Become a Furniture Designer

Designing furniture is an exciting field that combines fashion and function. It’s a rewarding career if you’re looking for a creative, technical line of work. You’ll get to use your artistic and spatial skills and your imagination. Break into the field by going to school, interning, creating a portfolio, and seeking opportunities for continuing education and professional development.

Steps

Pursuing Your Education

1. Get a bachelor's degree from an art institute. You can also get a degree from a design program at a major university. Specifically, obtain a degree in product and furniture design or in furniture and interior design. This will qualify you for entry-level positions in the field.
2. Take courses that employers are looking for. You’ll need to study 3D and spatial design. Hone your required drawing skills in manual sketching and drafting classes. Be sure to study computer-aided drafting, which is a required skill for today’s job market.
   • Do coursework in upholstery or carpentering, especially if you plan to work for yourself.
   • You’ll also need to take classes about furniture, like furniture trends, the history of furniture, and furniture technology.
3. Find an internship or apprenticeship. Use an internship or apprenticeship placement program at your school. If you need to find your own, reach out to firms that focus on skills you want to develop. Prepare a cover letter and resume that highlight your specific interests in furniture design, coursework, work experience, and skills relevant to the company you’re applying to. Contact the firms that interest you to set up interviews.
   • In your resume, include classes and experience you’ve had specifically in furniture design, draftsmanship, CAD, and business.
   • You can also look for apprenticeships at furniture repair shops in your area.
4. Maximize the value of your internship or apprenticeship. Gain practical experience by collaborating with professionals on real-world projects. Include your contributions to those projects in your design portfolio. Impress your colleagues and supervisors by doing your best work and being dependable so you can use them as references when you begin your career.

Creating a Portfolio

1. Showcase your best work. Choose between five and ten of your best pieces to highlight in your portfolio. Pick pieces that demonstrate the breadth of your work. For example, if you’ve worked on seating, tables, and lighting design, use examples from all of those areas. Show your best work first.
2. Demonstrate the process. For each piece, include your sketches and other prototypes that led to the final design of the piece. Show your CAD models, 3D prints, and the results of testing and interviews you might have conducted in developing each piece. This will make your portfolio stand out and provide invaluable insight into how you work.
   • Show the finished product first. Add information about how you got to the final design second.
3. Use a simple layout. Pick a clean design that showcases each piece. Also organize your material clearly. For example, you might want a clear photo of each piece to be a single page, followed by information about its design, form, function, and process.
   • Make sure your portfolio is easy to look through.
   • Create an index so that specific work and information about your designs can be located quickly.
4. Keep the text minimal. Describe your work in a straightforward way, giving only the most pertinent information. Provide context to your work without being wordy or using long blocks of texts. These will distract from the visual nature of your work. Write short paragraphs or annotations for your sketches, models, drawings, and photos.
   • For example, give the title of each piece, tell it’s function, and you might include a sentence about your inspiration.
   • For a desk, you might say, “The Stolik Desk was designed for children. Drawers can be interchanged for both right and left-handed users. The legs can be extended as the users grow.”
   • For a floor lamp, you might say, “Drawing inspiration from the shape of the snap pea plant, the Fasol Lamp features a vivid green color and whimsical base with intertwining vines.”
5. Include a short bio. Describe yourself briefly. Include information that will interest prospective employers or clients, like your background, your professional goals, and your sources of inspiration. Again, don’t make this too wordy.
   • For background you might say where you come from and where you studied: “I originally come from Oslo and pursued my MA in Furniture and Interior Design from the Savannah College of Art and Design.”
   • You could combine your focus with information about your internship or apprenticeship: “My focus is industrial furniture design and I’ve interned at the Glory industrial design studio.”
   • If you have testimonials from professors, employers, or clients, include those.
   • Highlight any awards you’ve received for your designs or related skills. Include relevant scholarships.

Pursuing Professional Development

1. Read up on the latest trends. Keep up with improvements and changes in the field through publications related to the furniture design industry. Subscribe to professional journals. Also follow blogs and websites from professional schools and designers you admire.
2. Attend trade shows. Keep up with trends and the public's current tastes in furniture at trade shows. Bring your own work to display and sell. Talk with other designers about their current work and what is happening in their area of the country or field of expertise.
3. Join a professional association. Find a professional organization for furniture designers. Attend meetings to keep up with the newest trends. Attend panels and visit the exhibits at the meetings for inspiration.
   • During meetings, try to connect with seasoned professionals and ask about their career paths. You might even find a mentor willing to guide you in your career.
4. Network with others. Make connections with other designers at trade shows and professional association meetings. Be open and friendly, and let them know that you’re willing to share your talents and connections with them if it comes up. In return, you can reach out to them if you have questions, need advice, are looking to expand your clientele, or need help when you’re looking for a job.
   • Keep in touch with your classmates and teachers from design school as part of your professional network.
5. Take continuing education courses. Advance your technological and artistic skills through courses in topics you didn’t cover in your degree program. Or take courses that will teach you new methods so your skills stay fresh. You can even pursue an advanced degree like an MFA or an MA.
   • Attend workshops to learn how to make furniture from wood, metal, or other materials and use the proper tools.
   • Take business courses to help you learn how to deal with clients or to run your own furniture design business.

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