Ah, the simple chair. It has one straightforward function: to seat the human rear. And while the invention has been around for centuries, artisans from just about every time period and culture have put their own spin on what has become a fundamental icon of industrial design. More recently, New York gallery The Future Perfect…
SkillCoach is a new series where Product Dev Professional, Vince Haley, provides a virtual design critique of a new design or submission we’ve received. Give us your feedback in the comments! Connect with Vince on Linkedin here. Have a design you would like to submit for a review and critique? Contact us here. Welcome to…
At a price point that could afford a mid-sized home, it’s understandable why many people choose to just appreciate a Ferrari from a distance rather than as a weekday commuter. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll miss out on sitting in the driver’s seat every day. Through a partnership with Italian outfit Poltrona Frau,…
We’ve covered a lot of Kenneth Smythe’s chair designs over the years. I’m always excited to see his emails with a new one, guessing it will be similar to previous chairs and completely surprised when I view it. The latest design is visual extrapolation of an emotionally and psychologically charged elitist pathology (ya got that?),…
If you were to take on a fourth-generation Italian company that produces chairs, sofas and other furniture as a client for a new furniture collection, the chances of straying too far from tradition are likely to be somewhat slim. Rather, the focus would more likely be on enhancing existing details and processes while maintaining the…
There’s a man who does all of his design work from the French Hotel Cafe in Berkeley, California. His name is Kenneth Smythe. His designs are loaded with symbloism, very high-end, completely open-source and created for a random sequencing production system. If I wanted to describe his work in a way that would make you…
If you enjoy the plasticy smell of fresh cut PVC in the morning and iconic chair design, you’ll love the new butt hugging iteration from Kenneth Smythe. You’ve seen the asymmetric permutations of his designs before – open-source designs based on musical variation. But where those use materials that are more difficult to work with,…
You’ve seen the chair designs of Kenneth Smythe on SolidSmack before, but that will not be the last you’ll see. With hundreds of chair and table variations in the works, he’s elevating the visual function of sitting, above the seat and creating designs based on a musical passacaglia of furniture design floating in a narrative…
Guest post by Bradley Derry from bradleyderry.com Design is details. Design is the tiny elements in a product that work their way into final production from hours of sketching, prototyping, and CAD. Details are what the designers agonize over and what the manufactures spend so much time trying to get just right. This post is…
Can you think of a more uncomfortable chair to sit in than an airport chair? I can’t. Add to that the delight of sharing the vast majority of the world’s germs, bacteria and food particles with the other happy people at the airport and really, sitting just doesn’t get any better. One thing that can…
Gaze upon it. Don’t touch! You’ll mar the smooth birch laminate and formica colorcore. Just look. It’s a thing of butt-holding beauty. Chunky, industrial, modern, vintage, dare we say PLAYFUL? …all mixed together in four legs and bucket to hold your bottom. The chair designs you are about to experience are created by Kenneth Smythe.…
One look at this and you’ll want to grab a vat of melted butter. What happens when design goes head on with engineering? Something beautiful and crustacean-like. The collaboration between the two disciplines can yield some pretty amazing products and at ICFF, one of the largest contemporary furniture shows in North America. This year, there…
