Furniture Design Ideas

Danish furniture was highly regarded in the twentieth century for its craft in wood. Beech, birch, pine, and white oak were abundantly available and used to make furniture for years. In the 1960s, the quality of Danish furniture inspired industrial companies to sustain a high standard of design in their products. Fritz Hansen, PP Mobler, […]

Milan, Italy, is home to thousands of designers engaged in architecture, interior design, and industrial design. Most are trained as architects. The Politecnico di Milano has nearly 15,000 students of architecture within its seven-year curriculum; and of the nearly 4,000 first-year students, 1,000 choose to pursue furniture, industrial design, and interior design as a focal […]

Epicenters of furniture design abound throughout the world. An epicenter is a place with a historical legacy regarding the design, production, research, distribution, or dissemination of furniture design. Epicenters are places where designers and industries have contributed to national and regional economies. In turn, these areas provide support and marketing venues to sustain greater economic […]

Industrial entrepreneurs are the silent heroes behind the culture of design. They assume the economic risks and liabilities by leading their companies to invest in design. They establish markets through the production of goods as well as by responding to market demand. Individuals such as Aurileo Zanotta of Zanotta Spa, Alberto Alessi of Alessi, Busnelli […]

IKEA is a successful business that originated in Sweden and targets large metropolitan markets offering contemporary design solutions and inexpensive furniture and accessories. IKEA is in line with very successful big box retailers and has stores throughout the world (Figure 9.14). In American cities such as Pittsburgh, the IKEA business model is to identify a […]

Retailers buy furniture directly from furniture companies at wholesale prices and sell furniture at retail prices in order to achieve a desired profit margin. Manufacturers generally do not provide floor items for display, nor do they provide furniture on loan or on consignment to retailers. Thus, retailers rely on the display and availability of in-house […]

Green design was defined in Chapter 6 as being more complex and inclusive than sustainable design. Consequently, green marketing encompasses more than promoting the sustainability of a product. It is an opportunity to market how furniture is produced (socially and technologically), how it is distributed, how it might be considered reus­able or recyclable, and how […]

Large furniture companies such as Fritz Hansen, Giogetti, Kartell, Knoll, Herman Miller, Vitra, and Zanotta have, to a degree, created and expanded new markets through the pro­duction of design goods (furniture produced and marketed as design items) (Figure 9.7). These companies differentiate themselves from other companies that produce period- replicated or conventional furniture. The furniture […]

Great designers seldom make great advertising men, because they get overcome by the beauty of the picture—and forget that merchandise must be sold.1 James Randolph Adams, The International Dictionary of Thoughts, 1969 Furniture is, more often than not, a rela­tively expensive product to bring to mar­ket, which contributes to a limited customer pool. Further, consumers […]

Most engineering advances used to fabricate contemporary designs rely upon industrial processes and repeatable means of production. Examples of rigorously tested and techno­logically sophisticated furniture can be seen in the office seating designs that have entered the marketplace during the past 20 years. The Aeron chair, the Freedom chair, the Leap chair, and the Equa […]