Furniture & Cabinetmaking Magazine December 2009 Back Issue

As I write this in the middle of London Design Week I sense a general wave of excitement among the world of furniture and cabinetmakers, almost a feeling of a new beginning. Just when you think that as a nation we have become a little more design savvy, things happen to remind us that there can be no established preconceptions. There is a science and an art about design that makes possibilities endless and opinions infinite, but one thing is for certain: these worlds are still in conflict. Now that more of us recognise when the process of design has been used to shape the world around us, it seems the debate concerning the effects and consequences of this process are set to run without any real conclusion for a while yet. Interestingly enough the issue of furniture design is at the heart of the debate, and Andrea Hargreaves reports on this often emotive subject following her visits to the Furniture Futures symposium, the Telling Tales and Making the Future exhibitions, plus the 100% Design trade show.