Furniture Design Ideas

Fantasies take place on a personal level, in that individuals create fan­tasy. A product can support and even engender the fantasy, but the fantasy is that of the individual. It is like seduction, in which the seduced is a willing partner. Humanity has canonical fantasies; we have collective dreams. We dream of adventure, of independence, […]

Product developers today understand this evolution in purchasing expectation. it has transitioned from the entertainment industry to any industry where people interact with a product or service—not only consumer products, but industrial and business-to- business as well. one consumer company that exemplifies the motto of form and function fulfilling fantasy, in each of its 500 […]

When Thomas Jefferson penned the goals of the United States as “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” he set into motion one of the most powerful engines of change in the history of the world. Two hun­dred and thirty years later this objective has been adopted as a global mantra. Now that China has […]

Since Pine and Gilmore’s insightful book, there has been much discussion of the “experience economy.”1 To a great extent, today’s consumers buy experiences. Rather than vacations that are simply observational, such as traditional trips to Europe, recent years have witnessed increasing interest in participatory excursions such as backpacking in the Himalayas. Rather than just purchases […]

Form has usually been thought of as the envelope that encloses a technology. in some situations, the two are seamless, so the technol­ogy and the form are seen as continuous. An airplane propeller or wing is an example of blended form and function. such examples are rare. in most cases, the internal structure or mechanism […]

Order of the Phoenix is the fifth book in the Harry Potter series, the escape into the world of witches and wizards through the eyes of Harry, the lovable, only slightly mischievous wizard whose parents were murdered by the evil Voldemort when Harry was just an infant and whose soul, during the murder, somehow connected […]

The average consumer is full of unmet and unconscious desires for a wide range of experiences. Connecting with consumers’ emotions and desires will make one product more appealing than another. The right blend of emotion and basic needs drives purchasing decisions and maintains brand loyalty and integrity while fulfilling consumer fan­tasy. Developing a sense of […]

The Mirra chair, which debuted in the spring of 2003 at the Annual NeoCon International furniture show centered in the Merchandise Mart in Chicago, was an instant hit, winning a number of awards. It is an excellent example of global design coordination: A furniture company based in Zealand, Michigan, blended a German design team and […]

There are a host of trends to consider at the outset of product devel­opment, forcing those considering trends to identify which are the most relevant to the task at hand. One way to help do so is to frame the trends in the context of the product users or other product stake­holders. For the rest […]

Thinking back to trends as ocean waves and companies as surfers, an aspect of the analogy is interestingly incomplete. Although surfers enjoy the dynamic thrill of the waves, they do not reorient the waves themselves. Their position is changed by the waves, but their little surfboards do not change the direction of the ocean’s temperamental […]