I live in Minneapoils, MN and I just discovered this forum and am wondering how does one go about getting a career in furniture design? I have always been fascinated by furniture and would love to make a career in a related field. I have talked to some students of a furniture design program here in Minneapolis (MCAD) and they say it is mostly geared toward "fine art"studio furniture and turns out most graduates end up broke with lots of debt (its 100k for 4 years give or take) or the lucky ones find work in a furniture studio or maybe a design firm. Then after more googling, I came to realize that furniture design falls under Industrial Design. I found some bios on some furniture designers who are industrial designers as well. So I guess one could have a degree in industrial design and design furniture? I would ideally like to design studio furniture one day, custom made for clients one day and have my own business or have a furniture manufacturer buy my designs and reproduce them in mass, but ideally, I just would want to work for either a design firm or a furniture manufacturer like Herman Miller, etc. and then eventually become an independant designer.
So if I want to learn the process of making furniture, wood, metals, plastics, etc, should I major in Industrial design and specialize in furniture? or get a Furniture design degree? I discovered the University of Wisconsin Stout (there are no ID schools in MN, can you believe?) has a ID program and itâs a lot cheaper. Sorry but I canât spend 100 K for furniture design and end up jobless, but I might spend that kind of money forr a great ID program here in MN. I canât move for now, at least for the next few years (long story, relationship, a lot invested here) but Wiscosin is nearby and I can manage attending Stout. Anyone know about Stoutâs program? I read somewhere Stout was an average program but it has changed a lot since then. Any feedback from former alumni?
Here is the tricky part: Since I am not at all attracted to other âproduct designâ (with the exception of houseware, light fixtures, lamps, etc), should I still get into Industrial Design or not bother because I am limiting myself to Furniture? One guy told me that Industrial designers can market themselves according to their field of interest and push at finding work in that industry, is that true? I donât want to design alarm clocks and stuff like that, lol. One person I emailed told me that he majored in ID and took lots of furniture classes, which maybe I can do too.
Sorry for the long post, but any feedback will be appreciated. According to the replies I get, I might just change my mind about Industrial design altogether.
look up Kendall College of Art and Design. Itâs in Grand Rapids, MI. There are two programs that revolve around furniture, one is furniture design, the other is industrial design. their furniture design program is probably one of the most recruited in the US. if you got the chops and you go there, you will get hired. the industrial design program involves a lot of contract furniture design.
other than that, the furniture design program at Savannah College of Art and Design in GA is really strong in studio furniture design.
I donât know that much about UW-S. You need to ask these questions to the colleges you are thinking about, be specific, ask for specific answers. Itâs your money and you should expect clear answers about your potential future.
Furniture Design is one of the branches for Industrial Design. My guess is that if you study Industrial Design, youâll have more chances to get a job when you graduate. You can always try to move to furniture design later.
Yes, by all means proceed with getting a proper Industrial Design degree if you are interested in working on items other than furniture. Housewares, lighting, etc. Thatâs all covered with an industrial design degree. Bombay has housewares designers, so does Target and there are a host of companies down here in North Carolina (furniture capital of the world, supposedly) that had industrial designers practicing as furniture designers.
At the same time, if you are interested in a more technical approach to furniture design, then looking towards Hermann Miller, HumanScale, etc. would be wise. Thatâs basically product design, although itâs furniture. Make sense?
Iâve been in furniture design for about 1.5 years following 6 years in product. Product design is much, much better. Furniture seems too âfine artâ for me, and excessively conservative. Hence, Iâm going back to product design in a few months and canât wait.
If you graduate and are looking for a job in furniture design, move to High Point and youâll have one in no time at all.
Thanks for that reply. Yes, I understand now. I think what you mean by high art furniture, is that âfoo fooâ old fashioned furniture, not that trendy artsy modern stuff, right? Well i want to design Herman Miller style stuff⊠either for home or office, dont care, as long as its not grandma furniture LOL. So i guess that trendy stuff falls under Industrial Design. Got it.
Yes, i figured that stuff fell under ID. I am looking forward to getting into it soon. I am looking at Univ. of Wisconsin Stout. I am limited to my area and budget as its nearby. I have heard ok stuff about that school. HOpe it works out for me. I can always move later on down the road, but not now.
Whatâs holding you back from other colleges? I know youâve heard it over and over before, but the school you choose is incredibly important. Itâs amazing how just the name on your diploma can get your foot through the door at many firms and corps.
