Design Students Create Chairs to Special Effect  

Sixteen industrial design juniors at the University of Cincinnati’s top-ranked College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning are setting a new benchmark to gauge their skills: Creating chairs that reflect specific movies.

Led by Craig Vogel, director of the Center for Design, Research and Innovation at UC, and Dale Murray, associate professor of industrial design, the students are screening ideas and testing methods to construct chairs based on films that include

• A Beautiful Mind
• Band of Brothers
• Edward Scissorhands
• Equilibrium
• Fight Club
• Forest Gump
• Good Bye Lenin!
• Harold and Maude
• Lost in Translation
• Memphis Belle 
• Moulin Rouge!
• Rashomon
• Rebel Without a Cause
• Touch of Evil
• Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971)

“This is the project you look forward to for four years,” claimed Dana Vajen, 23, of Archbold, Ohio, who is fashioning a positively creepy chair based more on the 1971 version of “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory” starring Gene Wilder than on the lastest film rendition of  “Charlie and the Chocoloate Factory” starring Johnny Depp.  “The whole project is just so much fun,” she added, “And school’s easier when it’s fun.”

Vajen has seen both versions of the movie.  In fact, she figures she’s seen the Gene Wilder interpretation about 15 times.  However to reflect both films, Vajen is constructing a brightly colored design of wood, springs, hinges and foam that resembles nothing so much as a giant hand, palm flat and fingers upraised.  Upraised that is until you actually sit in the chair which somewhat resembles the bean-bag chairs of the ‘70s.  When a user sits in her chair, the upraised fingers, connected via hinges to the seat actually close in upon the sitter, not unlike a Venus flytrap.

Other ideas:

• Brian Sellers, 22, of Loveland, Ohio, is designing a chair that reflects the duality and conflict played out in the life of protagonist John Nash, who suffered from schizophrenia in “A Beautiful Mind.”  If you look at Sellers’ chair from one direction, it seems to have two solid wood arm rests rising up from a solid seat.  But look at it from the other direction, and you see that it’s not so.

• David Collins, 24, of Price Hill, selected a classic Japanese film, “Rashomon,” as inspiration for a chair design with conflicting interior and exterior views.  From the outside, Collins’ chair resembles a dull grey pod of industrial felt.  Unzip the pod and a smooth suede of saturated color is revealed.  Said Collins, “The movie examines one incident from four perspectives, so it’s looking at conflict, deception and objective truth.  So that’s what I’m seeking to convey with this design.”

• Lisa Kohanski, 26, from Toledo, Ohio, is creating a delicate “origami” chair consisting of a white, mesh stretch over a frame of lightweight tubing.  The armless chair, inspired by "Lost in Translation," has a subtley sloping back that curves into a seat resting on a clear polypropylene base. 

Vogel, instructor in the Industrial Design IV course, explained that he and Murray devised the assignment to teach a variety of lessons.  “Everyday experiences like going to the movies or sitting in a chair can and should be anything but humdrum,” stated Vogel.  “Designers constantly seek information and inspiration.  Traditionally, that’s come from the fine arts, architecture, literature or technology.  But movies are a major influence in modern life, and thus, perfect as inspiration for all forms of design.”

The students must complete their furniture designs for a public presentation at the college on Aug. 19.