We had the distinct pleasure to interview award winning designer John G Williams about their original and creative Dining chair design work. John G Williams is an award-winning industrial designer, that makes our world a better place with their original dining chair works.
John G Williams ("JGW") answered Design Interview ("DI") questions about their award-winning work Zene Dining chair. Interview questions prepared by Frank Scott.
JGW : The main idea behind the Zene dining chair is to provide a seating experience that is extremely comfortable over extended periods through careful attention to the key ergonomic aspects of the design. The chair takes its inspiration from richly grained indigenous hardwoods. A variety of wood types are selected for the seat/backrest combinations, and the repeating theme of the white ash frames provides cohesion to the series.
JGW : I was interested in building something that was intriguing and beautiful. Something that seemed really simple and elegant, and yet which was far hard to detail, build and finish than might immediately appear. I wanted to achieve a strong and practical piece that through careful design would appear much lighter
JGW : I conceived and built this design on a speculative basis. My dream would be for a major design company or production house to fall in love with it and seek to make it available in limited quantities.
JGW : The core aspects of the design were thrashed out over a few weeks during which time the coopered chair components were fine tuned in softwood. The first hardwood chair slowly emerged over the next few months. After a delay the full set of 6 chairs was then put together over the course of a few months.
JGW : It was a personal project, inspired by my love of hardwood timber. And my desire to build a chair that was truly comfortable
JGW : My design is not yet in production – I currently own the rights outright. I would be delighted to discuss the sale or lease of the rights
JGW : I love chair design – the Danish Design Museum in Copenhagen is one of my favourite places. Having built a dining table a while ago, I have been contemplating designing and building a set of dining chairs for the family for some time.
JGW : The curved forms were inspired by the Ontario furniture maker Adrian Ferrazzutti who was generous with his support and advice. These shapes in turn drew on centuries of barrel making craftsmanship . I love Hans J Wegner’s designs. The CH24 wishbone chair is iconic. But perhaps the simpler CH20 Elbow Chair is a more direct inspiration for this design. It think the departure from the Danish Modern school is seen in the frame, which joins simple tapered pieces to give the illusion of a flowing frame; and in the seat design which is shaped from solid timber
JGW : I think this design would be unapologetic in its market positioning – it would not be cheap to make, and it would be targeted at the discerning customer who put high store in high quality and long lasting design.
JGW : I think the design is striking for its contrast between the light ash frame and the richly coloured hard wood. I think this combination of the two colours is quite striking. More typically one would see furniture that was either very light in colour, or altogether a heavy hardwood feel. This attempts to get the best of both worlds: the light modern frames showcasing the beautiful hardwood seats.
JGW : Zene is Hungarian for ‘music’ or a harmonious sound. I want these pieces to sit as different and interesting pieces and yet in a harmonious way. To sing together. Zene is also an African name meaning ‘beautiful’, or a Greek name meaning ‘friendly’.
JGW : I designed this in a very old fashioned way. I visualized what I had in mind, captured a few ideas in some simple pencil sketches, and then proto-typed the ideas in low cost softwood.
JGW : I think the combination of the light ash frames with the rich hardwood seats and rests is unique. I think the floating shape of the hardwood seat and rests are also distinctive
JGW : This was largely a one man project. My father is a retired design teacher and he helped build the chair frames and gave various inputs.
JGW : I am an engineer by training and so I built various jigs and fixtures to help me produce these chairs. I modified my some of my basic machine tools to produce the compound tapers that were required in the backrests, and others to then machine the sub assemblies to final form.
JGW : I set out to make a chair that I found profoundly comfortable. Then I tested it on friends and family. So my research was empirical and based on immediate market feedback
JGW : The geometry was quite hard to get right first time. When producing the chair seats, I machine the edges of the numerous boards to an included angle of 1.0 to 1.5 degrees so that when I glue them together they take up the gentle curved form that I desire. This took quite a lot of experimentation.
JGW : I thought it would be fun to submit my design to international scrutiny and see how well this compared with other professional designers
JGW : To be more patient. And to be more intentional about designing more repeatable to work, to make it easier and safer to make repeated numbers of chairs
