The design connection.

W&WP celebrates 20th century designers, whose diverse talents have given the American furniture industry its vitality.

WOOD & WOOD PRODUCTS' recently published Centennial issue traced the beginnings of modern furniture design through its pioneers in Europe and America. We commence our 101st year of publication with a tribute to a few of the nation's celebrated living furniture designers. These names surely will reappear in the Bicentennial Edition in the year 2095, when W& WP historians recognize the designers who brought innovation and style to late 20th century furniture.

Whether designing architecture or furniture, the idea is to understand the problem and come up with a solution. Over the past century, architects, stimulated by the use of new materials and fabrication techniques, have prevailed in the design of high-style furniture. Among eminent American architects designing furniture are: Michael Graves, partners Peter Shelton and Lee Mindel, Michael McDonough, Joseph Terrell and Frank Gehry.

As a furniture designer, Gehry is best known for his Easy Edges and Experimental Edges corrugated cardboard furniture created during the 1970s - a new use for a "throw-away" material - and for his bentwood maple-ply furniture, introduced by Knoll in 1992.

All earlier bentwood chairs, including Michael Thonet's in 1859, had heavy substructure and webbing, or another structure for the seat. Gehry uses the same lightweight seven-ply maple strips for both support and seat. "The material forms a single and continuous idea," Gehry said. "What makes it work, and gives it extraordinary strength and spring, is the interwoven, basket-like character of the design."

Gehry received architecture's most prestigious award, the Pritzker Prize in 1989, the Brunner Memorial Prize in Architecture, numerous national and regional A.I.A. awards, and honorary doctorates. Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, held a major retrospective exhibition, "The Architecture of Frank Gehry," in 1986, and the Montreal Museum of Decorative Arts exhibited his bentwood furniture in the early 1990s.

WARD BENNETT

Ward Bennett is an extraordinarily learned designer whose contributions to art and design for more than 50 years are recognized as classics. As a young man, he studied art at the Porto Romano School in Italy, with Brancusi in Paris, and with Hans Hoffmann in New York. After World War II, he was befriended and encouraged by noted French architect and artist Le Corbusier (Charles-Edward Jeanneret).

Early sculpture and other works by Bennett have been exhibited at the Whitney Museum of American Art and are part of the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt Museum, all of which are in Manhattan.

Bennett's furniture designs, usually seen in corporate boardrooms and executive offices, have won numerous professional design awards, including the American Institute of Architects' Design Excellence Award. Bennett says it is the furniture designer's responsibility to produce designs that are functional and comfortable, as well as handsome. In 1990, Geiger International introduced a collection of elegantly crafted pieces in maple, ash, birch and cherry that evolved out of Bennett's study of French architecture and design.

DAKOTA JACKSON

Dakota Jackson is a pioneer in the merging of avante-garde art and technology. His name has become synonymous with tradition-breaking design. One of the original proponents of the 1970s' art furniture movement, Jackson built his reputation as the architect of finely crafted desks, cabinets and other furniture with moving parts, disappearing drawers and secret spaces. He designed custom pieces for Yoko Ono, Robert DeNiro and other celebrities.

In the early 1980s, Jackson's interests shifted from one-of-a-kind to multiples, and he developed standardized furniture in variable proportions and materials. He is now the creative head and president of a design and manufacturing firm for both residential and contract furniture. In a licensing agreement with the Lane Co., Jackson introduced the New Rhythms line in 1994.

"You cannot achieve innovative design without innovative technology," Jackson said. "Without novelty in design, the workplace or home loses visual and, ultimately, creative stimulation."

THOMAS MOSER

"Designing furniture is speaking in a language," said Thomas Moser, who learned about furniture and woodworking by restoring antiques. "The 'words' I use have been used by other craftsmen for 200 or 300 years. But the way I string them together makes something new - a contribution. I am not just saying the same thing."

Moser's furniture has been described as elegant, graceful and timeless in the finest Shaker tradition. The pieces combine the integrity of 19th century design with 21st century technology. Modern equipment cuts and shapes the wood components, while they are assembled by hand with mortise-and-tenon and dovetail joinery.

Furniture from Thos. Moser Cabinetmakers graces homes throughout the world, as well as institutions such as the Kellogg Co. World Headquarters, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and offices of The New Yorker magazine.

O.B. SOLIE

Highlights of O.B. Solie's 45-year career that has produced a host of design innovations include receiving the Distinguished Designer Award from the American Society of Furniture Designers in 1988. He also earned the American Walnut Fashion Award, Resources Council Product Design Award and National Home Fashions League Award. Solie has served as ASFD chairman, president, vice president and director.

In addition to his upscale Contemporary designs for Ello over the past 30 years, Solie has designed for Peregrine White, Bernhardt, Drexel, Lane, John Widdicomb and hosts of other manufacturers.

Solie continues to draw cartoons that "let the air out" of overly serious furniture design. "Cartoons are the most fun," he said. "Unlike furniture, they have no style limits and no price points to be reckoned with."

Solie received bachelor's and master's degrees in art and design from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

RAYMOND SOBOTA

Raymond Sobota launched his design business with a philosophy that has guided him through a long and successful career: "I knew I had to create good design at a reasonable price, to create classic designs - simple, but not too plain; decorative but not too ornate. Decoration must make sense in terms of the form and lines of the case. You can't just slap it on."

Since starting his own design business in Grand Rapids in the 1930s, Sobota has created some 200 furniture collections. The designer is well known for his association with Century Furniture. Other clients have included: Grand Rapids Bookcase and Chair Co., Mt. Airy Furniture, Holland Clock and Hekman Table.

In the early 1950s, Sobota designed Citation, a Contemporary-styled grouping for Century that he said saved the company at a critical time. It was the first coordinated grouping in the marketplace in its price range and it created "a real bang," Sobota said.

Numerous other collections for Century followed, including Claridge, Cardella, Capuan, Chardeau, Crystalline and Cinnabar. Century introduced Chin Hua, a classic Contemporary look with traditional Oriental motifs, in 1975. One of the company's best-selling lines, it is still being produced.

In 1989, Sobota added the Distinguished Designer Award from the American Society of Furniture Designers to his six Daphne Awards and numerous other accolades.

MILO BAUGHMAN

Milo Baughman began his successful career in California in 1947. Known as a consistent innovator in the field of Contemporary furniture design, he has designed for many national manufacturers. He is most closely identified with Thayer Coggin, having been associated with the company since 1953. Baughman is also an educator and chaired the Department of Environmental Design at Brigham Young University, where he now serves as adjunct professor.

In 1985, Baughman's furniture was included in major exhibits at the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh, Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art and the Whitney Museum, in New York City. He received the Distinguished Designers Award from the American Society of Furniture Designers in 1987.

"Style is wonderful," Baughman said, "because it is always evolving. When you have been in this business almost 50 years, 'you are grateful for this. All design movements are a reaction to whatever has come before, an idea that leads me to think the world needs a rest from excessive innovation."

JOHN MASCHERONI

John Mascheroni learned cabinetmaking skills from his father, who had come to New York from northern Italy and launched a firm specializing in antique reproductions. After studying at Pratt Institute, Mascheroni moved away from Traditional reproductions and introduced his first collection of Contemporary designs. Two of the pieces are in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art, and Mascheroni has since won numerous other awards.

He opened his own design studio in 1974 and his clients have included: Vecta, Stanley, Thomasville, George Kovacs, Ello, Swaim, Jeffco, Albert Martin and Shermag.