Just wondering about schools that might be good for furniture design.
Also, wether or not going into something like ID would be better.
RISD has a great furniture design program. They teach hardcore traditional craftsmanship and have great facilities.
ID would only be better if you would rather do ID, if your passion is in furniture, you will learn a lot more from a furniture specific program.
note that RISD’s furniture grad’s are intended to build/exibit in arts+crafts galleries not mass production. Do you enjoy fabrication as much/more than designing?
… good point.
Mass produced RTA and the like = ID
One off, high end, custom = Furniture design
at RISD anyway.
check out Kendall - the MFA might be flexible enough to cover the undergrad material.
Also look into Cranbrook. I believe their Masters has a focus in design which allows you to focus on furniture. I’ve met 2 graduates from the Masters program. Both successful with very intense knowledge of broader issues about design.
Rochester Institute of Technology-woodworking focused-Wendle Castle is artist in Residence, I think.
San Diego State. 3 year program. Strong teaching component to the ciriculum.
Minneapolis College of Art and Design. I am currently enrolled here. see my reply to another posting.
University of Wisconsin-Madison. Very small program. I think there is only one instructor for the department. wood focused.
Then of course there’s Savannah. Many posters on this site have had biased opinions about Savannah’s ID program in particular-so I won’t get in to that. I hear their program has become very big in terms of the number of students. They offer a bit more CAD/CAM in their program than others.
If you are on the fence between furniture and ID, dig deeper into Cranbrook. I made the mistake of not looking in their program when I applied to schools.
Also, if anything coming from Droog Design Collective excites you look into Eindhoven I think the Droog founders run the Masters Program there. Far more conceptual than any US schools.
I would have to say that I love both production and craftmenship. I would like to at some time find a nice medium where i would be designing and making on the side.
So maybe ID would be better. But I am not interesetd in fabricating cars, or utensils.
I only want to focus on furnature, and household living items.
Also yes I know of Einhoven… and may I say Oh my god its the perfect school! And they have a program called IM (interior/industrial/idenity design) This is all one major!!! And its headed by Droog design. This will be one school I apply to. But I am not sure I am up for the cost of relocation across seas. Got to have the moeny to do it.
RISD is another school I am appying to.
also
cranbrook
UArts
Yale
DAAP (i live in cincy)
I hope that I can find a major that suits my Fine arts (sculpture) background that is not to conceptually based, and more design based.
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There are a number of threads here concerning non-ID graduates going for a Masters, check them out.
In short, some people and schools think it’s a bad idea, so you should expand your application list to include more schools, it’d better your odds of getting accepted.
The discussion of: diversity in programs vs diluted skills is not easy to settle. My own experience is that the non-iD either: crash and burn quickly or exceed in passion and make up the difference with work-ethic.
I’m a bit confused as to whether you’re looking for your Master’s or your Undergrad, but either way, the best bang for your buck, since you’re an in-stater, would be to go to DAAP at UC. I’m rather biased of course, but I don’t think you can get a better state-school design education that what you’ll receive in Cincinnati.
I was an out-of-stater, but from what I recall the tuition was ridiculously low for in-state kids. Something like $1500 a year…
You won’t be able to focus solely on furniture design, but they generally have a chair studio, a lighting studio, some form of environmental stuff, and then there’s your thesis, which can pretty much be whatever you want…
Sorry for the run-on sentence.
A couple of the projects on my website are from those aforementioned studios…check 'em out if yer interested…
UC is an awesome school, but I would not recomend it for tabletop or furniture design.
I can’t believe I’m saying this because I rag on them pretty steady, but I would recomend RISD. The ID program has a lot of furniture classes to choose from, not just one or two, you can take classes in the furniture department, and they have a pretty good focus on tabletop design as well (slip cast ceramics, san cast aluminum tableware stuff ect)
This is one of the profs that focuses on table top…
http://www.risdworks.com/bio_detail.cfm?ID=5
UC is a great school, and I intend on applying.
Maybe if I get my schooling payed for I will got there for ID, and then after that go to RISD or another school for more of the Funiture design degree. Because i want to be very hands on with the building and designing, and mass production does appeal to me. It not like I am out there to just do this for my own pleasure. For god sake I got my BFA in sculpture, that was enough self endulging. Now I want to make a mark, or attempt it.
