Furniture design for schools and shops

This book is presented to the public as a companion volume to Problems in Furniture Making, which, while it serves its purpose as a hand-book on furniture making, does not emphasize, sufficiently, the great possibilities in simple furniture design. Since the date of the first issue of Problems in Furniture Making the author has been convinced that many who have used it have carried out the designs furnished by the plates without modification. It was never intended that this should be done except, possibly, by those who had no power of initiative for whatsoever reason.

To construct a piece of furniture from a borrowed design is solving only one-half of the problem involved in furniture design and construction. Besides it eliminates the possibility of using one's own ideas except in some element of construction. Initiation on the part of the individual is one of the great purposes of education. If, then, furniture making is to be educative in this way it must develop the power to create and to select and reject. By dividing the plates in this book into groups representing particular types in furniture; by giving only, general information concerning these groups, and by offering for each pattern.

The present publication has been withheld until the author might see in at least two states, where he has officially inspected high school manual arts work, what school use was being made of Problems in Furniture Making and what possible place a book like the present one might have.
 

Design may be divided into two parts, pure and applied. Pure design deals with principles and terms used in producing pleasing forms without any particular reference to their application in useful objects. Applied design makes use of the same principles and terms, but always as elements in a problem, the solution of which is the production of a pattern for use. There may be a problem set in pure design, such as the arrangement of certain abstract or conventional spots to illustrate, for example, the principle of balance. Fig. 1. If now these same spots are to be arranged as a part of a symmetrical group for the decoration of a book end, for example, the element of application enters a use is to be made of the spots as arranged. Fig. 2. The result secured in the first instance might he used to decorate some object. The arrangement in the second case, however, is made for the express purpose of decorating some particular object. In the first case we have an example of pure design. In the second one of applied design.

Now, if an applied design requires mechanical construction as distinct from that which does not involve principles of mechanical operation in carrying it out, it is spoken of as a constructive design. Fig. 3. Manifestly furniture design is a part of constructive design.

The parent constructive design is architecture. It may not be easy to draw analogies between


FURNITURE DESIGN FOR SCHOOLS AND SHOPS

the design of a house and the design of a pice of furniture. Nevertheless in the use of principle of design in these two forma of constructive design there is a very close relationship. In the finishing of the inside of a house, in the arrangement of the doors and windows, both from the standpoint of inside and outside appearance, in the dividing up of spaces between doors, windows, etc., problems very similar to those found in furniture design have to be solved and the principles involved are the same in both cases.

Balance is the equalization of parts to produce apparent or real rest. This condition is the result of pairing-off of parts with reference to an axis, as in the case of a seat, table or desk where one end is the duplicate of the other. See Plates 25, 26, 31, 33 and 34. An analogy is found in the lever where the weight and lever arm on one side of the fulcrum are identical with corresponding parts on the other side, Fig. 4. This is the simplest form of balance and is known as symmetry. Another form of balance less easily analyzed but nevertheless just as real and often quite as apparent is produced by the arrangement of parts with reference to the whole rather than its axis. There is quite as much feeling of stability where balance of this more subtle type exists as where it is produced by means of symmetry. In a desk or dresser there may be, in the arrangement of drawers and cabinets, no conformity to the law of symmetry, yet the whole presents a balanced appearance.


PRACTICAL HELPS.

1. Find a use for a design before it is made. Usually this will be manifest when there is a need felt for the thing to be designed. The need comes first. The use naturally follows and determines some important and governing factors. For example, there will be some definite requirements of size - length, breadth or thickness as, for example, the height of a table or the depth of a chair. The place to be occupied by the piece of furniture, if not its use, may determine some of these dimensions - probably not all, however. Example: a wall cabinet or a screen. Those not thus determined may be considered indefinite, such as the size of drawers, doors, etc., and should become definite only when the best adaptation of the principles heretofore mentioned is made.

2. The material of construction to be used in a design is a second consideration. It may be determined by the use to be made of the object or the place it is to occupy, mentioned in 1. Not always will this be the case, however. A good suggestion is: Employ the material or materials which are best adapted to the use or which will I harmonize with or correspond to material in other objects with which the one under consideration will be associated. A jardiniere stand or an umbrella rack, for example, may be more appropriately made of metal than of wood. Again, if wood is the material selected the kind must be chosen with care and with reference to  its use or the place where the finished object will be used.

3. Construction is thought of immediately following the selection of material. This is always an important factor in a design. It may be so for one of two reasons: 1st, because it distinguishes good from bad workmanship as an element in any design; 2nd, it may produce for the article designed a decorative feature.