Graduate Interior Design Students

[Earl Kelly]

What do you say to a small class(14) of Graduate Interior design Students?

Tommorrow I'm speaking with a class at FSU. The Professor contacted me a while back and asked if I would come and speak with them from the Craftsperson's view about design and real world experience. I'm taking a couple of my "Leaf" tables and a new design almost finished to show how MY design process works.

Has anyone, any nuggets of brilliance they would like to share that may enlighten the Designers as well myself? Any burning questions that have eluded you thus far? Remember these may be our future clients.

I will try to post a followup. Wish me luck.

Earl

[Wes Bischel]

Earl,
What a great opportunity for you and for the students! Kudos to the Professor. I have a somewhat unique perspective, as a Designer working with Interior Designers, Architects and contractors. A lot of my job was simply facilitating communication to get jobs done.
A big issue especially for young Designers (and older established Designers) is they tend to "tell" or "dictate" to people what is going to happen rather than "discuss" the plan. In other words, they will be working with people - not having Craftspeople work for them. BIG difference in attitude that everyone can sense.
Asking for input from the Craftspeople charged with making the design a reality is not a position of weakness, but is a sign of confidence.
The further upstream in the process the discussions begin, the better. The Designer establishes the intent/direction of the design, but how it is implemented needs to be agreed upon by all. Remind the students that there is a huge reservoir of valuable information stored in the experiences of the people they are going to work with.

Just my thoughts, good luck!
Wes

[Earl Kelly]

Very good points, Wes.

Communication especially helps when problems arise. Never seen any job where there wasn't some kind of problem. A good Designer will deal with the problems and hopefully come up with a solution.

Earl

[Jim Becker]

One of my observations is that sometimes folks forget the limitations or challenges that materials present relative to the design they are expected to participate in. Understanding material properties, I believe, is truly important to "good design". It's not just about how something looks!

[Earl Kelly]

Jim,

That's one of my talking points. I know "Looking good" gets in the way of a strong structural design sometimes. If I can leave them with anything concrete, maybe it's a little understanding about wood and it's limitations.

Earl

[Jim Becker]

Earl, one of the things I love about Mark Singer's work (both his architecture and his furniture) is that he is a master at choosing the "right" materials, both for effect and for appropriateness for the job. George Nakashima was a master at taking the material and letting it tell him what to do with it.

And this is also where I'd unfortunately have to say that Frank Lloyd Wright didn't impress me. Visually, his designs are often wonderful, but his choice of materials often made for structural compromise that later came back to bite. Fallingwater is a good example, IMHO. "Looking good" definitely got in the way of good engineering.