Virgil Loggins Merrill and Professor David Taylor, Visual Arts
The objective of this research project was to design and create two original pieces of furniture. The conclusion was much more. There were initially two developments to this project, the first being the design process, and the second being the manufacturing process. Through the design process I was able to deal mainly with the aesthetics of the two pieces of furniture. As I tread through the stairway of my imagination, I produced drawing after drawing until I had decided upon the two pieces of furniture. The one being a table, and the other, being a chair. The design process is more of an individual process, and so while I can explain how I approached it, and was able to come up with a successful design, this process will be different with everybody. In fact, it is somewhat different every time I approach it myself.
One of the most important part of my design process was to consider the composition of the piece as a whole. This was a 3-D composition. Not only was I concerned about the elements of line, point, and shape, but also texture, color, and balance. Everything had to combine as a whole and had to work well with the other parts of the piece. The legs of the chair had to relate somehow to the seat of back perhaps, while the steel had to work well with the choice of fabric, not only the color but the texture. Then there were other questions, like whether the steel should have a smooth texture or a brushed texture or something completely different. I learned this one very, very important lesson, while designing, and that is that the design has to have a theme. Is the piece curvilinear? Is it organic? Is it industrial looking? Is it more vertical than horizontal? These are all questions which help develop the theme of a design. The theme is so critical that designs that go without a theme, whether consciously or not, do not have that extra quality which can set it apart as a well designed piece of furniture ( or product ) from all of the mundane regular products that so often pervade society.
The sketching and envisioning of the furniture pieces alone was not the only great learning experience, but one thing more that I did was the construction of the pieces. This of course was a large part of the sketching as well, because if you don’t know how to put together, what you’ve drawn, in all likelihood somebody else isn’t going to figure it out for you. This means that sometimes the construction of a piece will alter your drawing somewhat. However, the fabrication of the two pieces of furniture is definitely what has taken the most time. So in terms of learning in the whole design process, the thing that I learned most from fabricating your own designs, is how difficult it is to get all the correct parts. As I was making my table, I was making it in sections, and had only finished the first one before I had to stop for a while. The reason being is that the place where I had purchased the materials ran out of what they had, and so for the next two to three months I was searching for another place to get my materials before I was able to locate it. I found out that this was a rather common occurrence seeing as how in the design of my chair, there were certain radiuses that needed to be bent on the back, out of steel, and up until only recently have I been able to locate a person who can or will do it.
That is another problem I have also encountered, is the fact that most businesses aren’t too willing to help with small projects like the ones that I have for them. They think it a waste of their time and so tell me that such and such just can’t be done, or that they don’t have the right machinery for it. Although I’ve learned if you’re persistent enough that you can always find a way to accomplish and finish your design.
Through this process of designing and manufacturing these two pieces of furniture, I have learned more of what it takes to be able to work as a designer. This research activity has also opened my eyes for what follows the design process, which is marketing and promoting your piece of furniture. I have truly enjoyed this project, and it has become my choice of a career. Through this research I was able to set goals and see them through.