Thread: furniture trends and fashion

Hi Dave,

Since beauty is in the eye of the beholder, it's fairly much impossible to give you the info you want. Are you interested in a particular style of furniture? Do you want to know what's hot in Oz, Europe, America, Asia, they are all different. And it's worth remembering that styles change frequently, sometimes they will change annually or in less time than that.
If you're looking to make furniture that fits in to the market and want it to sell straight away, I suggest you pick a style you like and make changes to the basic design to give you what you like. Keep adjusting the overall design and you'll find a point at which the market agrees with you. There's no magic wand.

Regards,

Rob

What Rob said.
Look at designs in good galleries, say Bungendore here, Northwest Woodworkers in USA, and a few others where you will find a wide range of styles. Look at them and pick the designs you like. Ask yourself what you like about them and what you don't, then try to incorporate the things you like in your own designs.

Thanks
yes i've heard the definition of fashion is something so intolerable it has to be changed every 6 months
I haven't been making furniture for that long and I am wanting to expand my knowledge and exposure of whats out there, to what styles i like and to develop my own ideas of designs i like. I'll check out the Northwest Woodworkers, i've looked at people like John Makepeace, David Savage in the UK. Marc Spagnuolo, David Marks in the US. Guess thats the tip of the iceberg, maybe just following the trail back to the designer/makers that exhibit at good galleries is one way. Here a link to my web site show where i am at after a time at tafe and some uni. i'll keep dreaming about 12 months at Sturt.

http://www.dchafurniture.com

Originally Posted by dave_c

Hi All
I'm interested to find out where one might start to look (and don't say google yet!) for the latest trends in furniture design? Which woodworkers, designers and makers around the world and in Australia are worth looking at. Which mag's are worth a look?
Dave

Hi Dave,

So all these makers like the amazing peeps on display in Bungendore are but a fraction of what furniture really is right now world wide. Furthermore, furniture doesn't really exist independently of everything else trendy and fashionable - so you really have to look at the whole design picture to understand furniture. For example, if you look at any furniture style - the architecture of the time and the myriad of decorative arts (tapestry, painting, etc.) of the time - and the furniture styles of the time - are all intrinsically linked.

Practically speaking, there are a few good places to go to get this whole picture.

1 - Sign up to instagrams/newsletters/etc. Some good examples I follow include The Design Files and Design Boom.
2 - Get a feel for where furniture that exists today came from - study different furniture styles, who were the main players, what influenced them, etc (art deco, mid-century modern, rococo, etc.) - once you know this - it's really easy to see this in contemporary artists/designers/etc.
3 - Print and digital magazines like The World of Interiors are also pretty awesome (but pricey).

Some modern, crazy and cutting edge 'furniture' artists to check out include Max Lamb, the interior fitout vibes of Ricki Kline in LA, and Tom Faulkner in the UK does some amazing hand made stuff.

Finally, if you are ever in Europe, spend a day in the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris. Everything about where furniture has come from will become abundantly clear, with furniture pieces in there ranging from the 13th century to modern times.

Steven.

Might I suggest a google search for "reproduction furniture"

(rant) These parasites steal the designs of legitimately amazing designers and builders and flog them off to a scumbag audience. (/rant)

Why I suggest this, is the repro guys aren't going to spend a cent on something that won't sell or isn't the latest thing AND the very audience that buys this stuff want the cutting edge bragable name but not the invoice.

This will find you the very latest fashions in a few easy to find places.

Originally Posted by Evanism

Might I suggest a google search for "reproduction furniture"

(rant) These parasites steal the designs of legitimately amazing designers and builders and flog them off to a scumbag audience. (/rant)

Why I suggest this, is the repro guys aren't going to spend a cent on something that won't sell or isn't the latest thing AND the very audience that buys this stuff want the cutting edge bragable name but not the invoice.

This will find you the very latest fashions in a few easy to find places.

You getting all cynical now?
*laffin*
Me too! Don't fret about the repro boys though... I looked at a solid teak dining suite the other day that was made in Burma or somewhere and it was GOOD. Handmade, fit and finish as good as anything I've ever seen, I have no doubts it will last a generation or four. You'd be hard pressed to build the table here for the asking price, much less the eight chairs.

Originally Posted by John.G

You getting all cynical now?
*laffin*
Me too! Don't fret about the repro boys though... I looked at a solid teak dining suite the other day that was made in Burma or somewhere and it was GOOD. Handmade, fit and finish as good as anything I've ever seen, I have no doubts it will last a generation or four. You'd be hard pressed to build the table here for the asking price, much less the eight chairs.

Cynical no, its a double edged sword, isn't it.

On one hand, excellent design reaches down to the plebs; and on the other it introduces them to "real design". BUT, it flagrantly rips off genuine designers and makers.

Its really quite foul. Even in the descriptions its designed to capture SEO searches "this design is not a Blah McFoo design, or a genuine Foo McSausage original". SEO searches just see the name, original and genuine and direct the traffic there. In that regard SEO is terrible.

There was an excellent article on this in the papers that first made me notice the trend. I cant find it now.

I only mentioned it so the OP could see what is trendy and fashionalbe and a good place to start for research into genuine designers and cutting edge stuff.

It wasnt intended as a thread hijack or to pass my moral judgments.... I just became carried away