Searching for advice on career transition from theatrical carpenter to
furniture design/build. Have a degree in architecture, 7+ years
theatrical carpentry/welding experience. Have designed and built small
pieces for my own home. Have designed theatrical sets. Ultimate goals:
run own shop design/building one-off furniture pieces for clients, and
design pieces for production as well. My design aesthetic is
somewhere around Eames, Bauhaus etc, so I'm not looking for
apprenticing to your standard wood table maker. Interested in wood,
metal, plastics, other materials. Looking for high design aesthetic.

What should my next steps be? Will consider graduate degree programs
or apprenticing in design firms or ?? Please provide multiple options
for degrees and apprenticing, particularly focused in the San
Francisco Bay Area, though will consider graduate school elsewhere in
the US. Also interested in individual designers local to San Francisco
with whom I could have informational interviews or apprentice. Not
interested in vocational training or Labor Bureau apprenticing (i.e.
for union carpentry jobs).
Thanks.

Hi designsf-ga,

Ok, I’ve searched high and low and here’s what I’ve found – a few
places to seek apprenticeships, some schools in your area, some
furniture designers near you, and some formal organizations for
furniture designers.

I’ve also learned a bit along the way. Furniture design seems to come
under the auspices of “industrial design, ” so using that as a search
term helped. Also, it seems that lots of people do apprenticeships,
but finding those openings is not an easy task.

A search for: FURNITURE DESIGN APPRENTICESHIP yields lots of resumes.
Only by going through those resumes can you find who the student
apprenticed with. This kind of search makes it almost impossible to
narrow the search down to San Francisco, or even California. Adding
the location to the search term merely finds you a designer in NJ who
apprenticed in OH and once exhibited in San Francisco, in 1974.

Some of the designers I’ve listed came from other people’s resumes
where they indicated they had apprenticed with that designer.

I didn’t search for schools beyond San Francisco. The scope was just
too big. But I have provided you with two sites to search schools
yourself, by major, degree, and state.


===================================
APPRENTICESHIPS AVAILABLE 
===================================

Baulines Crafts Guild - Master/Apprentice Program
(a.k.a. California Contemporary Craft Association)
http://finecraft.org/

-------------------------------------

The Philadelphia Furniture & Furnishings Show 
http://www.pffshow.com/frameset.html

Mentors seeking apprentices
http://www.pffshow.com/apprenticeship/findmentor.html

 *although nothing listed in CA (mostly east coast), this site is
updated weekly, and you can advertise a search for a mentor on it
here:

Apprentices seeking mentors
http://www.pffshow.com/apprenticeship/


==================================
MFA in FURNITURE DESIGN
==================================


THE ACADEMY OF ART COLLEGE – SAN FRANCISICO
http://www.academyart.edu/home.asp?s=grad&w=ids


THE SAN FRANCISCO INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTURE
http://www.sfia.net/MastArch.asp


CALIFORNIA COLLEGE OF ARTS AND CRAFTS
http://www.ccac-art.edu/cgi-bin/dad?dbase=mainpages&record=Programs_Main
  *may only offer BA in Furniture Design 


============================================
POSSIBLE CONTACTS – Furniture designers in SF and area
============================================


Dennis Buchner Design
2235 Laguna Street, #204
San Francisco, CA 94115
Tele: 415/921-3306
Fax: 415/441-7799
Email: Buchner@designfinder.com

http://www.designfinder.com/buchner/

----------------------------------------------------------------

Heitzman Studios  - Roger Heitzman
roger@heitzmanstudios.com
 (831) 438-1118
(831) 438-4043 Fax
750 Whispering Pines
Scotts Valley, CA 95066

http://www.HeitzmanStudios.com

-----------------------------------------------------------

Jeffrey Hunt Woodworking 
775 Yosemite Ave. 
San Francisco, CA 94124 
phone: 415/822-3241 
fax: 415/822-3241 
contact: Jeff Hunt 
email: JeffHunt@CustomMade.com 
website: www.jhwoodworking.com

Norman Petersen
Norman Petersen & Assoc 
459 Clementina St 
San Francisco, CA 
(415) 543-5522 

http://206.204.3.133/dir_nii/sup_petersen.html


=====================================
ORGANIZATIONS
=====================================

AMERICAN SOCIETY OF FURNITURE DESIGNERS
http://www.asfd.com/default.asp

The bottom of their LINKS page has a good directory of schools
offering programs in Furniture design:

College and Graduate Design Programs
http://www.asfd.com/Links.asp


-----------------------------------------------------------

THE FURNITURE SOCIETY 

MEMBERSHIP LIST – SOUTH WEST
http://www.furnituresociety.org/frames/fdirect/home.shtml

MEMBERSHIP LIST – NORTHWEST
http://www.furnituresociety.org/frames/fdirect/home.shtml

--------------------------------------------------------

The quote below lead me to the company: 

Burnett & Sons Planing Mill & Lumber Co 
1th & C Sacramento CA 95814  
 916-442-0493 
(they do not seem to have a website)

“McKeown joined on in 1995, after an extensive apprenticeship at
Burnett & Sons planing mill, specializing in doors, windows and curved
shaper work.”

http://www.californiatourandtravel.com/categories/furnishings_13.html



=================================
FIND OTHER SCHOOLS
=================================

Art Schools
http://www.artschools.com/

Petersons’s Graduate Schools
http://www.petersons.com/GradChannel/code/search.asp?sponsor=1

Previous Google Answers Question re: Art Schools
https://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=66853



So, that should give you a good start on your new career path. If
anything I’ve said isn’t clear, please feel free to ask for
clarification.

-K~

Search terms

“Furniture design” MFA
“Furniture design” apprenticeship
“Furniture design” apprentice
Furniture “industrial design” apprentice
Furniture apprenticeship California
"Industrial design" furniture apprenticeship California
"Furniture designer" San Francisco

…and every other combination of the above.

Thanks, this is very helpful. Additional detail about other graduate
schools would have been helpful, or details about the style of the
designers below, but this is a great start. Thanks.