The Best of Woodwork 2012: 18 Makers Explore the Fundamentals of Design

THE WOODWORKING DESIGN COLLECTION - LIMITED QUANTITY AVAILABLE !

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Fundamentals of Design, editor's letter  

Designer/builder David Trubridge once observed that we owe our survival as a species to design. Other animals were bigger, faster or stronger; since the Stone Age, we've had to rely on our ability to think about and improve our material conditions in order to get by, and eventually, to thrive. Today we live in a wholly designed world, and if we venture back into the wild, either for recreation or exploration, we are now equipped with the most sophisticated designs of garb and gear. And yet, in a world abuzz with "designer this" and "designer that," the actual meaning of the term has become harder to pin down. A very brief history of the last few millennia might help.  

We fashioned our tools, our clothes, and eventually our shelter. Architecture was an early testing ground for design ideas, as mud and stick huts evolved into systems of construction that produced Egyptian pyramids, Greek temples and Buddhist shrines. Architectural design went hand in hand with discoveries in mathematics and science. Circles and squares informed the structure of the Chinese Imperial courts; the façade of the Greek Parthenon was based on the Golden Rectangle. The design manuals of the Roman Vitruvius and the Venetian Palladio set the course for Western architecture. 

As our social and physical structures became more complex, we created more stuff to fill our needs … and all those interior spaces. Craft guilds flourished. Pattern books, such as those of Chippendale and Sheraton, standardized home furnishing designs and created influential and long-lasting styles. Both religious and secular movements set their stamp on design as well—Shaker in America, Zen in Japan, or Biedermeier in Germany, to name a few.  

The transition from handwork to industrial production created a pronounced separation between designing and making, now become "fabricating." As commerce increasingly became the lens for regarding objects, pattern books morphed into sales catalogs. Reform movements like Arts & Crafts and Art Nouveau sought a return to pre-industrial times, but it was the Thonet Brothers who pioneered the successful integration of design, materials and new technology. The full embrace of industry set the direction for early 20th-century design, and in the age of Modernism, industrial designers became a breed apart. But late-century design took another tack, as the pluralism of '60s and '70s culture opened the way for smaller-scale design studios. It also laid the foundation for the reintegration of designing and building most relevant to today's woodworkers.  

Woodwork magazine has always viewed craft and design as dual aspects in the continuous process of creating objects. This special issue brings together a collection of articles that survey both theoretical and practical examples of this twofold process and the diversity that results from each designer/builder's vision. I hope they expand your understanding of the design process, and inspire and guide you in your woodworking.  

John Lavine, editor

SKU	WWBKZ12
Format	Magazine Single Issue

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