CFDA Newsletter

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Item 1: There is a call for entries for the Deceptive Design Show.
Please go to http://deceptive-design.com for more details.

Item 2: Wednesday, April 30 at 6:30 p.m.
Deceptive Design Furniture Exhibition - Launch Party

We are hosting our first-ever juried furniture exhibition with the Chicago Chapter of the Industrial Design Society of America, to be held Oct 08 to May09 at the Chicago Cultural Center! Interested in partnering with a IDSA member to create a winning entry? Want to discuss sponsorship opportunities for the show? Meet and greet IDSA and CFDA members at the launch party, and check out the newly launched site for more information. Jefferson Tap, 325 N. Jefferson St, Chicago. FREE

Item 3 : EXHIBITION: April 24, 2008, 6:30-9:30pm

Now in its fourth year, MODERN + DESIGN + FUNCTION is a juried exhibition to uncover and promote innovative modern furniture by emerging designers in the Chicago area. Organized by DWR Chicago 1574 N. Kingsbury and juried by local creative professionals in the design, architecture and art worlds, M+D+F provides an opportunity for peer, public and professional recognition for up-and-coming designers and firms. More info.

Greetings from (and congratulations) to Horigan Urban Forest Products Customers!
Attached is a link for our March news letter. http://www.horiganufp.com/documents/Marchnewsletter.pdf

We have 8/4 black walnut, 8/4 oak and 8/4 & 6/4 ash out of the kiln.

We were in the news again (we love it) Check out the link to the New York Times Thursday February 28th, House and Home section.

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/02/28/garden/0228-CURRENTS_3.html

If you have any problems downloading these links, please let us know. Thank you and we hope to see you soon.

Erika and Bruce Horigan
Horigan Urban Forest Products, Inc.
www.horiganufp.com

ANNOUNCEMENT - from JUDITH DIASSELLISS (webmaster)

If there are ANY EVENTS at all that anyone would like to have posted, please send me an e-mail at any time and I can update the calendar for you!

my e-mail is jd@graphicnomads.com

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Program Schedules:

April 8- The Design of Large Tables. Chris Brandel will lead a forum on the issues pertaining to the design of large tables. Dolly Spragins, Llyod Natof, Bill First and John Kriegshauser will join in to share their own insights into the mysteries of large table design. Come and share your own experiences too.

May 13- Gothic Architecture, A Love of Geometry and Proportions. Hal Link will share his enthusiasm for gothic architecture and show how it has influenced his furniture design. Hal is a relatively new member. From what I've seen of his work he is coming from a unique place. Come get acquainted with both Hal and his muse

Not yet scheduled- The Craft Schools. Let's hear about what goes on at the craft schools that have established themselves around the country from people who've been there. We're talking about Andersen Ranch (Barry Newstat?), Penland (Tim Cozzens), Marc Adams (Still need someone) and the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship (Tor Faegre). Can anyone think of a school we should add to this list?

Future Months:
The following programs are in the pipeline but are still under development.
Look for specifics in the future newsletters.
- The Design of Built in Cabinet
- Presenting Your Designs to Customers

September 6 - Reproduction Furniture. John Gush will show examples of English and South African furniture that he has very exactingly reproduced. His shop is modestly equipped, so John relies on skill and ingenuity to deliver the spectacular craftsmanship evident in his pieces. John's work has been featured on the back cover of Fine Woodworking Magazine. Don't miss this one!

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CFDA Meeting Report:

CFDA Minutes - March 11, 2008

TPer Chris we've eclipsed 16,000 visitors on the CFDA website. Our exposure in the world is certainly looking up. And our active enrollment now includes 57 members. There were 43 entries for the Rising From Ashes show, including many very strong pieces. This meant that multiple entries from individual designers needed to be cut down to a single entry so that more individuals could show. As it is, we're going to be space challenged at a few of the venues due to the number of pieces available. Look for more info TBA about what decisions will be made for some of the smaller venues, such as Design Within Reach or Ryerson Woods.

And related to the Rising From Ashes show, a designer named Sandy Smith-Tankin, of Design Interaction is interested in the show as it relates to sustainability. She is a LEED-certified designer and represents green designers and builders. Look to http://www.designinteraction.biz for more information.

Chris suggested that we place the timelines for the Rising From Ashes show onto the Yahoo Groups list.

