YourFurnitureLink.com, Harrington College of Design Chicago and TLS by Design!
The arrival of the classic “show badges” every three months or so always brings about two very strong, visceral reactions.Reaction One: “Ug, is it time for that show again already? ” My senses go into auto response. The backache from that old mattress at the rental house, the lack of energy from eating fattening, rich food at overpriced restaurants, the constant grazing on showroom snacks, and of course the ever present throbbing of feet from pounding miles of thinly veiled concrete. Ok, enough of that, we’ve all been there, felt that.
On to Reaction Two: a tiny flint of excitement radiates through me. Even after 20 years I feel a tinge of adventure pondering is there something out there really fresh, innovative, maybe a young start up company in the temporaries? Sadly, today between the economy in general, the expenses of showing at a trade show, let alone the massive commitment and hoop jumping of starting a business, what young artiste could afford this?
My partners bemoan the lack of youth in our industry. We launched our retail stores, Mortise & Tenon in L.A. and Mig and Tig in Chicago when we were in our early twenties, but see none of that today. We decided if they’re not coming to us, we’ll go to them, and created a student design challenged sponsored by our online directory, www.YourFurnitureLink.com, complete with a scholarship prize, and the rare opportunity to have the winning design actually produced by www.TLSbyDesign.com who share YourFurnitureLink’s vision of nurturing student designers (imagine sponsoring a design student by the name of, oh, Jonathon Adler or Todd Olson).
Our natural choice was Harrington School of Design in Chicago since I am an alumnus from there. We are happy to report the third Student Challenge is set to begin shortly. As in the first two challenges comprised of having to design an entertainment unit in the first challenge, and an Eating and Seating Challenge for the second. The combination of the country’s top design students, and working professionals was a fabulous blend of raw, creative young talent being paired with real life deadlines, budgets, and mentoring by industry professionals. The students from Harrington School of Design are a wonderfully diverse array of ages, experience and goals, but they all shared strong work ethics, exacting technical skills, and unbound creativity.
The challenges offer the students an unusual opportunity to design an item that will actually be produced by a factory for the winner. We get the opportunity to see some amazing, fresh designs and help guide the student designers in the real world challenges of costs, design vs. function, and producing mechanical drawings a factory can actually work off of.
The Harrington School of Design Challenges hosted by www.YourFurnitureLink.com have been an amazing win/win experience for all involved. We invite you to visit “YourFurnitureLink.com Fan Page” and “Harrington College of Design Eating and Seating Fan Page” to see the interesting results weekly, and share your thoughts.
Your comments are greatly appreciated by all, and thank you to TLS by Design and Harrington College of Design for giving these students such a great opportunity to present their talent!
www.YourFurnitureLink.com/web/
http://www.yourfurniturelink.com/web/
quin chao fat commented:
This paula deen fiasco should be reported by this blog or an article about her lies about type 2 for 3 years while all were buying her butterball home furniture,beware of bad people who pull the wool and bacon over your eyes and then sell you some home furnishings that are coated with lies and sugar,can you believe her audacity to now jump on a drug company pay roll to kinda sell some drugs instead of stopping to eat that junk she sold for all those years that lead her and others to have diabetes and trust her donut mentality.this is a person who people believe in....not anymore baby.
Object Synergy commented:
Nice Post and great idea, There is lots of Furniture shops, I bought some furniture recently at www.ascotteak.com Ascot Teak Furniture store and I am very happy with my purchase!
Martha commented:
I bought some furniture recently at www.hervalusa.com and I am very happy with my purchase!
their eco-friendly ways of manufacturing are surely a very important factor for me
ergonomicdesigner commented:
Thanks for sharing the idea, all the details regarding to the furniture designing are valuable, Nice content
Stephen Midwest Sales commented:
kudos vicki for seeking 'fresh' approaches to an industry that can be a bit...homogenous...good luck to all! stephen @ www.nightanddayfurniture.com 360-852-2198.
Vicki commented:
Hi Leslie! If you Check on www.YourFurnitureLink.com/web we feature the winners and honorable mentions and a bit about them. It is very interesting.
tkpleslie commented:
What a great idea! I love the fact that @TLSbyDesign is also a very eco friendly manufacturer, too! This is such a win for everyone involved. I can't wait to see the winning design, Vicki. When will it be ready for public viewing?
