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Green
Is Green, A Furniture Designer Gets It Right -
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John Hefter, November, 2005
Building a modern home theater in a classic home doesn't mean you
have to go retro. You just need a little advice and some solid solutions.
Technological design reflects the style of the
times. And if a picture says a thousand words, the one above tells
the story of the '50s, when brown and green were the colors du
jour and television was not advanced enough to be flexible. The
word "appliance" had
just become a household term, and the novelty of home appliances
made their unwieldy dimensions permissible.
Read
Full article here.
Finishing Touches
Lean, Clean and Green
"De" Schofield
11/01/2005
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The enduring appeal of Arts and Crafts-styled
furniture resonates from its pure, clean-lined aesthetic—which
has become a Green Design philosophy. As one of the
leading creators of Arts and Crafts furniture, Green
Design takes a prescient, iconoclastic approach to
artisan workmanship.
“Our goal was to figure out what would happen if we approached
the design and crafting as if the rules of convention were no longer
in effect,” says founder/inventor Douglas Green of his 11-year-old
enterprise in Portland, Maine. That unconventional philosophy led
to the design for the Neehi Media Console, an all-in-one package
available in three sizes—55, 72, and 84 inches long—to
accommodate the full range of plasma, LCD, and thin-profile rear-projection
TV screens.
Baffled that display options had not kept pace with the proliferation
of flat-screen TVs that have flooded the marketplace, Green had
an epiphany, which became his mission statement. Today, his beautiful,
eco-friendly Neehi—which is handcrafted in sustainably harvested
American cherry wood—places the center of the screen at eye
level for ideal viewing, manages to store the accompanying components,
and provides intelligent wire management and access through its
installer-friendly, removable back panels and ventilated shelves.
Optional features include open shelving or doors with wood or textured
water-glass panels, and a choice of vented or solid cherry adjustable
shelves. The two larger sizes can be outfitted with a center speaker
shelf and/or drawers.
Building upon an Arts and Crafts tradition, Green Design produces
less than 1,000 pieces of furniture per year. The Neehi Console
is now the most successful product in the company’s history.
Price: $6,950, as shown in solid American cherry wood with wood
or glass doors, four shelves, and two drawers (800.853.4234 or www.greendesigns.com)
An industrial designer in New York City, Douglas
Green could have picked almost anywhere to start his own furniture
manufacturing business. Without a second thought, he chose Maine.
Full
Article here.
May 2005 - Green Design Furniture
just announced the new Neehi Collection, created for thin-profile
television owners in search of a media console that is both elegant
and efficient. The single most successful product introduction in
Green Design's history, the Neehi media console has set a new standard
for flat screen home theater displays.
"Douglas Green has raised the bar by creating
a brand new category of intelligent yet elegant flat screen TV displays,"
says Steve Hayes, former president of the Custom Electronic Design
& Installation Association, and Owner of Maine-based Custom
Electronics. Full
article here.
Gov. John E. Baldacci presented the 2005 Governor's
Award for Business Excellence to Green Design Furniture.
Green
Design Furniture was featured on HGTV! You can check out a QuickTime
clip of the show by clicking on of these links:
Bigger
Version (14.4MB)
Smaller
Version (5.5MB)
Don't have QuickTime? You can download a free version here.
Coming Attractions
When you combine a man's love for furniture
and his love for high-end components, you get green Designs
new S2 Media Armoire, from furniture designer Douglas Green.
The solid cherry cabinet has removable back panels, so you
can ire your system in place. The strategically placed holes
inside the cabinet keep the wires nice and tidy, while adjustable
shelves on movable slats provide ventilation for your components.
The $7,680 unit measures 64 inches high by 55 wide by 28 deep
and will complement any home theater.
Green Design Furniture
- Coming Attractions-"Green Design
Furniture," Home Theater, September 2004 |
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by Maria Lapiana
Cool and close to the floor, the mattress on
a platform bed is firmly supported by the bed's frame instead
of a box spring. It's a low, lean, sophisticated look... The
S2 platform bed from Green Design is based on a Japanese design,
with a difference, says owner and designer Doug Green. "In
a Japanese house, the bed is right on the floor. By lifting
it up, and giving it a surround, it's a way of creating a
pedestal for the bed. It makes it a place of honor."
-"The Lowdown on Platform Beds,"
Inspired House, July/August 2004
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Products page
The company's new Series2 (S2) collection
combines added function with gently curving lines for a lighter,
more contemporary look. This bed incorporates elements of
conventional and platform designs. The mattress rests on ash
slats below the surrounding cherry ledge to create a lighter,
floating profile. The headboard is angled at the ideal pitch
for reading.
