If my folio shows mainly furniture, will I still be able to try out for product design jobs?
Would you suggest I design something more technical… for example What?
Design is a problem solving process which transcends the products you work on. If you’re just showing final results rather than how you got to those results with some kind of process, you’re not doing enough and people will only think of you as a furniture designer.
NYDG is right about just showing “final results.”
And as far what to design; you don’t have to ‘design’ anything really (although it’s more fun).
During my second year at school, at the suggestion of my instructor, I started sketching disassembled products. I’d find an old hair-dryer, or a drill, and take it apart, sketch all the components individually, and then do an ‘assembly’ sketch. I’d do a whole sheet of views on say the switch, and then do another on another component. I didn’t stop with just an exterior view, I’d tear the switch apart and then sketch all of it’s parts.
It helped alot; it improved my sketching, and gave me a better understanding of materials and manufacturing techniques.
actually furniture can be quite technical. If you’re designing a furniture system, or if it addresses a particular task.
i agree with all of the above comments. Furniture, However is rarely seen as being part of product design. It is either seen as very crafty, or it is seen as high design, but many product firms do it. I believe in the end it has to do with your presentation. If you show a piece of furniture that was conceived with a particular task in mind, and you show the process of determining materials, finish, form, and you can back everything up then i dont see why furniture cant be used as the focal point of a portfolio.
But like i said before, i agree with all of the other posts so some diversity would be nice.
I dissagree with the first half of your post. Commercial/contract furnishings is all about problem solving and product design rather than craft or high design as you put it. How do you think the Aeron chair or Action Office office system came about at Herman Miller? You are making generalizations about the furniture market as a whole by only looking at the home furnishings/decorative side.