Erin Parker
BA Furniture & Product Design
As a visionary furniture and product designer, I believe that design should be honest and made for a purpose. I have adapted a user-sensitive approach, balancing form and function, and develop my design work through sketches, models and CAD renders.
Connect
Connect takes the function of the humble yet redundant old telephone seat and adapts it for modern day problems. With an ash frame and boucle upholstery, Connect is a place to sit and lean for quick mobile phone calls in the hallway of a domestic environment away from others. Taking a call in a room with others can be perceived as rude. Unfortunately, in a technology filled world, this behaviour is becoming increasingly common. When coats are placed to the coat hooks, they act as an acoustic barrier to keep the conversation even more private. The tactile boucle gives the user something to fidget with, a behaviour humans have adapted to do during phone calls to fill the void in our brains of what we usually experience with in-person interactions. The purpose of Connect is to keep people more connected but in a more private and polite manor.
Vine
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, people are now starting to appreciate the social lives they once took for granted. 'Vine' is a freestanding wine table, designed to be situated between two people sat on sofas or armchairs. The bright blue Formica creates a contrasting modern twist with the raw plywood edge finished with beeswax. The top surface allows enough space for two wine glasses, and a cut out large enough for a bottle of wine to drop down to the shelf below. There are routed shapes on the shelf below to store two glasses, preventing them from collecting dust when not in use. Vine facilitates intimate socialising in a post pandemic world. The bottom shelf contains space for an optional ice bucket, broadening Vine's application to chilled wines. Easy to both produce and assemble, Vine is made from only six laminated birch plywood pieces, which are cut on the CNC for accuracy and consistency. All of the joints are dry which gives Vine the option to be disassembled easily.