While going through the files from my undergraduate work at MCAD, I came across my “Position Paper”, which is part of the requirements to graduate. A “Position Paper” is to be short and sweet and to allow the graduating artist or designer to explain their work within the proper context of the world at large (i.e. where does my work fit in in the big picture). In my case, I took a stab at trying to figure out where an “American” furniture designer exists in today’s design community. It was essentially addressed to a professor who was not versed in furniture and is somewhat over-simplified but still contains ideas that I am trying to resolve as I enter graduate school this fall.

Without further ado, here is the paper:

What Is It To Be An American Furniture Designer?

Matthew Plumstead

Fall 2008

‘‘Designers are like flowers,’’ observes Paola Antonelli, the senior curator of architecture and design at MoMA. ‘‘They thrive in the right terrain: usually a mix of intellectual and artistic fervor, supported by a lively industrial sector of small to medium-size companies. That’s why American design was unstoppable after World War II.’’

When I think of American furniture design, naturally I think of Ray and Charles Eames, Harry Bertoia, George Nelson and a few others. They were the pre-eminent designers of their day. Their work was celebrated both here and abroad. They worked with companies that were willing to take risks (Herman Miller, Knoll) and helped them to achieve a modern vision for the American home and office, which remains timeless. In subsequent years, it seems that no one has contributed to American furniture design in the same way. Why are there no Eames or Bertoias today? What is considered an ‘American’ designer at this point in time? Why is furniture design flourishing in Europe and where does the young furniture designer fit into this current framework? I intend on answering these questions and in the process hopefully clarifying for myself, the context in which to place my work after graduating from college.

When I came to MCAD with the idea of designing furniture, I had not yet fully formed an end-goal for this education. I did know that I wanted to design objects for a living and knew that to do this, I needed to understand how things were built and how materials were used correctly in that process. I did not know where this would take me exactly, but I wanted to take the initial steps towards joining the furniture design community, whatever that might be. What I have come to find is that once I leave MCAD, it will most likely be an uphill battle to establish myself as a successful designer. The transition from school into this community is not an easy one because the support structure is small, especially in the United States.

In other parts of the world, furniture design is celebrated as much as other design disciplines are celebrated. Many European countries have design auteurs who receive a lot of publicity and therefore get to design a lot of great things. Examples are Jasper Morrison in the U.K; Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec in France; Hella Jongerius in the Netherlands; Jaime Hayon in Spain; Konstantin Grcic in Germany and Tokujin Yoshioka in Japan. There are many, many more that could be named. And while there may be as many talented designers in the U.S., I’d be hard pressed to come up with more that a small handful of names (The are many furniture makers which is somewhat different than a designer as the former creates one-off studio furniture).

One possible explanation for our lack of prominent furniture designers is our history. In a recent article in I.D. magazine entitled ‘Turning the Table, American furniture design came in for a flogging. Is the punishment deserved?”, American furniture designer Stephen Burks points out that new materials that resulted from the war effort of  World War II, helped fuel the designs for Eames, Bertoia et al. That focus shifted more towards the office and away from the home, while post-war Europeans focused more on the home. He writes, “Fast forward to today. We in America live with antiques and bad, overstuffed La-Z-boys. Europeans live with B&B Italia. We all use Macs and Aeron Chairs.” (72)

Another contributing factor for the lack of prominent furniture designers in the U.S. is due to the dearth of young, scrappy companies that take risks on experimental or less traditional work as well as the few large, publicly traded companies (like Herman Miller) that cannot take risks on lesser known designers or in work that cannot be sold in huge volume. The former is changing to some degree in places like Brooklyn, where cooperatives and collectives are starting to flourish, but their capacity and exposure is limited when you compare them to a smaller European company like Established and Sons in Britain.

Historically the American consumer is either looking for quality craftsmanship found in antiques or and in cheap comfort like the La-Z-boy recliners. The market for quality craftsmanship today cannot exist if price is the main consideration. Ikea would not do as well in the states if it weren’t for its low prices. Unfortunately, craftsmanship is not in the equation for this sort of furniture. Ikea can be well-designed but not built to last. It is not built to be passed from one generation to another. It is designed to be consumed as quickly as fast food and then to occupy space in a landfill.

There is a desire for the middle-ground between disposable and high end furniture in the U.S. as evidenced by companies like Room and Board and Blu Dot (both of which are based in Minnesota). In the case of Blu Dot, some of their pieces are iconic and may become timeless. Room and Board is a bit conservative but their overall aesthetic is more modern than overstuffed. Neither company however seem to take risks and this puts the damper on innovation. Prominent furniture designers do not really exist within these companies as designers in this context are part of a team or are basically stylists trying to expand the brand and maintaining the look of the company.

