The Table: Information Layout

Possible layout of information that is going to be printed on the table. Different text sizes, objects' positions and footnotes.

Research: Clothes-making Patterns

Two extracts from clothes-making patterns. On the top one the amount of information is massive, absolutely confusing and full of different lines. The original (these are just b&w scans) has also different coloured lines as well as different types of them like dashed, zig-zag, straight etc.
The second pattern is much simpler and most recent one. It obviously does not include as much information as the first one and is dedicated to a signle design for a woman's top. The shapes here are clear, the information is obvious and the ease of use is much better.
Legibility versus information then but for a personal opinion I would rather go for the top one and make my way through the info that I need to extract..

The Table: Information Map

The first map of information that should (or should not!) be included on the table.

The Table: Screenprinting Test

Screenprinting today! Well, just a test print of a series of lines and text on different sizes on a sample wood but nevertheless was another great experience. Let's go through it though:

This is the Leeds Metropolitan University Printmaking studio where it all happened. Normally a place with lots and lots of students but since end of student year was a couple of weeks ago, it was all left just to the few brave ones (who all seemed to enjoy the quietness by the way!).

I met Dick who was a great help (doing almost everything for me!) and straight on we started preparing the screens. After putting them on the UV light, we washed them and set up the actual screenprinter.

Printing on the test wood piece was not difficult or long to do but it helped me understand a lot of things that should consider for the next phase of the final printing of the table. The fact that the wood was not really well sanded created an uneven surface and therefore the ink could not lay on it properly. The thickness of the wood was also a small problem so we decided to screenprint without the base of the printer and do it on the floor. This should give us the flexibility to print to whatever thickness we want and even on the sides of the table (which was an unsolved problem until now!). Apart from this, all lines thicknesses and font sizes printed fine which was rather satisfying.

The Table: Experiments

Test layout for first attempts on screenprinting on wood. Just a series of lines, letters, numbers, symbols.

The Table: In the workshop (day2)

On the next day I was really looking forward to see how the wood was stuck and then start working on it, doing some actual design work. Everything was in place, we instantly started drawing the plan of the table on the wood and cutting it.

After a few experimentations on the sanding method we would use (including machine sanding, hand sanding or a smaller sanding machine that can easily give you wings and fly you around the room when tying to control it!), we ended up doing the table top on all the sides while seeing at last the actual shape of it coming in light. What a great enthusiasm we were getting of it! The table top started being formed and it was only the top and the bottom side left to sand (something that would prove rather exhausting in order to make the two separate pieces even).

It was the table legs time after that, something much easier and quicker.
Since the design of the table is pretty basic (a basic rectangle with four legs!), there was no need for special treatments, detailing or sculpturing the wood. Sometimes we tend to think that making something so simple is an easy thing and sure this table proved this wrong considering how precise all the joints should be, how vertical the pieces should be joined together or what a great mistake you can do by even hitting the table in a small corner while moving it around (and yes, I did manage to do this!).
After cutting the four legs, it was sanding time again and quite quickly we were finished with this too.
The only great reward we could have so far was to put the table together without actually using glue. The pieces have to stay apart until the next phase of this project will be finished and this is the screenprinting.

At the moment I am trying to research and design all the information that will be applied on the table, the ways it should be represented and the actual screenprinting tests that should start soon. Until then, enjoy this small video from the very last sanding of the table legs. How nice!

The Table: In the workshop (day1)

How optimistic we can be sometimes.. I mean I remember myself doing some work in the workshops of Leeds Met a few years ago when I started the -never finished- architecture course. I remember it as an easy thing that just needs concentration and good will. I mean how hard can it be cutting a piece of wood using the right tools and machines. How difficult it can be to measure and sand it afterwards, to organise everything in order to have vertical surfaces and angles.
Well it is..
We sure would not end up with a table if it was left to me. I mean drawing the 'box' on the wood was fairly easy but trimming the wood afterwards takes some great skill and on my first attempts I knew poor Asteris would have to almost do it all; and he did.



Since the wood was not wide enough we had to cut it in half, connect the two pieces together and let the glue dry for 16 hours. That would give us time to think, relax and get ready for the next day where all the fun should begin..

The Table: getting the wood

After a short research around Leeds in order to buy the proper wood, we ended up in ‘John Boddy Timber Ltd’, a great woodworkers superstore with quite a variety of different wood types.

I am saying we and here I should introduce a great friend that is involved (in great means) in this project, Asterios Christaras. Asterios is a civil engineer, living in Leeds and I know him for a few years now. One of his greatest interests is woodwork, making amazing little things with his magic hands. He managed to set up a personal studio in his attic, an amazing little place with hardly any health and safety regulations applied, great heat levels and a lot of dust and wood trims around. Just the perfect place for us, hidden from daylight or normality, our great exit to the magical world of woodworking..

So here we are, surrounded from lots of different types of wood in all sorts of colours (and price ranges!), ready to choose the right wood before we start cutting.

We needed something really light, with no other colour or extra finish, something that can be adaptable and neutral in order to apply –later on- all the information that is going to be printed on it.

We ended up with a sort of wood I had never came along before called ‘Spalted Beech’, a nice ‘white’ wood. We bought it, we tried fitting it in the car and we drove home. Later on we would start cutting it and drawing our first lines..

The Table: a quick introduction

A new project.

This project is about the creation of a table that will be designed in order not only to serve its purpose as a table but also demonstrate all the process behind it, its possible uses, the cost, the struggle, its history, the though process and hopefully the fun of making such an object.

It is true that things we see and use everyday are perceived as finished products, ready to be used according to our needs. In most cases, we can hardly realise the work behind such projects, the people that were involved working on them, the design, the hidden or possible uses.

I personally struggle to realise all these stories in most of the furniture around my house. When was the table that I use everyday for eating or studying, was made, how much did it cost, what wood was used to make it, what was the designer or the worker was thinking when he/ she was doing it..

And sure all this information is exceeding the amount of data we need. How a world filled with such small details would be if anything was so thoroughly explained around us is a thought that can surely lead us on the easy answer that all this is not needed.

But again, this is just a game. Just an experiment likely to prove me wrong, demonstrating that not all information is valuable, not everything is needed. Is there a way to embed all this into the actual design? Can graphic design become more than just the servant on such a design process? Can furniture design become one with graphics?