Yesterday, as I was immersed in the usual mix of music, article writing, Twitter, and coffee, I saw this pop up on my screen:
Ok Marc, you caught me in a weak moment, and with a headline like that how could I NOT watch?! So I clicked on the link and it took me to a video episode of a Canadian HGTV design show, The Decorating Adventures of Ambrose Price (yeah I know).
Apparently Ambrose is on a mission to become a designer without the formal training, simply learning as he goes. In this episode he tackled the world of furniture design.
There wasn’t a way to embed the video and no other sites had it, so here’s the link to watch it for yourself.
(Granted, the show’s set up is clearly part of the hook to keep you watching, but despite all that, there were some really interesting takeaways for you.)
He starts out with this statement, “Is it really that hard to design a unique piece of furniture?”
So, he basically goes on a survey trip to high end furniture galleries, design schools, and even the shops of local woodworkers. What he encountered were very solid design principles that everyone had in common.
- Everyone started with a source of inspiration.
- Brainstorming through sketching was the next step.
- After narrowing the design, then the drawings were scaled.
- The function, size, and “role” of the piece helped guide the design.
- Continuity between wood, function, and style.
In the end, he come to this conclusion,
“There is no easy way when it comes to designing furniture.”
Despite how this all sounds, I really encourage you to watch the video. It ends up presenting a bit of an inside look into what it really takes to design furniture from start to finish. A concept that truly escapes most people not involved in our craft.
I am really anxious for you to share your thoughts on this one.
Are there any lessons to take away from this? Or, is this simply undermining the amount of work, both physical and intellectual, that goes in to furniture design and construction?
Lets’ discuss below.
(This would be a great topic for video comments.)
PS. If you don’t know who Peter Fleming is, you really need to!
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Adam,
I also watched the video when Marc tweeted about it. I had mixed feelings. So I watched it again. It reminds me of me two years ago. I didn’t have such a strong, almost combative, emotion about it being simple to create a unique piece of furniture, but I didn’t think it was too terribly difficult.
At first, when he began building his table with his new friend’s help, I was upset that he was having other people build it for him. Then, upon reflection, I realized, in very short form, what he’s doing is a type of apprenticeship. Learning from hands on mistakes, being guided by someone with much more practical experience, etc. I realized what he did in the shop was not all bad.
Finally when he took the table to the designer store for consignment, I felt, partly, like he hadn’t learned anything in such a short amount of time. He had an idea for a piece of furniture that might suit a very small number of people in certain circumstances, but hadn’t realized how people connect with furniture.
Sure, the table looked beautiful. I’m not faulting him or the girls that helped build it. But I believe his presumption that the table would be a success, only because it may have fulfilled his needs, was shallow.
What do you think?
[Reply]
1) I’m very dubious of this sort of thing. For one, because of my wife, I’ve become very familiar with these HGTV shows. While I respect a lot of the work they do (most of which doesn’t seem to make the cut for airing), they seem to be personality-driven more than work driven. They all seem to use a sort of cut-and-paste approach to design vs. something they’re passionate about. The craftsmanship on a lot of these shows is pretty sketchy too, it seems. This Ambrose dude’s whole thing is that he wants to be the next Martha Stewart. While I respect his enthusiasm, he seems driven by a cult of personality instead of a passion and interest in design.
It’s difficult to stomach the show when he has the gall to do what we try to do everyday. We bring dedication not just to craft and the commercial aspect of things, but a real passion for understanding and education – whether from school or a dedication to learning – for all the components of the process.
If they’re trying to highlight how difficult the design and fabrication process is, I don’t think it was successful enough. Sure, it shows how difficult and time-consuming the processes are, but they revert to Ambrose’s personality as the focus of the show. His consistent surprise at how long the process are is annoying. I think he gave himself too much credit at the end of the show too. Sure, he had a vision in his mind of what he wanted, but he didn’t really make or design the finished piece. Design is as much about the way materials are put together as the way they appear on the outside, and he wouldn’t have been able to accomplish anything without (more than) help at all levels. Good thing the store owner was honest and didn’t capitulate to the HGTV cameras.
[Reply]
Dear Adam;
Glad you saw the HGTV episode of Ambrose Price attempting to learn how to design and make a piece of furniture with me, with the assistance from several graduates and students of our program at Sheridan College, just outside Toronto, ON. I think it is easy to tell from the video that this shoot was an uncomfortable situation for anyone who truly understands what is involved in the design process, let alone the careful manufacture, of a ‘unique’ piece of furniture. The conceit is an obvious one; take a classic fish out of water and put him through his paces, with inevitable results. That said, there is a place for the popularization of our field, and although this may be a ham fisted way to do it, you would be amazed at how many people watch this stuff, and therefore become more aware of the field as a result. Case in point: I stumbled across your website by a circuitous route, and was surprised to see this post. Sure, it is not an in-depth education, but God forbid that everyone would want to attempt to learn how to make furniture…
Our program is a three year hands on studio experience where students learn to design and make furniture at the same time, using sketching and research to develop concepts, and create scale models, full scale mockups and working drawings, prior to commencing work on the final product. At each stage, critiques with faculty, students and visiting critics help to resolve the design further, so that by the time they finish the program they have a firm understanding of their own approach to design, balancing aesthetics, function and engineering. You can’t do that in a single day with the cameras rolling. It takes dedication, patience and genuine interest, all of which is absent in a media personality who is driven by the desire for celebrity, not craftsmanship.
All the best;
Peter
[Reply]
Adam
Twitter: AdamKingStudio
Reply:
December 8th, 2009 at 10:01 am
Peter,
I can’t say how thrilled I am to have you commenting on this post. I love that we can have someone involved in the program itself, giving us your perspective. I can imagine that situation was indeed a bit uncomfortable for you. It is exposure to our craft, true, but at the same time it still can present folks with the idea that what we do is easy and doesn’t take much thought and dedication.
Thanks to the dedication of you and others like you, Peter, we still have a solid base of passionate and intelligent educating and really, inspiring of future craftspeople and artists.
Thanks so much for stopping by here at The Journey.
[Reply]
The best thing I saw, as a newbie, is that it was a failure. And failing is not a bad thing.
It is part of the learning process. I wish they had showed a bit more of the process, but
trying to fit a complete piece of furniture between commercials is difficult even for a ‘Norm’
let alone a newbie.
It was good they tried to give some examples of what design creation time really takes,
weeks/months, also using sketches, drawings, even use of power tools (computerized
or not) is not a panacea without sufficient skills. To me they obviously glossed over
much of the process and at the end ‘finishing is a breeze’ was what I thought I heard.
Overall it was interesting, but I sure wouldn’t want it to be a determining factor in someone
deciding whether the design/build process is what they want to invest themselves in or not.
[Reply]
Adam
Twitter: AdamKingStudio
Reply:
February 8th, 2010 at 8:47 pm
Exactly. I think in part, they showed that you could not go from total beginner to accomplished designer/maker in a few weeks.
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