- PRODUCTS-"Green Design Furniture
S2 Platform Bed," Wyoming Homes and Living Magazine, May/June
2004 |
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Finds
Green with Envy
Most people might not consider the pieces of furniture pieces
of art, but the makers of Green Design furniture would beg
to differ. One of the few artisan furniture manufactures in
the U.S., Green Design builds furniture on the tradition that
began in the Arts and Crafts movement and hand crafts black
cherry board into unique pieces with contemporary flair..
1. Sideboard Table (40"H x 60"L x 18"D) with
three drawers and two frame and panel drawers. 2. Petite Armoire
(34"H x 39"L x 21"D) with two adjustable shelves
for extra storage. 3. Demi Armoire (50"H x 39"L
x 21"D) with water textured glass doors.
-finds- European Homes & Gardens,
"European Homes
& Gardens, May/June 2004
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Custom Artwork & Furnishings
Manufacturer of Arts & Crafts-style furniture
in solid cherry: beds, desks, chairs, sofas, end tables &
a full line of office furniture; using sliding dovetail joinery.
-CUSTOM ARTWORK & FURNISHINGS-Period
Homes, Spring 2004
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New Products
The Green Design S2 Audio Cabinet is perhaps
the very most elegant solution for those with sufficient taste
to appreciate the fact that new, custom-made audio furniture
can both do its job and not look out of place next to period
Stickley antiques. The Green S2 Audio Cabinet is truly made
to fine furniture standards yet it solves the problem faced
by many interior designers, lots of vertical space and insufficient
horizontal area. This graceful design (and its companion S2
Media Armoire) offers convenient, removable back panels, wiring
accommodation, six adjustable shelves (five shown), and is
either vented or solid. The owner may choose either solid-wood
frame-and-panel doors or rippled, water-textured glass doors.
Related furniture includes loveseat, armchair, S2 coffee table,
sofa, and étagères. Dimensions are 55.5 H by
30 W by 24D.
- NEW PRODUCTS,-"The Green Design
S2 Audio Cabinet," The Audiophile Voice, Vol. 9 Issue
6
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The Home By Design Furniture:
An interview with Doug Green
Once in a while someone or something comes along that sets the trend
others have to follow. Green Design Furniture is one such company
that has set new standards in furniture design writes Paul Disney.
Tucked away in Portland, Maine, USA must be one of
the best kept secrets state side of the Atlantic. Green Design Furniture,
a small artisan furniture making company is producing some of the
finest furniture that I have seen for some time. Crafted in Cherry
Wood, the 'Series 2 Designs collection' takes its cue from Far Eastern
architecture and decorative arts. The whole concept uses the Arts
and Crafts style of the late nineteenearly 20th century and
the furniture literally speaks for itself.
Doug Green, designer and founder of the company says
the secret of its success lies in his acknowledgment of 'what relevant
design tradition is in the 21st century.' He said: 'When you look
at the history of the American decorative arts, especially furniture
design, there is an especially strong link between technological
innovation and the emergence of new styles and movements...In our
times it is also quite true that mass production manufacturers have
turned their back on the tradition of craftsmanship and lost any
connection to values of authenticity in materials and design.'
What he refers to is furniture built in the 'American
traditional style.' The invention that is the structure for every
piece of furniture produced by Green Design Furniture, a patented
method of construction that dispenses with the need for any metal
or plastic fasteners. All of the components slide and lock together
using a series of engineered and crafted sliding dovetails that
are integrated into the designs. So another influence is the construction
method itself, which creates a kind of visual design vocabulary.
The 'Series 2 Designs collection' reflects an exploration
of form and content. Together combining function with gently curved
lines to create a lighter more contemporary look. 'You could say
I'm a big fan of Japanese design, but my American roots are usually
showing,' says a very talented Doug Green.
Download the PDF (2.8MB).
Need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader? Get
it here.
For those who appreciate the artisan tradition and
the value of inspired design, Green Design is a company you should
definitely investigate. This superbly crafted furniture made of
beautiful cherry wood is also innovative in its engineering. The
furniture is shipped unassembled via Fed Ex and requires no tools,
no glue and no fasteners. The components fit precisely and lock
easily into a solid structure. A fascination with the form and functionality
of traditional Japanese wood joinery and a cramped NYC apartment
provided the inspiration for this furniture created by designer
Douglas Green. Especially intriguing are his side chairs, with a
sliding lumbar support that adjusts to the shape of your spine,
a truly comfortable chair for lingering at the dining room table.
In addition to chairs, there are tables, desks, beds, sofas, bookcases,
bureaus and more. Its simplicity and elegance are reminiscent of
the Arts and Crafts movement as well as Japanese design.
-"Homing in... Architectural Digest Home
Design Show," The Home Monthly, June 2004
An industrial designer in New York City, Douglas Green
could have picked almost anywhere to start his own furniture manufacturing
business. Without a second thought, he chose Maine.
Green, a Bowdoin College graduate, felt that
Maine had a critical mass of talented craftspeople, as well as a
reputation for workmanship and creative freedom. In 1994, he opened
Green Design Furniture on Portland's Commercial Street.
Today, Green has 14 employees and an expanding business
that sells $4,000 dining room tables mostly to out-of-state customers.
His business isn't unusual in Maine, Green said, just under-appreciated.
"Entrepreneurial life in Maine is vibrant,
but not organized," he said. We don't have lobbyists."
Green and those who say artists, designers and other
creative professionals can make a larger contribution to Maine's
economic health will have a forum this week in Lewiston, at the
first Blaine House Conference on Maine's Creative economy.
Green is scheduled to serve on one of the panels.
A goal of the conference is to acknowledge and examine the factors
that draw creative people to a place because that's where they want
to live, not because there are specific jobs available...
At Green Design Furniture, Douglas Green said the
conference is coming at the right time. There's a growing backlash
by consumers, he feels, to the flood of inexpensive, low-quality
merchandise found at major retailers. The artisans and designers
in Maine can tap into that trend.
Green said he would like to see state government
invest more in helping these businesses grow, as opposed to providing
tax incentives to corporations that take much of their profits out
of state.
Green Design Furniture has outgrown its 9,000 square
feet of leased manufacturing space. Green said he plans to move
to a new factory in the Portland area in the next year or so.
The creative economy conference, he said, may help
raise the profile of successful businesses like his and what they
need to grow.
"It's a wise thing to be looking at this
aspect of the economy," he said. "It's a natural fit for
what's here already."
- Tux Turkel, "Drawing on the creative side
of Maine," Maine Sunday Telegram, May 2, 2004
PORTLAND, ME-Celebrated Maine furniture designer,
Douglas Green, has created the S2 Audio Cabinet, in solid cherry,
for those who have more vertical space than horizontal using the
removable back panels, wiring and vented shelving features used
in all of the S2 Entertainment Collection. Also available is the
S2 Media Armoire, which has slide-away door panels that echo the
graceful curves of the cabinet's top. It is spacious and sturdy
enough to accommodate a 235-lb 36-inch television.
- ARCHITECTRONICS MODULE-"Green Design Furniture
Targets Custom Market," Residential Systems, April 2004
Green Design's Classic Desk, S2 side chair, and four-drawer
file cabinet are wonderful examples of the fine craftsmanship you
should expect from high-end office furniture.
- Michael Brown, "Work surfaces: The word
'desk' is just too confining for this burgeoning category of office
furniture," Home Computing, Issue 4, 2003
Prefer your TV not in view when not in use? Green
Design's Series 2 media armoire can keep it out of sight, but the
beautifully finished solid cherrywood cabinet may catch your eye
anyway. The top part can hold most 36-inch direct-view TVs, and
the lower shelves are adjustable for the height of your gear. There
are openings for internal wiring, and the back panels detach in
case you need to make way for a tangle of cables out to your receiver.
You can pick doors to suit your room: solid wood or rippled water-textured
glass. Overall dimensions are 55 x 64 x 28 inches.
-NEW PRODUCTS, Sound & Vision, June 2002
I love all the collateral materials I've ever seen
done for Green Design Furniture. They all tie together nicely and
create a great brand identity that goes hand in hand with this artsy
furniture company; nicely lit photos show their product in the best
light.
- Amy Barnes, "Top 100 Websites in Maine,"
Portland Monthly Magazine, May 2002
FURNITURE FOR A NEW FRONTIER - Green Design Furniture
breaks all the rules by combining traditional craftsmanship with
new cutting-edge technologies. Doug Green, owner and designer of
the Portland-based company, makes no apologies that his furniture
is not painstakingly labored over by hand, using the same tried-and-true
woodworking practices performed by our forefathers. Not only is
he proud of the design pieces he sells and stands behind the quality
of his products, but Green also celebrates the fact that his furniture
is made using innovative, modern technologies.
Before opening Green Design in 1994, Doug was an
industrial design consultant in New York City. He earned his Master's
degree in industrial design from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Prior to that he studied English and art history and worked as a
cabinet maker and furniture designer. Drawing upon his diverse academic
and professional experiences, Doug was inspired to develop and patent
a unique method of manufacturing furniture that employs a system
of interlocking joinery that eliminates the use of any type of screws,
nuts or bolts.
"I patented a system of assembling furniture
without the use of fasteners or tools or any secondary devices,"
says Green. "It's a precisely machined system of interlocking
joints, so that they won't work loose over time."
Green Design Furniture stands out, thanks to its
innovative manufacturing process and unique design. A piece by Green
Design also draws attention, because it is delivered in a box by
Federal Express-and the customer completes the final assembly. It's
a method unheard of in the world of upscale furniture, defying the
long-held notion that fine furniture can only come pre-constructed
and put together by a master craftsman.