I completely understand wanting to remain close to home, but I believe Milwaukee has a great ID school. U of Ill is relatively close too, and purdueâs school of design is becoming quite a good program.
oh, I am sorry, i neglected to mention that I am not young in my 20âs like most of you, and am not single, so I canât just pick up and move. I decided on a career change and to pursue my dream. I know that the name is important and I used to believe that strongly but its also how talented you are as well. I am networking with one alumnus of Stout that got hired at a big name design firm in Minneapolis who designs for Herman Miller, so that convinced me they were a good school with good connections. And another thing, to be honest, at this stage in my life, i dont want to pay 100 K for an art degree. They are out of control, those private colleges. Stout has a good name. One of the big name designers for Herman Miller who won an award for a chair, went to Stout a long time ago and recently they revamped their curriculum. You can go to Pratt, and suck at what you do and not put your all and not get anywhere and you can go to a lesser known school and the same can happen, or vice versa. Trust me, if I had that much money to spend or was single, Iâd go to that kind of school. I still have to do more research on Stout, to make sure I am making the right decision or if not, I might just forget about this altogether.
Frankly, I donât know how anyone can end up paying 100 or more for an education. I must just be out of the loop, LOL. Stout is half that price.
Gotcha. Well, you have the right attitude about things. Youâre right in that the name of the school is only so important. It comes down to what you put into it, and that was clearly evident in my graduating class. I canât imagine doing that much work while being married though. More power to ya!!!
Hard to believe that Iâve been out of design school for nearly 7 years now, but in looking back, still think I made a good decision going to a state (Purdue) school. I think it was a good education and Iâve done well, and left without loans.
When youâre sick of the cold up in Wisconsin, move down here!
How much do you think youâre going to be worth?
Designers at Herman Miller make 100k in a year. Multiply that by 50 years of work (plus inflation) and 100k is cheap investment.
Stout is a good ID school, I recommend it. Itâs a liberal arts college, so be prepared to spend less time studying design than if you chose to go to a full-on design college. I had a pretty solid liberal arts education coming into college, so I took the design college route in Milwaukee at MIAD.
I f it is really your dream, and I mean reallllly your dream to become a furniture designer, and not the old fashioned stuff, maybee orient yourself a little bit towards europe.
Germany and Italy have the highest number of ( I think you call it studio design) furniture makers.
They sell world wide. These are companies like Vitra, Knoll, Flötotto, Kartell, Molteni, Zanotta, Cappellini and so on. There are hundreds.
A good place to check them out or to meet with them is the IMM in Cologne/ Germany every year. The show in Milan is also good.
And if you really want to do this still then, which I am sure you will, than consider learning at a european University. The big plus is apart from that they teach you exactly design like this, they are mostly for free.
But maybee you can also take a course online? I mean, if you have a diploma from a european art college it wouldnât look to bad, or would it?
Anyway, if you want to do it, do it. As many people said already this profession is very much about passion.
We just paid nearly $250k for my daughterâs fine art degree from MICA. Sheâs headed to NYC, my fingers are crossed sheâll get a museum / gallery job to supplement her passion pieces.
With that $$ I could have bought a nice condo to rent that would have brought IN around $2k a month net incomeâŠ
This is amazing! I just checked my email yesterday and apparently I am still subscribed to this post from 18 years ago?! Because of what you had posted regarding your daughter pursuing her BFA, I ended up getting a notification and I got a chuckle reading through my original post from 2007. Funny to look back and read through what concerns I had back then, and to see where I landed today. : )
Today I am a trained industrial designer, but designing for retail now - private label (Decorative Product/Kitchen). My interest in furniture design fizzled soon after enrolling at the Univ. of Wisconsin-Stout for ID. And after graduating, did a couple of stints in Kitchenware, then got my first full-time gig designing Kitchen Sinks/Fixtures for several years before landing in retail designing for the home/kitchen space. Itâs been a fun ride, and I am so grateful for Core77 (and itâs long term residents & moderators) for guiding me. I donât visit this forum as much anymore, but I may start now and then. Would be fun to do some catch up. Happy New Year to you and everyone else reading this!
PS: Crazy to realize that the cost of a design/art education is no longer in the 100K range, but even more! Yikes!!! Best wishes to your daughter in her career.
Like you, I hadnât jumped on here for awhile until a few months back as I was beginning my search for schools fitting for my sonâs interest in furniture design.
I was with Genrral Motors then Lego then Black and Decker so itâs been since my time at CCS ('92 to '95) that I was able to spend any time designing furniture. I think, though, my son has the same interest in wood/metal/plastics/rapid protoâing as me, as well as my love for working with my hands in a woodshop!
Iâm encouraging him to get a broad ID degree at a school that also has a strong furniture design track - and in Eurpose if possible! Weâll see how this rolls out and how much more itâll cost us along the way!
ID &/Furniture is very competitive no matter where you go. I DID go to MCAD back in the day(different teacher & double majoring was still a choice then) as I couldnât see going out of state at the time. I ended up supplementing w/2 yr engineering & Masters in ID later. Even in good companies, wood is just not profitable (pay-wise) for some reason compared to other areas/industries. I continue to design/build on the side & now design in research for non-profit as a career thatâs fulfilling. You couldnât pay me enough to go back to corporate.
Learn some coding, machining/CAM; pick up & learn about other materials pro/cons strengths/limitations &how to work/process them; & hardware. You wonât go wrong.