As it stands we'll be showing in the western and northwest suburbs as well as within Chicago's city center. South and Southwest venues are being looked at. Right now the Illinois State Museum, in Lockport, is a strong contender. A lot of questions need answers, but so far it could be a strong venue for 3-5 months' duration and could become available as early as Q4 of 2009. Stay tuned for further details.

And reports are that a new gallery space has opened up at O'Hare airport, which will bear more investigating. The same holds for the Peggy Notebaert NatureMuseum.

Per John, we'll have three four-sided kiosks made for the Ashes show at the Arboretum, and which will travel with us. There will be a video loop in one of the panels which will demonstrate the trees coming down and Bruce Horigan doing his thing at the mill and the kiln.

Courtesy of the Village of Wilmette, we'll have a cross-section of an infected ash log for our display. It will show the larvae galleries in the cambium layer and will graphically demonstrate that the wood within is untouched and still viable. In order to comply with Dep't of Ag requirements the log will be professionally fumigated to kill any live insects still remaining in the wood.

The Deceptive Furniture and Furnishings show will have a Call For Entries in the coming weeks. Look to the Yahoo Groups for more information on this, as well as some emails which will be sent out.

And as a sidebar, Bruce and Erika Horigan recently received some well-deserved press in the New York Times newspaper. You can see a slideshow and read more at: \ http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/02/28/garden/0228-CURRENTS_3.html

The business meeting concluded at 7:15.

Program:

In this program several designers shared pages or images of the sorts of things that spark their imagination when on the hunt for a new design.

Maxine Snyder shared some images that inspire her. They included an eclectic bundle of drawers that, together, stand as a single piece. She shared some paintings, photographs of Old-World European pieces in situ in their old-world interiors and some chests and stacked containers. They demonstrated a pattern and a rhythm to the pieces. Her inspiration pieces generally showed a strong set of silhouettes or outlines and brought together antique forms with modern minimalization.

John Kriegshauser discussed his process and shared some of his resources. He related that his first question for himself is about the situation or circumstance creating the need for the piece of furniture. He then complies a set of lists for himself to narrow down his thought process. This includes questions such as: Where will the piece go? What does the piece need to relate to? Does it need to be outrageous or serve as a supporting player in the room? What historical period will inform the design?

John also tends to favor technical books on wood and wood building to help with some of his decisions. And he also favors volumes such as "Designing Furniture", by Seth Stern or "Design Synectics", by Nicholas Roukes and went into details about why each book carries value for him.

Lisa Elkins looks at the concept of the piece within the room, and examines the goals that the piece needs to achieve within that space. To this end, she shared with us her process for the piece that she's entered for the Rising From Ashes show. Lisa begins with sketches. A LOT of sketches, which she segues into 3-D computer modeling after her sketches start gelling. From there she evolves the design into CAD drawings which can be built from.

Dolly Spragins benefits from a performing arts background. She was a professional opera singer for well over a decade. As such she carries with her some creativity-sparking techniques that are grounded in performance art. She mused that often she'll design a piece and then worry about how to actually fabricate it later. But like Lisa, John and Maxine, she goes through a large number of sketches. In fact this was our single most common design technique for the evening. We all seem to carry around with us sketchbooks that we can use, abuse and refer to in the future to mine them for ideas.

Dolly also does a fair amount of online research and relates to places like Google Images to get finer things like proportions or scale for a piece she's working on. She says that it's not uncommon for her to print out some of these images and trace elements of them to preservethe relationships that she's trying to achieve. And for her, it's when the sketch matches the completed piece that provides the charge that keeps her going.

Tor Faegre related how time spent at the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship, near Rockport, Maine, ultimately showed him a way of deconstructing the method for performing build duties. It made him reassess how the process for building can work, and that, in turn, madehim reassess designs and their individual requirements.

Chris Brandel shared how his fine arts and sculpture background serves him in his role in industrial design. Instead of relying on individual talent to create items that he's designed he has to consider the available tooling and machinery owned by his company. Knowing what this inventory includes gives him the overall parameters for what end products can be fabricated. His challenge often becomes figuring out how to generate new items using the same tooling as familiar products. But it's the eureka moments that keep him going.

The discussion wound down with a round-table conversation. We all sketch a lot, it seems. And we all seem to mine our old sketches. And it's when there's a disconnect between the age of the sketch and the time we mine it that we become free to reinterpret our own sketches,leading to new, unforeseen possibilities. Lastly, we all recognized the need to keep a playful attitude with the process. A light heart and a gentle spirit make for good design.