Hi, I am proud furniture maker considering about getting a degree and yet do I really need one to be accept through out the world,
I have been an apperentice for a well know chair maker for 4 years now, have few clients on my lists but, mostly working with wood.
I can work with any materials but, it seems still in regular American households prefer traditional type like wood craft furniture.
Well, has anyone made big internationally without a degree?
yah jackass… you need a degree more than anything,
how do you expect to eat?
get rich or die trying,
my best advice to you is be , part drug dealer and part designer,… that way you can subsidize the enormouse retarded expense of attempting to become a designer.
that way you can always have something to fall back on, in this, go f%uck yourself world.
ps. to all the jack-ass smug-bitch lovers of the world -
albert frenkenstine and abraham nixion should get together and go bowling some time.
enjoy! 
If you want to get hired by a firm, it may help get you noticed but portfolio and skills are the most important. Once you’ve been out working for a while, your school doesn’t mean much after that in terms of your abilities, etc. 2 yrs of real design work trumps 4 of school in terms of pure skills and abilities.
If you’re doing things on your own, I dont’ think it matters as much. I’ve never looked to see where any of the steelcase guys went to school before buying one of their chairs, etc…
Thanks, skinny…
Yeah, it’s either me going back to school for architecture, or I was thinking about attending part time at Art Center night classes to find out what is the newest trends from youngsters… Also, I am thinking about getting into mass productions and see how this industry works. I really dont want to go back school just for a degree in Furniture Design. Architecture seems more worth the time and experience.
i made it through 3 years of architecture school before i moved to industrial design. architecture is really much more technically involved, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, mut they are also very structured academically (no pun intended).
check it out, though, it couldn’t hurt. withyour current level of experience, you would stand a pretty good chance of landing a job in one of the residential furniture corporations (like the expansive selections out here in the carolinas.).
i think if you have the riffs and chops to really catch someone’s eye, you could make it. good luck! 
No offense, but Architects are the worst furniture designers I have ever encountered. Just because they can design buildings, they think they can do anything. Simply not true.
Regarding your post in the other thread, you SHOULD know what people want when you design something - that is the whole point.
ID is not so much about making beautiful objects as it is about problem solving (at least at RIT). That is a more important skill to have when designing furniture (or any other product for that matter).
Check out some classes at Art Center with Chris Aykanian
He’ll set you on the right track about art/architecture and furniture.
He’s a brilliant mind and an architect.
This is out of control … if anyone is an asshole its you “o_man” What a ignorant jerk. There are plenty of people out there that design and do not have degree’s and do quite well of it. So take your foot back outta your mouth and get on with your own sorry life.
well marc newson studied jewlerry making at college…and went on to become…
as far a architects designing bad furniture…this may be true in nydesignguys opinion, but it can’t be denied that a number of iconic furniture pieces have been designed by architects.
from my experience as a funiture designer, it seems if you are a practicing architect, then furniture manufacturers will take you more seriously, than a humble furniture designer. its a sad reality…however if you truly have talent, and a great portfolio then nothing can stop you.
but without a degree on your CV, will you get the oppotunity to show your portfolio???
in actual fact you don’t need to have a degree to be an architect (or a building designer as they call themselves)
(sorry about spelling)
To Guest,
Yeah, I have attended art center quiet a while ago due recommendation from my master furniture maker. Although, I had a good time, the enviromental design program seemed too vague trying to cover all the aspects of designs from Architecture to interior to landscape, pretty intense but what about the result? All you’ll be getting is a bachelor of arts and engineering… plus, engineering part is questionable,
BTW one of my great influetial teacher was Armen Gabahragian who teaches at Night classes, he opened the design skills and understandings on the left side of my brain. I plan to take his classes againg this coming fall.
This question pops up regularly - and often simultaneously - on several Core groups. You should check the other forums for a more complete picture.
Degree or not, it’s a question of who you ask and how they fared over the years; obviously, each individual’s experience has been different. It also depends on how “corporate” a type you are and how easily you deal with the standard fare of office politics b.s. If you want to be taken seriously by a majority of regular design employers, in my experience you do need a design degreee, not an architecture one (which, with today’s sad state of homes “designed” by general contractors, won’t get you far anyway).
If by “making it” you are referring to becoming an individual design success story (selling your creativity to the end user yourself), you likely need some business training and to associate yourself with like-minded people in complementing disciplines and give it all you’ve got. To me, this is the road more designers should be taking anyway, given the savage competition for the relatively few worthwhile design jobs around.
What’s more, as a furniture maker you are in a particularly insecure product niche, with all the stuff the Chinese are dumping in America and furniture factories closing in high numbers.
I wouldn’t recommend anyone go into the high-end furniture market either, except as a hobby, but to make a living you need to be able to tackle a much wider pool of potential buyers.
Iconic does not equate to good. Pretty does not equate to well designed.
Were they comfortable to use? Isn’t that the whole point of furniture?
nydesignguy
NO
So, if comfort is not what furniture design is about, what is it about?
I’ll argue that furniture that is not useable is useless (to sit on, or to store things in, etc.).
Making a statement is more art than design.
I totally agree with u on that but, at the same token some furnitures are more meant for vanity and show off, like the ones that are very uncomfortable yet makes feel some what important and luxurious when used,
For example like “Wassilly Chair” by Marcel Breuer
Remind me to never buy anything you design then.
to educate, stimulate, use and store your derriere
if you don’t want to buy my furniture nydesignguy, you don’t have to
i only want people who like what i do to own what i do
if you don’t want to be part of the party
that’s okay by me
nice professional type discussion,
but what 's it going to do ?
I think there are two types:
communist and entraprenure
both are politically chained
one from within the other is surrounded by skeptics.
power of influence is the vehicle for ideas.
“ganster rap” had enough influence to distroy mc hammers record sales
when he fabricated a hard image.
the consumers punished him for being out of touch
corporate senses produce culture fabrications in the same way.
large chunks of cash make it do-able.
can you blame the sharehoders, ceo, sales, design, or the buerocracy effect of an over communicated system?
why is this buisness having so much difficulty defining proper communication techniques?
especially when thats how clients are told to percieve design value.
its one thing to educate a client, but what happens when design shows up in its range of varieties from within the process which then in turn identifies how intent and quality degrades with the mis-use of heirarchial tactical tequniques. i.e. : tv shows on discovery channel
in the end result, after the shareholders have sold the stock and the performance is where the value sits how can you say where the responseability reflects light.
dose it matter as a designer?
the deisign value is about what it is, what it is supposed to be
what effect it has, the percieved value vs. its true performance and the absolute value of that performance.
if, it depends what your position is, then how and where is it ethicall to use competiton as a scenario for success.
I’m Rick James bitch!