Blu Dot may be as close as we come to ‘American’ furniture design at this time. The reason for this is that many of their pieces can exist on the same stage as their European brethren aesthetically, but they are still price point driven in a typical American fashion. The majority of their furniture is shipped flat in pieces (like Ikea) and the customer assembles them at home. The materials getting assembled are of higher quality than Ikea but removing the need to pay labor for assembly saves them and the consumer money. One of their most iconic chairs called ‘The Buttercup Chair’, was designed by an individual designer, but is labeled as a ‘Blu Dot’ chair. Removing authorship for a brand is typical for American furniture companies while in Europe the designer helps to sell the product for the company. Perhaps the modern American furniture designer is a company.

Another possible explanation for our lack of prominent furniture designers is the structure and cost of our educational systems and the support structure that exists outside of it. Furniture design in the U.S. is typically offered in art schools while it is usually offered as part of a design program that often includes engineering in Europe (this would called Industrial Design here). Education is very expensive and in addition, there does not exist a support structure between designers and manufacturing.  Contrast this with the system in the Netherlands. In the same I.D. magazine article, Alice Rawsthorn says, “The Netherlands is the one that ticks every box. Free university education. A great design school in Eindhoven. Cheap studio spaces on the outskirts of Amsterdam and Rotterdam. Government grants to subsidize young designers after graduation. Well-funded, intellectually agile museums to generate intellectual debate on design.”(77) This, coupled with numerous European design magazines that are looking for the next big thing, helps promote these young designers while they are being supported to produce work. This support allows them to experiment. This in turn leads to innovation or simply a creative and artful design. When education is expensive and the support structure is small, designers cannot risk being too experimental. They need to be appealing both to a broad swatch of the public and to the manufacturer that might be interested in producing their design. But without a dialogue with manufacturing, it is harder for young American designers to know how to design well for their processes.

With the three factors in mind, pragmatic design past, lack of support and funding and inflexible industries. What is a young designer to do? How should he or she proceed post-graduation into the design community? On closer inspection, there does appear to be some opportunities out there that can be found or established locally and/or globally, some of which may not necessarily fall under the label of American furniture design.

In May of this year, I attended the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) in New York City.  All of the big designers listed above had work there (some with multiple companies). In the midst of these large booths, I came upon a smaller booth with some rather interesting looking prototypes. The sign on the wall said, “Design Democracy 08 presented by Context Furniture”. The word “Democracy” had caught my eye. I was intrigued to find out what was so democratic about their offerings.

Context Furniture attempts to bridge the gap between designers and manufacturing. They do this by promoting mass customization as opposed to mass manufacturing. This is achieved primarily through the use of a CNC router, which allows for pieces to be cut to order and assembled all within a very short period of time and with little paid labor. A customer is able to make some design decisions up front, like choice of materials and certain shapes, to suit his or her aesthetic tastes. This level of engagement is unique to this business model and offers something of value that larger companies cannot provide. It allows a smaller company to innovate without taking big risks in the investment of raw materials to create a line of furniture. This is efficient and leaves little waste. Once an order is placed, it only takes 3-5 weeks for it to arrive at your door.

To demonstrate the viability of this model, a website (called Design for Democracy 08) was created where designers could post their ideas. Designs were discussed and voted on. Designs that could best be adapted to the mass-customization model were selected, built  and shown at ICFF.

This process may point to a new path for designers here and abroad. As the price of technology decreases, more designers will be able to quickly create customizable pieces and have them delivered quickly to a customer.

In addition to Design for Democracy and large corporate booths, there were a few individual designers or small groups showing their prototypes. Some were looking to have orders placed which they would then produced themselves while others were looking for manufacturers to buy their design and develop it for mass production.

There is also a program at ICFF that exists specifically for promoting young designers. It is called ICFF Studio.  A few designers are chosen each year to have their prototypes promoted and to attract manufacturers.

Another option for the young designer fresh out of college may be the lucky break at getting an internship with a famous designer. Presumably, this will show them how the business works as well as helping to establish possible contacts and adding some much needed weight to their résumé.

Assuming that the current structure for the young American furniture designer will not change dramatically from what it is today in 2008, he or she will need to understand that their community is very different from those in Europe, and that their paths cannot be patterned on the European model. They may need to create their own communities, which might incorporate concepts like mass-customization, if they want to create and promote their own work under their own names and in the process begin to establish a more vocal base of designers that might be categorized as American Furniture Designers. Otherwise the traditional paths of exposure through furniture fairs or working for an established company are their best bet.