Market adapted furniture

The furniture market as a whole can be broken into three discrete markets. These are the custom or one-off market, the limited or batch production market and the manufactured or mass production market. Each of these markets poses different design challenges based on many changing variables including cost, method of production and distribution. Normally these furniture sub markets exist with a certain amount of separation within the larger market of furniture. The clientele tend to be very different and the companies or people that make the furniture tend to be relatively specialized. Because of this significant separation, it is very difficult to experience all the furniture markets in the span of a career. This thesis proposal is to look at furniture and all its sub-markets with minimal separation. I will do this by building at least three full size prototypes and developing each one for a different market. One of the goals will be to maintain the conceptual and aesthetic sensibility of the initial prototype while adapting the design to address the requirements of each different market. The requirement of making two generations of each piece will make the entire process stronger and provide an opportunity to truly revisit a piece in a way I have not yet experienced. The design processes and finished pieces associated with each market will be compared to one another analytically. This will ideally result in additional insight into the to differences between each and the effectiveness of my design decisions and processes. The analysis will be aided by written and visual documentation taken throughout each phase. The main goal will be to gain a unique perspective and appreciation of the demands of the furniture market as a whole. However, it is also my intention to thoroughly prepare myself for a broad range of employment opportunities post graduation