Our cohort's final project as RISD Furniture Design sophomores was the group project. Some of us were excited, but more of us were terrified at the prospect of working with others. All semester we had been attentively huddled behind individual benches squeaking, drilling, sawing, measuring, oiling, and eating. Our design languages were as far apart (and comprehensibly unique) as the planets! A demonstration was given on how to make brushes, and were thus sent to design a brush of our own design: twenty five times.
A simple objective did not mean an easygoing task. Numerous prototype models, paper drafts, sketches, and digital renderings would fill our debates with a range of design rhetoric to either affirm or reject. It took a over a week to hammer down a design the group could all agree on. The final design was a proposal to bring beauty into heavy duty.
The next objective was securing material, with our goal to limit production cost as much as possible. Discounted walnut, leftover cherry from prior projects, and departmentally-free veneer allowed us to produce twenty-five