Jennifer spent two years studying fine woodworking with James Krenov at the College of the Redwoods before earning her MFA in woodworking and furniture design at San Diego State University with Wendy Maruyama. Currently, Jennifer divides her time between teaching design and woodworking classes and building speculative and commission pieces of furniture. Her furniture has been exhibited nationally and internationally and has been featured in a variety of publications, including Interior Design, American Craft, and Woodwork Magazine.
Dieter grew up in Washington State and was interested in design from an early age. He currently is pursuing a degree in industrial design at Western Washington University. Through his studies, Dieter has developed a passion for working and communicating with others to create innovative design solutions that change the way we interact with the world.
Sascha is a cabinetmaker with 13 years of experience in commercial casework and store fixtures. He is owner of Boulder Mills, Inc., a custom furniture, cabinetry, and millwork shop in Colorado.
Katherine has a background in film, writing, and design. She grew up in Switzerland, on the shores of Lake Geneva. Her broad range of studies has included visual arts at the College Voltaire in Geneva, a BA in creative writing from Brown University, and a variety of classes at the Rhode Island School of Design and the DAVI film school in Switzerland. She worked for several years for Woody Allen in New York before retiring from the film business to look after her two sons. When her five-year-old asked her to build a house, she designed one that folded away for storage: a pop-up house. Katherine has also designed and made furniture, light fixtures, clothing, cosmetics, and a sound studio for her husband, John Davis, a film music composer and mixer. She is currently working on a manual, “Make Anything,” a handbook for saving money, living green, and having fun with trash.
Dan has a background in the construction supply trade and currently is a principal in Agristrand Biocomposites, a soy board manufacturing company. He has been married for 30 years to his wife, Helen, and enjoys spending time with family and friends at his lake home and volunteering his time and meager woodworking talents with his church and Habitat for Humanity. Dan will always be looking for new and innovative ways to utilize “scrap,” of which he has a seemingly endless supply.
Beth is an industrial designer living in Seattle, Washington. After enjoying a delightful childhood in rural southern Idaho, Beth moved westward and eventually earned a BA in philosophy from Whitman College in Walla Walla as well as a BS in industrial design from Western Washington University in Bellingham. When she isn’t scheming up new furniture concepts and designs, she can be found zooming around the streets of Seattle on her vintage green Vespa.
Henry was born in Orange County, California, in 1956, at the peak of the age of modern design. Having watched him build freeways out of wooden blocks, Henry’s parents gave him a Euclidean puzzle toy, which stretched his mind in the direction that ultimately inspired his contribution for this book. An industrial designer by training, Henry’s early professional experience includes full-time work in factories, creating everything from furniture to electric guitars. He designs products based largely on the experience people will have using them, and their sustainable existence. He holds a BFA in industrial design from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and works and resides in the San Francisco Bay area.
Mark lives with his wife and daughter in Boulder, Colorado. He has worked as a carpenter for over 20 years, specializing in finish carpentry and custom built-ins.
Fawn is a product designer and maker by trade. Her business, FawnRay Designs, aims to equip people with clever, hand-crafted home wares and accessories. Fawn’s designs are influenced by her experiences of growing up in the secluded woods of western New York State, studying furniture design in Denmark, and sustainable product design. The Eameses, along with Arne Jacobson and Alvar Aalto, sparked her passion for plywood as an economical, honest, and friendly material that is accessible to nearly everyone. Fawn would like to thank her mom and Brady Doyle for always supporting her design endeavors.
Shawn holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan with a concentration in graphic and product design and is currently working toward a master’s in interior architecture at Lawrence Technological University. From a young age, Shawn was surrounded by entrepreneurs: her grandfather, William Calvin, was a master wood craftsman, and her mother developed a children’s play mat called “Canvas City” for toy cars. Shawn has designed many products with the overall goal of accessibility. She feels that every product should showcase simple elements and encourage an ease for use, as well as sustainability. In an effort toward sustainable practice, she tries to incorporate the use of reclaimed and repurposed materials.
Spike is an editor, author, carpenter, and woodworker who has been immersed in the world of wood and woodworking for over 30 years. He is the former executive editor of Family Handyman magazine and the author of A Splintered History of Wood (HarperCollins), Ridiculously Simple Furniture Projects (Linden), and Woodworking FAQ (Storey). He currently is the projects editor for FreshHome magazine and serves on the advisory board for Men’s Health magazine. Prior to becoming an editor, Spike worked as a carpenter for 15 years and ran his own construction and remodeling company. He and his wife, Kat, have five adult children and live in historic Stillwater, Minnesota.
