“Every piece is a piece of me and I am a collection of my experiences.”
Reed Hansuld is a Canadian contemporary furniture designer and maker based in Brooklyn, NY. He believes in the continuation of high craft, and teaches various woodworking practices at craft schools in the USA and abroad.
“My life—a collection of moments, the details of which are etched in my subconscious by their significance—the experience of people, places, and all their myriad sensory influence. ”
3
Three stories to tell you what you need to know about me as a designer and maker.
1
“There is so much nuance to craftsmanship, and I remain dedicated to hand-building furniture informed by contemporary aesthetics and augmented by modern processes.”
The moment we begin working together is the moment a unique process begins that can never be repeated. The end piece will be a 1 of 1 representation of our partnership. Every good designer has a unique way of expressing their aesthetic; that aesthetic is somewhat innate and is refined over a lifetime. As a maker, it is the countless hours of refining the ergonomics of the pieces we create: the way an armrest falls to hand; the profile of a table edge; the slide of a drawer; the visual and physical proportions; how it fits in a space, and the ease in which we interface with it. Being both a designer and a maker is like being a singer-songwriter; there is a synergy between the idea and execution of creativity. Both the form and technical requirements are held in consideration concurrently and refined to complement each other. Working with full-scale drawings and creating mock-ups and prototyping results in pieces that have a feeling of rightness that is lost where the designs are carried out on a computer screen, and the manufacturing is an automated process. There is so much nuance to craftsmanship, and I remain dedicated to hand-building furniture informed by contemporary aesthetics and augmented by modern processes.
2
Often the longer you can sit with the discomfort of an unresolved problem—like a small design detail of a chair for example—the more likely you are to find a unique resolution that will infuse the final outcome with a sense of harmony. These details can often be felt, you don’t need to understand why. The result feels pleasing on a subconscious level.
“The result feels pleasing on a subconscious level. ”
“The closer you look, the more interesting it should get.”
