Unusual Materials

There are many common materials used in the building of every day furniture, but what is the fun in that? There are so many different materials out there that could be used to make furniture, some functional some not, so why don’t more designers take advantage of these to make an interesting set of furniture. Most designers probably do not utilize these odd materials because of the cost and the fact that the majority of people would not purchase the designers furniture if it was made out of something too out of the ordinary.

Unusual materials used in furniture range from the normal just used in a different way to truly bizarre. One chair, created by pepehey koop is made out of a very common material. This char is made out of oak however it is designed in a way that I have never seen before. The chair looks completely solid and hard when looked at, however interesting the design is it does not appear to be any more comfortable or inviting than any other chair made out of wood. But if a viewer decided to sit down in this ordinary looking chair they will find how out of the ordinary it actually is. What looks to be a solid wood seat is actually a flat cushion covered seamlessly in oak mosaic tiles. The placement of these tiles allows for the give that a user looks for when selecting a chair for comfort. The tiles are placed so closely together that even when pushed on they form an obstacle allusion because they still look solid and hard. This chair is a great example of how a designer can apply very common materials in a way that can make their design extremely unique.

One of the more bizarre pieces of furniture I found was a chair made completely of pencils, yes sharpened pencils. Clearly this piece of furniture would not be used for comfort, or even be used at all. This piece of furniture is made purely for aesthetics and is a work of art rather than a functional piece of design. Unless you are a dare devil or for some reason enjoy the feeling of being poked and prodded by thousands of perfectly sharp pencils I seriously doubt anyone will be brave enough to lounge in this chair any time soon.

A Piece of furniture can be functional or it can be a work of art, the majority of designers choose functionality first and this is why so many designers opt to use material that is already proven to be successful. Most people would not purchase a chair made out of pencils for their living room but perhaps designers will find a way to translate these unusual and usual materials in a functional way that is different than anything we have experienced before

Design Day and Learning Lunch

Designers and Design students alike gather to learn and converse once a year in October at the learning lunch and design expo put on by Texas Tech University. These two events are a great way for designers and vendors to show of all their new products and likewise it is an amazing opportunity for students to acquire samples and information from professionals working in their interested fields.

This was the first year that I was able to attend the learning lunch and I am so glad that I did. Kick off started with all of our class mates and teachers sitting down and enjoying a lunch provided for us while we chatted excitedly about what we thought the speaker would be presenting about. Bryan Graham was the speaker at this year’s learning lunch, he is a former interior designer who currently is employed by Knoll furniture as a senior furniture designer. I have never put much thought into how a piece of furniture is made until listening to Bryan Grahams lecture. Graham started out by introducing us to the people and things that he has been inspired by, many of whom are famous designers. He showed us a photo of his work space in San Francisco which, I’m sure, made everyone in the room overly jealous of his spectacular view. It was interesting to see the great amount of clutter and loos paper taped all around his office, it reminded me of my own creative process and how disastrous my room looks when I have been working those long hours. Graham spoke briefly but influentially, for me, about some things he personally looks for in a portfolio, he said that he looks for good examples of a person’s design process because that is where he can look to find out if he would be able to work with that person through the design process. It was amazing to hear about the great amount of work and effort that Graham must put into designing a piece of furniture, even just designing a small chair takes many many steps in order to arrive at a point where he can just present it to his clients.

For me the design expo was greatly over shadowed by the learning lunch that I had attended earlier in the day. I went to the design expo knowing that a large amount of vendors and design companies come to show off their latest and greatest designs and products. upon arriving I was greatly disappointed, I found the majority of the booths to be bland and many of them where lacking a representative who could give me information about their company. I thought that this was supposed to be a good opportunity for these vendors to get their name out there, but many of them where just passed over without a second glance because they didn’t put the time and effort into making their presentation stand out.

One booth however that stood out to me, and probably everyone else, was the take form booth. This architectural graphics and signage firm had some of the most interesting and innovative ideas that I have learned about in a while. Their most interesting idea was an interactive table top touch screen monitor. This touch screen device was really innovative, the representative talked about how the screen could be used in so many different setting, he talked specifically about using them in restaurants so that dinners could communicate directly with the kitchen and they could order and pay from the table top monitor instead of a busy waiter. This got me thinking about the other ways and other settings that this device could be used in, it could be used in any hospitality setting in the same way that it could be used in restaurants but it could also be used in schools so teachers and students could have the information and notes and the ability to submit work all from the convenience of their classroom desks.

Over all the learning lunch and design expo where a valuable learning experience for my classmates and I. The innovative ideas that Bryan Graham and the vendors of the design expo where talking about got me thinking about all the ways to use existing ideas that are known to be great and twisting them into something new and even better.

Campus Materials Analysis

When choosing a material or fabric for a particular finish it is very important to consider the setting in which this material will be placed. Is this fabric going to be used in a home or in a public area, will it be subjected to minimal abrasions or a lot; these are just a few of the questions that need to be asked when a designer is considering the options for material selection.

On the Texas Tech University campus there are many different materials used for seating. Many chairs where made out of hard plastic, which is obviously extremely durable however it is not the most comfortable option. It would be wise to select a material for seating that could be both durable and comfortable, considering the long amount of time a person would have to be seated in them. When observing and analyzing the materials used at the Texas Tech University for seating one might find the small stools in the human science building; they are designed out of a solid metal however they are topped with a cushion finished in red foe-leather. The foe-leather is a really great choice for this type of seating, the stool is placed in an open area of a largely trafficked area, and this stool will see a lot of wear and tear. The durability of the foe-leather is able to stand up to the great amount of use that a chair in a public area is going to experience throughout its lifetime.

For as well chosen as the foe-leather is for a public seating area equally as poorly chosen is the, what I can only assume, cotton and vinyl blend applied over a black plastic. However durable this plastic may be, the cotton and vinyl blend covering it gives of the appearance of a very old very worn piece of furniture. These chairs, like the stools in the human science building, experience a great amount of use throughout the day and however comfortable they are they clearly do not measure up to the durability requirement. Bits and pieces of the fabric have been worn off leaving black splotches showing through, this is obviously not the best choice for a heavily used piece of furniture. This material would work great for something in a residential setting or a private office, where it will not be sat on and rubbed over and over and over again in a day.

As seen by both the successful and unsuccessful choices made by designers for different items of furniture it is wildly apparent how great the importance is that a designer know the specific uses that materials will be good for and also even more importantly the uses that a fabric will not be good for.