Born and raised in Dallas, Texas, Adele has worked with MESA Design Group in the Urban Design/Planning Studio and with morrisonseifertmurphy, working for interior designers and architects on hospitality design projects. She holds a bachelor’s degree in architecture from the University of Texas at Arlington and is currently attending the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) for a master’s degree in architecture, with an emphasis on interior architecture. She lives in Chicago with her husband, James, and their dog, Max. Adele would like to thank Billy Batac for his wonderful photographs of Max’s house.
Stephen claims to be far from a professional carpenter and therefore the ideal for this book, because he’s living proof that you can do this, too! On weekdays, Steven works in an office and wears a suit, but in his spare time he likes to design and build a wide variety of things, of which the Children’s Chair is just one example. You can see more of his projects at the website below. Drop him a line if you made the chair yourself or if you have any questions.
Steffanie is a studio furniture maker and educator living in San Diego, California. Her passion for making objects stems from a desire to fuse function and splendor with everyday items.
Brian’s work and experience range from architecture, design/build, and model building to exhibit engineering and furniture. He earned his five-year professional BA in architecture in 1999 at the University of Detroit Mercy, and in 2011 he received his MFA in product/furniture design from Cranbrook Academy of Art.
Jim is an architect, a certified Montessori teacher, and a LEED Accredited Professional. Most of his design activities are directed by his interest in children, learning, and the effects of the built environment on learning. In addition to publishing numerous articles and presenting at national and international conferences, Jim has received national recognition for his designs for learning environments. Some of his most rewarding experiences have been designing and building for his own children.
Gavin is an industrial design student at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). He entered RISD with a fine arts portfolio but was drawn to ID because it offers a practical and exciting blend of hands-on fabrication skills, problem solving, and creative design thinking. He enjoys woodworking and furniture making as hobbies but would like to focus his future work on attacking social and environmental problems with creative design ideas. Outside the design world, Gavin enjoys playing tennis and basketball and watching movies.
Brian is an industrial designer, graphic designer, and photographer who creates, among other things, products for the housewares, organization, décor, and gift industries. In his spare time, Brian focuses on his personal design business, EVRT Studio, through which he has designed several pieces of wall art for CB2, as well as his own line of wall art (available through various online retailers). He hopes to develop his own product line under the EVRT Studio brand name, turning it into a full-time career.
Steve is a practicing architect and adjunct professor in Portland, Oregon. In addition to being the founder and principal architect of artifekt architecture + interiors, Steve runs a personal “idea mill,” designing and producing sustainable custom furniture, which has now become a functioning division called artifekt BUILDS. Steve is joined by Joseph Bashaw, a Portland-based architectural designer and cofounder of artifekt BUILDS, who specializes in high-end residential projects and custom furniture design. Together they approach all design with human interaction in mind: He believes that touch is paramount in the engaging of architecture, and furniture is the most immediate channel to touch our built environments.
Larry recalls that his first major woodworking project was a coffin with a glass window in the lid, which he built in his late teens when he was working as a monster-makeup artist. His coffin and Count Dracula outfit won a state contest. Larry spent three years in Germany with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers before moving with his German wife to Colorado. There the couple has bought and remodeled a number of homes. A lifelong innovator, Larry has always leaned toward fun, custom, handson work (just like you).
Cezary (MFA, MDes) is an associate professor of industrial design and currently resides in Alberta, Canada. He is interested in the application of computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) and their capabilities in enhancing and altering the design process for the modern designer. Entwining technological and traditional methodologies throughout the design process, he emphasizes the designer’s central role from sketch to prototype. Using the most innovative computer programs and technology available, Cezary aims to seamlessly integrate hardware and software components of human-computer interaction systems.
Rachel feels that much of her work reflects her nostalgia for growing up in North Carolina and her strong attachment to the exploration of nature. She strives for a visually minimal and dynamic form, at once simple in construction and lines, yet moving the eye and challenging the state of balance without breaking. The consideration of product life cycles and respect for the systematic and delicate flow of the natural world are extremely influential in her work. Rachel currently studies industrial design at the California College of the Arts (CCA) in San Francisco and previously spent three years as an architecture major at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo.
Brian is an artist and educator who lives and works in Eugene, Oregon. Central to his work is the use of atypical processes and storytelling strategies to excavate and chronicle stories that may have fallen on deaf ears, are socially relevant, and have the ability to be personal on a variety of levels. He holds bachelor’s degrees in art education and studio art from Humboldt State University and an MFA from NYSCC at Alfred University. Brian currently is an assistant professor of art at the University of Oregon.
