Design Article — what did you come away with from the piece?
The last issue of FWW had a piece where Hank Gilpin reworked three projects. In addition to the ‘tag lines’ that were in the article, I am wondering if any other information, inspiration or insights occurred to some of the folks here. For my part, I came away with an insight to look at the whole piece from different perspectives and to try to make the whole work together. I have some other observations as well, but I am interested in what other came away with as well. I thought the selection of what were clearly different ‘styles’ of pieces said something about design principals etc. as well. I have been harping on the ‘eye of the craftsmen’ being the most important element of fine work for a while and this piece reinforced my view. Do others come away with a different lesson?
Replies
The third one was the most interesting to me. The main lesson being that sometimes less is more - too many big features will compete and step on each other or just make the piece too busy. I'd already learned that myself, but I I still find it's not always easy to recognize the threat looming when you are in the design stage. What seem like potentially subtle details can end up standing out more than you imagined in the finished piece. I think the lesson really is that often good design is not arrived at in the first effort, but more evolves through repeated attempts. The first effort ends up being sort of a mock-up for future refinement. Things like the sack back windsor evolved to their forms. Hobbiests should not be dissatisfied or feel they have failed when a first effort at a complicated piece is not a homerun in its first iteration.
Teaching design is always difficult when there are no absolutes and no hard and fast rules. What Mr. Gilpan seems to be doing is prodding and suggesting based on his eye , his practice and experience. I think the problem is that you can't communicate all that much in just three examples and five pages. There are just bits and pieces, not a whole.
He rounds the edges, defines legs of the book stand in a very elegant fashion, but if you are into rectangles and hard edges he could have forced those modern concepts too. He talks about the the use of rift sawn wood over plain sawn and varying the thickness of boards, which is nice, useful to note, but may be a long time before many have the luxury / opportunity of using. And he talks about simplicity, but makes the base of the third example amazingly complex while failing to mention the stripe down the center of each door that lead an uncomfortable duality not unified the the pull of the center handles or inlays.
One always hopes to meet someone who can in 10 words or less give you the keys to the the kingdom. Mostly we get pieces, which is what Mr. Gilpan offers. We have to take them and our own experience and find our way. I think we got some clever advice from a clever man. Applying it is something else entirely.
Peter
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled