Future furniture design.Design concepts are distilled from ideas that arise in the marketplace, from technology and from lifestyles With more than 5,000 years of furniture history as a foundation, the future of furniture design continues to unfurl. We constantly look ahead towards what is new for inspiration, while drawing on the resources of the past. What the future holds in furniture design is not clear, but what is certain is that both evolution and revolution will shape it. Technology affects almost every aspect of our lives. The digital revolution has touched even the most mundane products and continues to produce new techno-solutions for today's lives. The home computer and entertainment center are becoming integrated. The metamorphosis metamorphosis (mĕt'əmôr`fəsĭs) [Gr.,=transformation], in zoology, term used to describe a form of development from egg to adult in which there is a series of distinct stages. of information into entertainment links news, work and play. The very way we respond to our world has altered - we have become more visually oriented o·ri·ent n. 1. Orient The countries of Asia, especially of eastern Asia. 2. a. The luster characteristic of a pearl of high quality. b. A pearl having exceptional luster. 3. . Graphic interface and the icon have given us visual stimuli to accommodate complex ideas and tasks. Computers, television and newspapers bombard bom·bard tr.v. bom·bard·ed, bom·bard·ing, bom·bards 1. To attack with bombs, shells, or missiles. 2. To assail persistently, as with requests. See Synonyms at attack, barrage2. 3. us with digitally-generated charts, graphs and pictorial images. The viewer is left to interpret, analyze and internalize internalize To send a customer order from a brokerage firm to the firm's own specialist or market maker. Internalizing an order allows a broker to share in the profit (spread between the bid and ask) of executing the order. at a dizzying pace. A Challenge for Designers Our lifestyles, work and entertainment habits have already changed the home environment. Furniture designers have only begun to address this trend. Meeting the constantly changing needs of a diverse population with a variety of lifestyles is a challenge designers must recognize and respond to with both inspiration and innovation. In the future, fashion, usage and demand will dictate whether furniture will be planned more for visual stimulus than as functional apparatus. Furthermore, the future of furniture design will be linked to utilization of new developments in manufacturing technology, materials and communication. With this in mind: * Primarily, products must be designed to incorporate efficiencies in manufacturing. Computer-controlled equipment and process control affect all aspects of the industry. As technology continues to develop, designers and manufacturers will find new opportunities to enhance furniture. * Opportunities abound to introduce improved materials: engineered panels, advanced hardware, surfaces and finishes. * And finally, the tools of the information age - market and consumer research, trends analysis and target marketing - will help to shape new products. Educating Furniture Designers The education of a furniture designer must never end. Formal education begins in design school where skills are developed and the mind's eye mind's eye n. 1. The inherent mental ability to imagine or remember scenes. 2. The imagination. mind's eye Noun in one's mind's eye in one's imagination is opened to the world. This is accomplished with a curriculum that includes: fundamental art and design skills; histories of art, design and furniture; general academics; and intensive furniture design disciplines. Students are introduced to fields of study, use of design tools (both traditional and technological) and problem-solving methodologies. Through practice and reinforcement, incremental Additional or increased growth, bulk, quantity, number, or value; enlarged. Incremental cost is additional or increased cost of an item or service apart from its actual cost. learning becomes capability. Learning to form and convey design concepts with skill and informed intuition intuition, in philosophy, way of knowing directly; immediate apprehension. The Greeks understood intuition to be the grasp of universal principles by the intelligence (nous), as distinguished from the fleeting impressions of the senses. is a developmental process. Design skill requires both mental acuity acuity /acu·i·ty/ (ah-ku´i-te) clarity or clearness, especially of vision. a·cu·i·ty n. Sharpness, clearness, and distinctness of perception or vision. and artistic and technical proficiency pro·fi·cien·cy n. pl. pro·fi·cien·cies The state or quality of being proficient; competence. Noun 1. proficiency - the quality of having great facility and competence . As an integral part of the manufacturing and marketing process, the furniture designer must interpret information, analyze opinion and adapt ideas. In the studio, the furniture designer is a visual communicator. Sketches and renderings convey ideas while detail drawings define elements, form and materials. The tools may be traditional - pencil, pen and marker - or technical - computer, scanner and software - but, in either case, the objective is communication. Input from the marketplace, from technology and from the world-at-large becomes distilled into design concepts. Then the never-ending process begins again: concept to review, review to market analysis, analysis to prototype, prototype to market, market to success or failure. Only one thing is clear in the world of furniture design: change. As corporate cultures, technologies, fashion and market forces continually evolve, designers will adjust to address issues of taste and function. Designers must remain in continuous pursuit of the forces which shape the future, as they themselves shape the future of furniture design. Editor's note Editor's Note (foaled in 1993 in Kentucky) is an American thoroughbred Stallion racehorse. He was sired by 1992 U.S. Champion 2 YO Colt Forty Niner, who in turn was a son of Champion sire Mr. Prospector and out of the mare, Beware Of The Cat. Trained by D. : Max S. Shangle is an associate professor, Division of Design Studies, and coordinator of the Furniture Design program at Kendall College  This article or section is written like an .Please help [ rewrite this article] from a neutral point of view. Mark blatant advertising for , using . of Art and Design, Grand Rapids Grand Rapids, city (1990 pop. 189,126), seat of Kent co., SW central Mich., on the Grand River; inc. 1850. The second largest city in the state, it is a distribution, wholesale, and industrial center for an area that yields fruit, dairy products, farm produce, . He has written numerous articles and served as an industry consultant. |
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