Barnaby is principal of Barnaby Gunning Architects, a multidisciplinary practice combining architecture, product design, and 3D-related programming and scripting. He trained under Peter Cook at the Bartlett School of Architecture and has worked in the offices of Renzo Piano, Norman Foster, Atelier One, and Ron Arad. Barnaby’s furniture designs have twice been finalists in the Architects’ Journal “Something to Sit On” competition and have been shortlisted in designboom’s premio vico magistretti competition.
Kristin graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology in May 2012 with a major in industrial design and a minor in Spanish. She is interested in furniture and product design. In her free time, Kristin enjoys making pottery and stained glass. kristin.j.hare@gmail.com
Born in South Wales, UK, Carl studied furniture design at Loughborough University. During that time, he sold the rights to a furniture range he created to NEXT PLC. After traveling to South Africa to work with local artists and teach at schools across township areas, he worked at MJH Architects in Wales before being accepted into the master’s program at Design Academy Eindhoven, in 2008. As a designer, Carl is passionate about creating better human-based solutions while constantly striving to question the reason for objects and their impact on daily lives.
Chris currently is an industrial design student at the University of Kansas. He describes his approach to design as user-centered–always keeping the end user in mind. He also strives to include different materials in his designs to enhance the overall design itself.
Born in 1986, Philipp grew up in southern Germany. He earned a bachelor’s degree in transportation interior design from Reutlingen University, during which he completed internships at Opel (GM) and John Deere, designing parts for vehicle interiors. He is currently working toward a master of arts in TID and hopes to work as a professional designer with a car company. He could also imagine working for a furniture designer for a time. Philipp loves to work with wood and is fascinated by the fact that you can give it almost any shape if you use the right technique for the right wood. He can be reached by e-mail.
Brian is a master’s graduate from the University of Detroit Mercy and currently is working toward licensure in architecture. In his free time, he enjoys designing and constructing furniture.
Will is a designer and writer from Towson, Maryland. He received a degree in architecture from Virginia Tech and completed the postgraduate outreach program at the Rural Studio in Hale County, Alabama. You can see his work and contact him for custom commissions at his website.
Chad Kelly lives in Austin, Texas, and owns Baldmanmod Design. He has been creating modern furniture, lighting, and other woody decor for several years, specializing in plywood and bentwood laminations. For more information and pictures of additional work, visit his website (below) or contact Chad at baldmanmod@gmail.com. Chad Kelly is also bald.
Sean is a native Northwesterner living and designing in Portland, Oregon. As a child, he loved to draw spaceships and creatures. That love led to studying art and architecture as an adult before he finally found a happy medium: product design. In 2011, Sean received a BFA in product design from the University of Oregon. His furniture designs are playful in use and function, with an emphasis in creating unique interactions between user and object. He draws inspiration from the ever-changing relationships between people and their environments, and his designs all have a similar focus on community, using objects to inspire social interactions between users.
Jin originally studied as a painter in her native Korea, where she won numerous awards for her work and was a professor of painting at the Chung-Nam National University. In 2007, Jin came to America to further develop her artistic vision by studying industrial design. She currently works as a furniture designer and lives in Seattle.
Paolo currently is a student at the Institute of Design at the Illinois Institute of Technology, where he is pursuing master of design and MBA degrees. He has spent many years as an industrial designer in Toronto, Ontario, working for a number of product and manufacturing firms. Paolo has a passion for the crafts of fine wood and metalwork but now focuses his attention toward experiential and strategic design.
Originally from Richmond, Virginia, Maya is a graphic designer currently living and working in New York City. She received her BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University and her MFA from the School of Visual Arts. Her goal is to consistently produce meaningful and memorable work no matter what medium. She is also passionate about photography, piano, ping-pong, and kicking back with her beloved Westie, Jemie.
Originally from the San Francisco Bay area, Alexis moved to New York City at age 17. She received her bachelor’s degree in marketing from NYU and worked in the fashion industry for a number of years before pursuing her master’s degree in industrial design at Pratt Institute. She is passionate about making, building, and learning new types of craft.
Ryan is an industrial designer living in Seattle, Washington. His work focuses on truly understanding the user’s needs and the language of form. In addition to design, Ryan focuses on his photography and builds cameras to suit his needs.
