations of the full scale prototypes will be on Dec 15th. I’m planning to attend. Just like you I’ve been checking things out from the sidelines, I can’t wait to see the chairs in person and meet the students.

Drawings: Top chair by Jeremy Kaplan, bottom chair by Albert Hsu.

Follow along with our previous CCA posts here and here.

Sketches become reality

The Furniture for Production students at CCA are totally hitting their stride in the class we’re hosting. They’ve been sketching furiously and presented their best of three drawings two weeks ago. Their next challenge was to pick one to focus on and creating a ¼ scale model of it. They presented these scale models last week. The details in the chairs are so cool. And I can’t help it, but aren’t all small things adorable? See for yourself here.

Want to make your own ¼ scale model chair? Our Champagne Chair Contest is coming. Check back in December to get the details.

Midterms over, now what?

The 2nd half of the CCA class, Furniture for Production, began last week. The students were asked to present initial sketches for a multipurpose chair targeted at the needs of DWR. Instructor Brian Kane said a successful solution will be based on visual and material innovation as well as ergonomic, manufacturing, and sustainable considerations. Unlike the foamcore project they worked on for their midterm, this chair can be designed in any material they choose. Still very much in the idea stage, nothing is considered impossible. However, they’ll soon have to decide on one idea to pursue for the rest of the class. Brian, along with furniture designers, Mark Kapka and Brian Graham, continue to help by sharing their own experiences. Eventually one or more chairs may be put into production by DWR. No guarantees of course.

Students ace DWR midterm

California College of the Arts (CCA) and DWR have teamed up to host a class, Furniture for Production, in which students are developing seating solutions for contract and residential markets. For the midterm, students were asked to design a full-scale foamcore chair that supports their weight. The only material allowed was one 4'x 8' sheet of half-inch foamcare. No glue or fasteners could be used. Oh, and as if that wasn’t challenging enough, they had to create a design that could ship flat and be assembled on site. The innovative solutions included a rocking chair, a folding chair and a chair assembled with dovetailed joinery. One student even peeled the hard coating off parts of the foamcore to give his chair a shaggy texture. The result was more Muppet noir than cute. “A piece of evil should be in every project,” said the student.

View more projects here.