Richard Jones Furniture

‘The Gathering’ 2009- of the Designer Makers Organisation of the United Kingdom-Part 2

by Richard Jones © 2009

Curating Exhibitions- Brian Kennedy

For many years now I have vehemently held to the maxim that I will not permit an artist to display their items on top of my work. However the professional curator Brian Kennedy the speaker during this part of The Gathering who has curated several exhibitions including the 2007 Contemporary Applied Arts exhibition in London, and has also worked with the Crafts Council of Ireland, has caused me to think more and re-evaluate the pros and cons of taking part in mixed media exhibitions. I haven’t reached conclusions yet, but I am pondering my position.

Through displaying my work at a variety of venues, shows and exhibitions over nearly thirty years I have found mixed media shows are the ones that have caused me most angst. I have developed a real dislike for certain types of artists when they exhibit their work alongside furniture designer makers. I aim my venom more towards ceramicists and sculptors using metals and clay than any other artist. I can’t recall the number of times I’ve gone to the opening of a mixed media show in which I am participating to find a ceramicist had been along after I’d set up my work and thought my table, cabinet, chest, etc was the ideal plinth for his or her rough, knobbly bottomed objet d’art.

They place their item on top of my work and slide it about until they get it just the way they like it. As a consequence they leave scores, sometimes deep ones, across the top surface of my furniture thus devaluing it, sometimes damaging it to the point of making my work virtually unsellable unless I took significant steps to effect a repair. Of course, the now despised potter (sic) usually denied they had caused the damage in the first place.

Apart from the damage to my work by other artists and their items, it’s my experience that these pots, sculptures and other items are, more often than not, placed thoughtlessly on top of my work just because it’s convenient. I have witnessed artists set completely inappropriate items on top of my furniture: there is no synergy between the two pieces, or the ceramic object is out of proportion with my piece of furniture. Nowadays if I go to an exhibition in which I am participating and find additional items have mysteriously appeared on top of my work I take them off and put them on any convenient floor space I can find. Thoughtless gallery owners and managers can be as bad, but good ones don’t make mistakes such as the following illustration: I visited a gallery displaying my work for sale and found my furniture festooned with other sale items to the point, in some cases, that gallery visitors didn’t realise the “nice display stand” was also for sale.

Brian Kennedy, right, discussed these issues in some depth. He went on to say, “You can display items on furniture, but the marriage of items needs to be seen as complimentary to each other.” He illustrated his points with a selection of slides from exhibitions he has curated and I could see how judicious matching of disparate items can enhance the desirability of all of them both individually and collectively.

Kennedy made the valid point that “people are put off by white bases and plinths.” He suggested that exhibition visitors are more likely to become buyers if the work is displayed in a more interesting form, eg, setting the work up in a way that guides the viewer and shows them how they could use the item at home. Kennedy cited IKEA as an organisation that is very good at doing this. I have had the misfortune of following the arrowed yellow brick road herding techniques of the IKEA retail experience. I find their stores generally depressing with their mega-shed pile-it-high-flog-it-cheap displays, but Mr Kennedy has a good point about IKEA’s room setting displays dotted around their stores; they do guide the buyer into visualising how the furniture on display could look at home.

He said it is a mistake to display too much furniture. “People become blinded by too much furniture.” How right he is. I recall taking part in the Philadelphia Furniture Show in the 1990s. In Houston I filled the van with all of my display items, drove the 2000 plus miles to Philadelphia and set up my stand. I should have left nearly half of what I took to the show in Houston because, in retrospect, I realised you couldn’t see my furniture for, well, all my furniture!

I’ve had the same ‘can’t see the wood for the trees’ experience at other exhibitions. Even well known and well attended exhibitions make this mistake and the annual Celebration of Craftsmanship & Design held each year in mid to late August in Cheltenham, England is a good example. This exhibition has the laudable aim of showcasing the work of contemporary British furniture designers and makers. One reason I have never applied to participate, apart from the fact that I lived outside the country for several years, is that each time I’ve gone to look at the exhibition I’ve always felt the work was simply crammed into whatever space was available. There was too little room for me to stand back and get a good look at an item that caught my interest. And if it’s difficult for me with my professional furniture designer and maker background I can only imagine how hard it must be for a layperson to get a true sense of style, scale, proportion and purpose of a piece they are trying to view.

It is the role of the curator to get the press involved in any exhibition venture, whether it be furniture, paintings, sculpture, etc. A good curator will work with the exhibitors to help them prepare information that the press can use. Mr Kennedy described a good curator is one that knows what the press wants to pass on to the public. The public “aren’t very interested in techniques. They want informing about ‘items of interest’ which mostly revolves around lifestyle ‘guidance’”.

In closing Mr Kennedy illustrated the role a curator can have in introducing an artist to a completely new audience leading to sales for that artist to a new buyer profile. He discussed the role he had played in encouraging and developing some furniture artists through commissioning their work for display. He said that he felt there was a market for a particular furniture designer maker at a specific upcoming exhibition in Ireland and gently pushed this craftsman to create a speculative design. I took this to mean that the maker was somewhat reluctant to take the time out from existing paying jobs, and that there was a certain insecurity in the maker’s confidence and he perhaps questioned his own ability to execute the design within the necessary timeframe. However, the work came through, was exhibited and has generated several sales since. I think this story illustrates that a good curator has a finely tuned sense of which artists are working in a particular style or medium, and of market trends and/or fashions, and is sometimes able to bring the two together to the benefit of both. The problem for us as furniture designers and makers is, “Who are the good curators?”

An opportunity for delegates to relax, socialise and put faces to names during lunch.

