Conversations in Design
Conversations in Design was an evolution of the talk I gave at AWR L!VE: Tools for Design in 2017 and the article I wrote in AWR#101 – Making More of Design. It has grown out of a perceived blindspot I believe exists in the woodworking community – we’ll discuss to the death techniques to improve our making (tails first? pins first? bevel angle? best glue?), but design is never discussed with even remotely the same rigour, debate or frequency, despite being as critical to the success of our work. Woodworkers don’t want to go there. The result is that it is not uncommon to see the most intricately crafted, yet rudimentarily designed work. Unquestionably virtuoso examples of craftsmanship…but they’re ugly.
Early on in 2019 John Madden approached me to let me know he was running Wood Dust* again this year, this time at Fab9 – the new maker space in Footscray, Melbourne. Wood Dust is a new event which looks to deliver more of a conference style offering. He’d themed it ‘Designer Maker’ and wanted me on board
