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John Kelly |
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When I first began designing furniture while in graduate school a decade ago, I never imagined that what began as a project for school would become my career. I was an architecture student at the University of Pennsylvania, dedicated to exploring the relationship between design and production. My first workshop was located midway between my apartment and the university. I would go to school during the day, and at night I would build things in the shop. All of my design projects for architecture school soon became shop oriented. Eventually, I was studying architecture through furniture, and understanding furniture through architecture. My early furniture designs were influenced by the arts and crafts movement in America, the Bauhaus movement in Europe, and various modern architects. Namely, I looked to designers like Frank Lloyd Wright, Charles Eames, Gustav Stickley, Greene & Greene, and Le Corbusier. During the first five years, everything that I designed and produced was custom. Regardless of the client or project, what I learned was that all designs begin with an idea. Once you understand the vocabulary for expressing the idea, designing an entire range of furniture becomes a lot like writing a story with different elements and personalities. Individually, each furnishing is just one chapter. Collectively, all of the pieces combine to create a story composed of many characters that depict the idea of the entire range. Over time, the range of furniture may evolve and the characters may change; but each chapter will convey the same meaning and it's place in time will remain unchanged.
Info: John Kelly Furniture official website
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