Photography- Nick Carter (nickcarterphotography.com)

Branding- Paul Martin (www.pmdc.co.uk)

Paul Martin is the creative director of the eponymously named Paul Martin Design Company. He introduced his company, its origins and illustrated his talk with case histories.

The main thrust of his presentation imparted the wisdom that a good brand says “who you are and what you do”. The brand is usually in the form of a logo that goes with the business name, a logo alone, or a logo that incorporates the business name. He makes a good point; who isn’t aware of the products of the firm with the double yellow arch as its logo, without even seeing the name McDonalds?

Mr Martin listed six criteria that a successful branding exercise should strive to meet These are that the brand is:

• Unique
• Memorable
• Descriptive
• User Friendly
• Timeless
• Adaptable, meaning the same brand is applicable in a variety of situations, eg, letterhead, brochure, business card, website, etc.
  

This was a useful reminder for me of the importance of carefully considering how a business brands itself. Who are your customers and/or potential customers? What image of the business are trying to present? If you find it hard to step back from your business to properly formulate the necessary questions and work through to the answers, followed by creating the brand, then calling in the services of professionals could be money well spent, but it’s my experience you have to choose your specialist carefully, already have a strong idea of who and what you are, and you have to keep these specialists focused on your needs.

In the past I have used the service of such a specialist to help promote my business. It was not a good business decision. The people I worked with, on reflection, seemed more interested in imposing their ideas of what my business was all about than finding out what I really needed and tailoring something to match my needs. I sometimes see what appear to be similar failings on websites. It is sometimes apparent that the web designer has rather run amok and used all the latest technical bells and whistles available in their website building programme’s box of tricks; but all this clever stuff just gets in the way of properly showcasing what may in reality be a truly good businesses with excellent people working for it, with a range of well designed and created products, good service, and an ability to satisfy a potential customer’s needs.

Metropolitan Works- Matthew Lewis

Matthew Lewis introduced us to Metropolitan Works, a business spin-off from London Metropolitan University. Metropolitan Works incorporates Design Nation which is set up to provide a link between buyers and a wide range of artists, designers and craftspeople. Metropolitan Works also had an instrumental role in starting the annual New Designers showcase of graduate student work in London.

Metropolitan Works offer a wide range of support to creative people to realise their designs, etc, so that they can be presented to a potential market. Services offered include manufacturing capabilities through workshops available to rent, manufacturing services, access to modern equipment and information technology, eg, AutoCAD and rapid prototyping equipment; business support, training and advice, etc. London based businesses are eligible for special low rates for certain services.

CNC and the Smaller Workshop- Barnaby Scott of Waywood Furniture

I was particularly keen to hear about Barnaby Scott’s experience of purchasing, commissioning and using CNC equipment. I have an interest because the furniture course I run at Leeds College of Art includes the teaching of CNC skills. Equipment and technology of this sort is always a candidate for removal when colleges come under financial strain. Furniture courses at colleges do sometimes seem to teeter on a knife edge between survival and closure. The courses are expensive to run, require specialist equipment, take up a lot of space and there are always health and safety issues that colleges, furniture teaching and technical staff, and the students have to cope with that barely cross the minds of those involved in other disciplines.

Over the last three years or so I have felt strongly that we should retain the CNC machine we have and keep the software up to date. In the past there have been hints that the college had contemplated letting the machine go. One of my arguments against this was the knowledge I had of businesses that use CNC equipment heavily, particularly in North America, where I have substantial experience. I had noticed the rise of one or two man businesses whose whole production was centred around CNC equipment. It is true that in nearly every one of those cases in the late 1990s and early years of this millennium these businesses tended to cater for a specialised market; one example is the production of doors and drawer parts for a range of independent custom and semi-custom built-in kitchen makers. Orders were taken by fax, email or phone and completed batches of unpolished parts were dispatched to customers throughout the continent.

I have felt for a long time that it is essential to include the teaching of CNC skills to students at colleges if at all possible for I have noted that, just as is the case with computers and software, CNC equipment and the software that drives it is becoming ever more affordable.

Barnaby’s presentation and the examples he showed of how his company is trying to use CNC equipment bears out what I have expected to see in small furniture businesses for a few years. Barnaby listed his main motivations for investing in CNC equipment as follows:

• To speed up tedious accurate wood machining work, which his company was having to machine anyway, but less efficiently
• To enable the making of complex shapes
• To remove design constraints
• To save money on outsourced CNC work
• The possibility of developing a more economically priced range of furniture—a possibility he had not yet had chance to explore or develop.

Public Relations- Tony Coll (Tony Coll & Associates)

Tony Coll, right, has long experience in the public relations industry. The work of furniture makers and designers, the exhibitions we take part in along with a host of other times when we need to promote our work, all require the oxygen of publicity. Articles in various sections of the media from print to the internet, to radio and television that raise the public’s awareness of us as either a group or individuals help generate the publicity we need. This can lead to sales and orders and increased profitability.

• C-onflict. Journalists like to highlight a conflict, controversy, argument or different point of view—it gets their readers interest.
• H-uman. Of human interest– try to get this in early in the story.
  
• O-dd. Something odd in your tale or story. The classic is the headline, Man Bites Dog.
• R-elevant. Readers will pay more attention to the story if it is relevant to them or their interests.
• T-opical. The story is up to date and happening now.
• L-ocal. This is happening in my area and affects me, or I can easily go and check this story out for myself, eg, visit the exhibition.
• E-ntertaining. Don’t bore the reader with an academic or scientific style of presentation in a newspaper, or magazine, or online article. The tone and the subject matter needs to appeal to the reader profile of that publication.

Summary