Considering a Career in Furniture Design? Read This

If the art of making furniture interests you – the lines, details and intricate designs – then you just might have a niche at furniture designing.

This is a profession that requires you to push creativity and innovation to new lengths. Take IKEA for example, any person in America would recognize them to produce unique, sophisticated, and timeless designs. These are the challenges any furniture designer face.

A career in furniture designing would require you to have a formal training. This is for the reason that along with creating design, you also have to consider the functionality, safety and financial aspect of a work. You can learn to do so with the right concepts and methods which you can learn under formal training. If you are going to work at a company or firm, you have to generate designs using computer programs such as AutoCAD, provide clear sketches and make prototypes. All these can be provided in schools that have an excellent curriculum which also keeps up to date with what’s current.

Aside from school, you also need to take it upon yourself to research and study on materials, designs, style and genre. This will provide you with better ideas and inspiration to come up with interesting pieces. You should not be restricted by certain forms, but rather be bold and learn to tread uncharted waters, if I may say so.

To be a furniture designer also requires the skill to operate various tools. You need to know how to manipulate your materials and blend the right pieces together. You have to have the eye for seeing the potential in a piece of wood, metal, plastic or marble. Resourcefulness is definitely one skill that needs to be enhanced in this kind of profession.

In this field it is also important that you know how to make connections and foster ties with people. You will be coordinating with architects, craftsmen, production managers, design engineers and other marketing staff. If you want your brand to be pushed to the forefront, you need to work well and impress these people. It is a competitive industry and knowing the right people, will help the million others to take notice.

Furniture designers, especially those who caters to companies, hotels or other establishments, it is important that along with your designs, you also need to know how to come up with a good cost for materials and labor. You need to present to clients the safety of a design, its durability, as well as the manufacturing process and techniques. You need to consider the fact that it will be for mass production, so you have to know how to come up with a reasonable budget.

In some cases, you might also be asked to produce limited edition pieces. This would be the time where you can stretch the budget and creativity a couple of notches more.

To widen your knowledge and scope, it also helps if you attend training, seminars or workshops. You can also keep yourself updated with local and global trends in design.

Most furniture designers prefer to do freelancing, while others prefer to work for design consultancies or furniture manufacturers. Those independent designers however need to juggle their time between designing and marketing the products. They have to attend fairs and exhibitions to get their designs noticed. Some would also choose to do collaborative work with other designers, or maybe certain projects with certain brands.

Overall this is a job that was known to gain good returns. Furniture designer jobs could earn as much as $34, 521 – $70,469 yearly, with an hourly rate of $11.45 – $24.57, according to PayScale data.