If I could only end up in a program that would help me learn everything I ever wanted, and not have to be limited to setting my Major, But on the same hand also be a school that when someone looks at my work and the schooling I came out of, then they will not even blink an eye.
I believe in the strength of my work, so that is not a question. It’s just that I want an amazing education that will allow me some freedom of conceptual thought with design, and also add the structure of learning new and important craft and structural issues.
and to think i am a Visual merchandiser right now and loving it. HAH
It’s the hands on design, and conceptual thought outside the box.
By the way thanks to everyone for replying, It helps.
sara
I can’t believe I’m saying this because I rag on them pretty steady, but I would recomend RISD. The ID program has a lot of furniture classes to choose from, not just one or two, you can take classes in the furniture department, and they have a pretty good focus on tabletop design as well (slip cast ceramics, san cast aluminum tableware stuff ect)
yo: I find it interesting that you don’t back risd’s id dept, but you would furniture.
i went to risd, too, but for photo, undergrad. all of the departments are so segrigated there mainly because people are working their asses off and living in their own studios. for example, i had asked on another thread how risd’s id dept. was because i literally walked into the building twice. and both times because my roomate, who majored in furniture, was having a final class show/crit. and they didn’t have a large enough space in their own department.
so my take on undergrad furniture is a little different than yo’s. i spent many a nap on the newest couch, chair or sometimes the floor in the furniture department in the wee hours of the morning. my roomate and all of her classmates were the first ug class to graduate in 99, so things have probably changed. their department/studios were in three different buildings and all were somewhat makeshift because they needed the room to fit everyone. with that said, the facilities were amazing, brand new tools, etc. there were some great pieces made there (although i didn’t see anyone working on tabletop design, but i could have missed it). And everyone seems pretty positive about their experience to this day from that class, but only a few of them still work (or ever worked) in furniture after they graduated. if i had to guess, maybe 1/4? some are even product designers now, some are even going back to school for different design degrees (textiles, graphic design, id, for example).
it was the same for photo, i was never trained to be a commercial photographer, i was trained how to see, how to take a concept and bring it to fruition, visually. finding a job, integrating into the workplace, mainstream, the program didn’t focus on this.
one thing that i will give risd credit for is electives and wintersession. you could take electives in other majors throughout the year with a little bit of leg work (hey, if brown students can do it, you can). wintersession, 6 weeks, its much much easier to take anything from stained glass to tapletop design. you are not as tied to your major as some schools.
so i guess you just really have to figure out what aspects are important to you because it seems like some of these programs that you are looking at are night and day. ex: uarts, uc, risd.
(and yeah, i’m in the same boat, too)
The furniture department is more skilled based, the ID department is very theory/academic based, at least as of the last time I was a visiting critic/lecturer there in, what was it, '02. It was the same way for the 4 years I attended from 94-98. I had to balance it out with internships (no help getting those BTW), an exchange semster at Cleveland Institute of Art, and by pleading for industry sponsered projects (few and far between). With all that I still had to struggle to get into ID because of the schools bad reputation with the product industry, while friend I had made while in Cleveland where getting actively recruited before they graduated. The percentage of classmates doing industrial design: I would put it at 10- 15%.
Furniture, when I was there, was pretty hardcore teach you how to make furniture. Also the ID department offered the best skill based classes around furniture and tabletop design. (I wasn’t really into those so I was kind of SOL… why did i go there in the first place? Anyway I’m paying for it now)
The furniture department is more skilled based, the ID department is very theory/academic based, at least as of the last time I was a visiting critic/lecturer there in, what was it, '02. It was the same way for the 4 years I attended from 94-98. I had to balance it out with internships (no help getting those BTW), an exchange semster at Cleveland Institute of Art, and by pleading for industry sponsered projects (few and far between). With all that I still had to struggle to get into ID because of the schools bad reputation with the product industry, while friend I had made while in Cleveland where getting actively recruited before they graduated. The percentage of classmates doing industrial design: I would put it at 10- 15%.
Furniture, when I was there, was pretty hardcore teach you how to make furniture. Also the ID department offered the best skill based classes around furniture and tabletop design. (I wasn’t really into those so I was kind of SOL… why did i go there in the first place? Anyway I’m paying for it now)
i think parsons school of design is pretty good choice for you. the major they have is called product design, which allows you to do all kinds of things, furniture included.
If you want to be a furniture designer, get your degree in Architecture from a good school. I could list them, but I’m sure there are list at Archinect.com