John has a BA in studio arts from the State University of New York in Fredonia and an MFA in graphic design from the Rochester Institute of Technology. He teaches graphic design, design theory, and typography at Virginia Commonwealth University’s department of graphic design. Professor Malinoski maintains a steady practice catering to the needs of nonprofits and benevolent businesses and currently teaches in his school’s Design Center, an honors studio that works for nonprofit and community organizations. John’s design work includes graphic design, typography, exhibition design, furniture, hand puppets, constructions, photographs, poetry, and recontextualized articles of clothing.
Holly’s Donut Table plan was a collaborative effort with Kerry Mann Sr., an experienced hobby builder who enjoys carpentry and constructing anything from a small piece of furniture to a bed or even a garage. Holly’s experience with carpentry is limited, but she enjoys do-it-yourself projects, crafts, sewing, and photography. She works as a writer, web designer, and marketer. Her latest website (below) is geared toward anyone who enjoys making their own items.
Patrick hails from Denver, Colorado, and studies architecture and product design at the University of Oregon, in Eugene. He has always been fascinated by the harmonious relationship between these two fields of design and is really excited to be able to experiment with that relationship in a place so enamored with sustainable practices and ideas.
Bryce is a student at Western Washington University, studying industrial design with a minor in sustainable design. Bryce, raised in the mountains of central Idaho, surrounded by national forest, feels that Idaho’s combination of art and engineering is a perfect fit for his interests and creative mind-set. His goal as a designer is to create products with ease-of-use and greater understandability while also being more sustainable–recycled, recyclable, and repairable.
Christie grew up in Barrington, Illinois, and earned a degree in architecture from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. It was during college that she got her first taste of international travel, in both the Middle East and Honduras, and she continues her journeys today. Christie raised her children in Denver, Colorado, where, when not making wooden toys, she practiced as a freelance architect and later found her passion with preservation architecture. She worked for many years as a preservation architect for the Landmark Preservation Commission and is presently on the board of Historic Denver, Inc.
By profession, Rebecca is a registered interior designer working in facilities management in an educational environment. She holds a degree in interior design from Mount Royal College and a BA in interior design from Ryerson University in Toronto, and is currently pursuing a master’s in interior design at the University of Manitoba while working full-time in Toronto. Her hobbies, other than sports, are centered in the arts, with acrylic painting currently at the forefront. Bright, vivid colors are the foundation in her paintings; they are a bold statement of life and what life has to offer.
Christy started working in the furniture industry at age five, in her mother’s basement upholstery shop in her childhood home. After earning an associate’s degree in interior design and working as a kitchen designer, she went back to school and earned her BFA in furniture design from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, in 2006. Christy graduated with an MFA from the furniture design program at San Diego State University in 2010. She specializes in laser-cut furniture.
Justin is an accomplished artist and designer, based in Nashville, Tennessee, who holds a BFA in interior design from Watkins College of Art and Design. Justin balances his time between his family and career. He has a loving wife and son and enjoys spending as much time as he can with them. He is co-owner of Line Design Studio, which focuses on creating renderings and presentation drawings for architects and designers.
Todd Ouwehand is a designer/craftsman based in Los Angeles who creates unique pieces through a symbiosis of graceful forms and solid functionalism. He works closely with each client to marry their vision with his, while focusing on the harmony of materials, including cherry, lacewood, walnut, and zebrawood. Todd received his MA and BA in art from California State University at Long Beach and is an adjunct professor of woodworking at Cerritos College. Todd’s work has been published in the books 500 Tables and 500 Chairs and in three Fine Woodworking publications: Furniture: 102 Contemporary Designs; Design Book Eight: Original Furniture from the World’s Finest Craftsmen; and Design Book Five.
Marcus is a furniture designer/maker and artist. His current work responds to the rapid changes in design and how these affect the perceived history of functional objects. By providing a basic function in living environments, his pieces suggest an alternative to the obsessive discarding of material goods in today’s society. The driving idea is the bond between user and object that develops through use. His current approach is to reconstruct broken, discarded furniture in unique ways, embracing the history of the once beloved object, as well as retrofitting the damaged structure. Marcus believes that the true beauty in a functional object lies in its use and history.
A product design student at the University of Oregon, Jorie is particularly interested in furniture and housewares. Her Desk Coverlet is one of the many pieces she made for her first apartment, where she lives with four of her closest friends. Jorie looks forward to continuing in her studies and becoming established in the design industry.
