For the past six years, Julie and Jeff Hinkel, owners of Voltage Furniture, have shown the work of Associate Professor Emeritus Tony Kawanari’s students in the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning (DAAP) Industrial Design program.
“It began with Tony inviting me to a critique,” Jeff says. As a former architecture student himself, he liked being on the other side, evaluating the students’ work. The following year, students brought their work to Hinkel, and an audience, at Voltage.
“The variety of responses you get when you present a single topic—chair design—is what’s fun,” Hinkel says. “And the caliber of work we’re seeing is fantastic.”
Kelsey Boyd Elements: simplicity, humor, craftsmanshipMaterials: Sapele wood, steel tubingThe O’rion is inspired by the dimensionality and soft wooden curves of the beams inside churches. Kelsey used a natural color scheme but also envisions this design in a manufacturable, chic black-and-white.
Benjamin Wulker Elements: compactness, craftsmanship, simplicityMaterials: bent ply, walnut veneer, coated steelWulker’s Stance lounger was meticulously engineered to hit just the right pitch for comfortable seating. His design emerged iteratively and organically from hundreds of chair sketches.
Jacob SchubertElements: simplicity, craftsmanship, humorMaterials: plywood, maple, steel tubing, black oxide fasteners, industrial powder coated legs, rubber molded feetSchubert’s Float barstool pushes regular materials to their limits, combining light and dark, fabricated and natural elements into one cohesive piece. The design process was iterative. “I’m not just replicating sketches,” he says. “I’m designing as I create models.”
Elliot RadermanElements: simplicity, humor, compactnesssMaterials: Baltic birch plywood, steel fastenersRaderman used the familiar experience of packing up for the next co-op as inspiration for his Toma chair, which can be manufactured with ubiquitous machinery and materials. By scaling the legs and other elements, the design can easily be translated into other pieces – tables, stools and more.
Julianna Probst Elements: humor, craftsmanship, simplicity, Materials: black walnut, powder-coated steel, brass hardware, black parachorProbst saved a black walnut tree from her father’s yard to create her Mosaic Easy Chair. The dynamic seat moves as a person settles in, leading her to wryly choose Vertigo as her filmhouse inspiration.
Ian McGillivray Elements: compactness, craftsmanship, simplicityMaterials: maple, walnutJust as Marty McFly brought together two eras of time in Back to the Future, McGillivray’s Flux chair knits disparate design elements of the contemporary and atomic age together into one cohesive vision.
Hayden Lapiska Elements: compactness, craftsmanship, simplicityMaterials: white cedar, white oak, cotton duck canvas, steel, hemp cord, pine pitch“I brought in maritime construction elements to a place they had no place being,” shares Lapiska, whose Jack Tar is inspired by the oldest floating wooden trade ship, and only surviving wooden whale ship, the Charles W. Morgan. The chair’s design mimics both the keel of a ship and skeletal structure of a whale.
Zachary Lubinski Elements: humor, craftsmanship, simplicityMaterials: aluminum, cherry woodFling brings the experience of going to a baseball game to the comfort of your home. The clever spring base nods to the burst of energy that erupts from a packed stadium.
Jackson Heritage Elements: craftsmanship, compactness, simplicityMaterials: laminated Baltic Birch, with Cowhide, aluminum dowel joineryThe Mose Rocker, inspired by a character in The Searchers, is “modern comfort with Old West attitude.” A low, wide, organic stance offers stability and ease of movement.
Students’ chairs must incorporate three of five design elements rooted in Japanese culture, building on their knowledge of kaizen, a philosophy of continuous improvement. Kawanari’s assignment marries aesthetic impact with a lesson in manufacturing and practicality. “Beyond an understanding of the Japanese design elements,” Kawanari says, “this project pushes the student in the fields of ergonomics, engineering, and universal design.”
It’s essential for designers to learn simple, compact design in a coming era of limited natural resources,” he explains. “I want to give my students a designer’s point of view so they can manage in that future.”
Associate Professor Emeritus Tony Kawanari describes the Japanese design elements students incorporated in their designs:
Kaigyaku, “humor,” a sense of cleverness and resourcefulness
Shokuningei, “craftsmanship,” making a design work with limited space and resources
Kogataka, “compactness,” saving space so products can be easily shipped, honoring detail and technology
Hitaisho, “asymmetry,” evokes interacting forces, especially the relationship between people and nature
Kanso, “simplicity,” incorporates insight, austerity and sophistication to eliminate the insignificant, communicating as much as possible using the fewest means possible
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