Once you have a project in mind, know its general dimensions, function and where an how it will fit into its final space, it is time to develop a general but detailed plan. This will be your road map for the rest of the project. It may test your initial ideas, so be flexible and be ready to make adjustments. Everybody develops their own approach with time and experience, but here are a few simple design techniques I use. And as the design takes its final form, I add in as much detail as I can. Your plan should be detailed enough that when those daily responsibilities take you away form your project for a week or a month, you'll know right where you left off. The plan is your road map.
I use three simple techniques when I design a piece of furniture. First, I do a non-scaled sketch. I will include the general surrounding of where the piece is intended to go. Second, I do two side-by-side scaled one dimensional drawings front and side. You can choose your own method on how to scale your drawings. For me, I keep plenty of large sheets of quarter inch or 5mm graph paper around (if you can get yourself to design using the metric system, you'll never go back to inches). If there is any question as to size and dimension of the space intended for your piece, do a full-scale drawing. This will eliminate any doubts with respect to the placement of the piece.
Third, once I 
have the side-by-side drawings complete, I do a perspective drawing that gives a two-dimensional picture of what it will look like, say, up against a wall. To do a perspective drawing is easier than described here. For this example, I used quarter inch graph paper. Arbitrarily I did the following. In the center I made a point. Using my 1/4" scale I measure vertically up 6. At the bottom point I measured out to the left 12 and then up 12 and made a mark. Back at the bottom center point I measured out to the right 8 and then up 8 vertically and made my 4th point. Once you have those points, connect the center points vertically. At the outer point connect them diagonally to the top and bottom center points. In doing so you have now created a 1/4" scale grid that you can now transfer your one-dimensional drawing to. Thus giving you a two-dimensional scaled drawing.
Well that's it for now. Next time we'll talk about the detail that goes into your road map, The Plan. Comments? Visit us at http://www.bannerhillllc.com/ and see current class listings for the Spring/Summer of 2010.
have the side-by-side drawings complete, I do a perspective drawing that gives a two-dimensional picture of what it will look like, say, up against a wall. To do a perspective drawing is easier than described here. For this example, I used quarter inch graph paper. Arbitrarily I did the following. In the center I made a point. Using my 1/4" scale I measure vertically up 6. At the bottom point I measured out to the left 12 and then up 12 and made a mark. Back at the bottom center point I measured out to the right 8 and then up 8 vertically and made my 4th point. Once you have those points, connect the center points vertically. At the outer point connect them diagonally to the top and bottom center points. In doing so you have now created a 1/4" scale grid that you can now transfer your one-dimensional drawing to. Thus giving you a two-dimensional scaled drawing.Well that's it for now. Next time we'll talk about the detail that goes into your road map, The Plan. Comments? Visit us at http://www.bannerhillllc.com/ and see current class listings for the Spring/Summer of 2010.
