Design: Is it a learnable skill?
Designing vs. building, the creative vs. the practical—there are two distinct aspects to building furniture, and simply because you have technical skill doesn’t mean you naturally have a talent for design
Synopsis: Designing vs. building, the creative vs. the practical—there are two distinct aspects to building furniture, and simply because you have technical skill doesn’t mean you naturally have a talent for design. We ask four talented furniture designers (who also happen to be teachers of woodworking) whether the fundamentals of good design can be taught. Here’s what Hank Gilpin, Laura Mays, Aled Lewis, and Michael Cullen have to say on the subject.
Long before I ever started thinking about designing furniture, I knew I wanted to build furniture. I grew up watching my dad, a mechanical engineer, making things while I hung out in his basement workshop. I was in awe of the way he would look at a spot in our house, envision what he wanted to build based on a need, and then set to work making it. Voila, it was in place and in…
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