Sara grew up in Georgia with a do-it-yourself attitude that was thoroughly encouraged by her parents. Her love of making led her to the Savannah College of Art and Design, where she received a BFA in Industrial Design. Sara has designed a broad range of products, from furniture and lighting to backpacking coffeemakers and airplane lavatories. Lately she’s been into printmaking–exploring themes of production and consumption, the origin of things, and the last frontier, while adding in some kitsch and humor for good measure. Sara spends her free time sawing, sanding, painting, reading, baking, and sewing. She has a great love of cats, chocolate, thrift stores, tea, and good books.
Kathy is a stay-at-home mom with a great deal of opinions about how things should look. She is also the wife of this book’s author and his collaborator/critic on several of his projects herein. She holds a BA in art history from St. Lawrence University and has worked at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. Claiming to possess no creative ability whatsoever, Kathy is one of those annoying people who sits down to a casual craft project and almost invariably creates a masterpiece.
Philip is the author of 18 books (including this one) about houses and the stuff we put in them. He’s an ardent fan of good design in everything from skyscrapers to silverware but readily admits that on the day they were handing out artistic talent he spent all of his time waiting in the Good Grammar line.
An all-around creative person with a background in architecture, a degree in industrial design, and a keen sense of the world around her, Ashley explains that she deals less in slick and polished computer-generated designs and more in designs that manifest an idea; designs that have a je ne sais qoui feeling about them, often a sculptural one-off rather than mass-produced aesthetic; and designs not necessarily worried about production or marketing, but rather are concerned only with the idea driving the design and the environment in which the idea exists.
Ralph graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) with a BFA in industrial design. With an emphasis in furniture design, he has experience working in custom metal and wood shops.
Paul currently is a technology education teacher at Woodbridge Senior High School in Woodbridge, Virginia. A Virginia Tech graduate, he enjoys woodworking, home improvement, and designing unique and challenging projects for his students. You can reach him by e-mail.
Norm is a sculptor/fabricator in the business of props, models, and exhibits. He came up with the concept for his Hard-wareless Shelf in design school several years ago and finally got around to building it one summer when work was slow.
Lauren graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in May 2010 with a degree in industrial design and human-computer interaction. As a design student she was given the opportunity to create work as a means of investigating her curiosities. Therefore, she sees the resulting artifacts not as completed pieces but as unfinished experiments. Currently, Lauren is working as an interaction designer at R/GA in New York, designing web experiences for brands.
Camden is an architect in Richmond, Virginia, who has taught at Virginia Commonwealth University’s VCUArts for 25 years. His architecture is characterized by work that is sensitive to the site and demonstrates a thoughtful, responsible use of materials. Taking seriously his stewardship of the earth and its resources, he meditates design solutions on a range of scales, from neighborhood planning to furniture design and from houses to additions to water-colors. Along with his wife, Mimi Sadler, Camden practices architecture as Sadler & Whitehead Architects PLC.
Andrew is a furniture design student at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. He has always been a maker, bringing his designs to life with his hands. His primary focus is to push materials into new and unseen applications in the world of furniture design.
Elisa is an Alameda, California–based writer and marketing consultant whose work has appeared in Newsweek, Real Simple, Budget Travel, and Better Homes & Gardens, as well as many trade publications. She is an avid knitter, cook, and sailor, and the Bubbles desk was her first woodworking project. It was designed and produced at the Crucible, in Oakland, California, under the expert tutelage of Matt Wolpe and Kevin Hoelscher, in their “One Sheet of Plywood” class.
Civil Twilight is a design studio committed to brilliant simplicity. With work spanning architecture and interiors, branding, and product design and development, they’re a group of keen observers, smart listeners, creative thinkers, and skilled makers. Their work is driven by curiosity rather than ideology, and their projects are inspired by the intersection of natural and built environments. Civil Twilight has been recognized by awards including Metropolis magazine’s Next Generation Prize and the I.D. Annual Design Review.
Matt makes furniture and teaches furniture making at the Crucible in Oakland, California. One of his classes is called “One Sheet of Plywood: Design/Build.”
Megan holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial design from the College of Creative Studies in Detroit. While in school, she concentrated on furniture design. Toward the end of her senior year, she took her love of molds for bent furniture and turned in the direction of ceramic molds. She is currently working on dinnerware and serving pieces from her home in Michigan. To see any of her other work, send her an e-mail.
Igor was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, and raised in Columbus, Ohio. A student of industrial design at the Columbus College of Art & Design, he believes that ID can change the world for the better, asserting that the more intelligence we gain through technology and understanding, the more solutions we discover to improve life. To Igor, ID is a very powerful, emotional field, where teamwork and ideation play important roles. One of his favorite parts of design work is the way people interact with a simple object, and their emotional attachment to a product they’ve worked on.