Assembling a new piece of Green Design furniture
is an easy process in which each new component secures the piece
inserted before, and the final piece locks it all into place.
"As an invention, it's a really interesting
thing," says Green. We're combining high-end beautifully finished
and crafted furniture, with low-end, buy-it-in-a-box, bring-it-home
and put-it-together-yourself furniture."
Green Design has approximately 80 pieces of furniture
in its line. The most popular single piece of furniture is a solid
wood computer desk, designed with optimum functionality and a 46"
wide sliding tray. Only about 10% of the company's business comes
from Maine, with the rest from out-of-state residential sales. According
to Green, about half of the company's customer base is made up of
repeat customers, many of whom are collectors of Green Design furniture.
Green chose to leave New York and start his business
in Portland because he respected and admired Mainers' sense of independence
and non-conformist attitude. "Maine is a wonderful environment
for entrepreneurs," he says. "You have a lot of lateral
freedom, and not a lot of obstacles here. The greatest asset is
the people. They are collaborative and interested.
"There is also a great infrastructure for consultants,
and people who are knowledgeable. I'm able to access a lot of talented
people, in terms of management problems and all the different issues
of growth."
- Donna Gaspar Jarvis, "Furniture with an
Attitude," Port City Life, March-April 2002
PORTLAND, MAINE - Engaged in a quiet revolution, inventor
and designer Douglas Green is introducing a new line of home furniture.
Strong words to describe the graceful, elegant lines and meticulous
finish of these pieces. But the reference is to a rebellion against
conformity - and an affinity with the intention behind the Arts
and Crafts movement that spanned the turn of the last century.
Series 2 represents an evolution from Green Design's
earlier Mission-inspired designs into a new territory. As Stickley,
Mackintosh and Frank Lloyd Wright did in their time, Green advances
the tradition of embracing current technology, while reflecting
contemporary culture in his designs.
Green continues to explore the essence of function,
yet his forms are softer, lighter, more curvaceous. The S2 line
evokes a more feminine quality, epitomized by the new bed. It's
one of the pieces I'm most excited about," said Green. "For
me, it's what a bed should look like in the 21st century."
The S2 bed is a hybrid of conventional and platform
designs. The mattress and surrounding cherry ledge give the impression
of a bed floating above the floor. The headboard is angled at the
ideal pitch for reading.
The Series2 dining table features a gently curved
top with a beautifully sweeping undercut edge. New dining chairs
actively flex to conform to the spine's natural curve - offering
the kind of comfort rarely experienced in a straight backed chair.
Green Design has responded to requests for an entertainment
unit worthy of high-end electronics. The media armoire features
slide-away doors with rounded panels that echo the graceful curves
of the cabinet's top. It's spacious and sturdy enough to accommodate
a 235-pound 36-inch television. Those who prefer to place their
TV on a pedestal can choose the S2 Audio Cabinet. Both pieces provide
ample room for electronic components, including the stretch 400
CD multi-disc changer.
Green Design Furniture's Series 2 also includes collection
of occasional tables for the bedroom, hall, [and] living room, and
new computer desks for [the] home office.
- "New furniture line unveiled for century,"
Longmont Daily Times, July 14, 2001
In 1993,
we introduced the first furniture designs featuring the new assembly
system at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair in NYC.
Then, the goal was to find companies who would license the idea
for their manufacturing. We received a good deal of attention in
the trade press, but the most exciting of all was to be included
in Time Magazines list for the best designs of the year.
Douglas Green: ETA Furniture
ETA stands for easy to assemble,: and it is, since Green, a Maine-based
designer-craftsman, has conceived, refined and started manufacturing
the Arts and Craftsy pieces himself. They come in kits and are made
of solid cherry wood, not veneer. The component timbers are precisely
slotted and notched to fit without nails, screws or glue. In each
instance, the final component-for instance, the top of the dining
table- acts as a keystone to hold the item together. It's the 1990's
ideal: classic, ingenious, unpretentious, real.
This piece by Ann De Forest is one of the best in-a-nutshell
descriptions of Green Designs approach to designing and making
furniture.
Douglas Green's design mantra may echo the sentiments of Henry Thoreau:
Simplify, simplify. And his furniture, with its clean lines, tapered
silhouettes, and warm, rich wood surfaces, may evoke such Arts and
Crafts icons as Stickley, the Shakers, and Charles Rennie Mackintosh.
But Green, a cabinetmaker with a degree in industrial design from
Brooklyn_s Pratt Institute, is not your retro rustic woodworker.
His furniture, for all its craftsman's candor, hides a distinctive,
hi-tech pedigree.
Green's designs spring not from his commitment to
beautiful woodwork, but from his search for a more efficient, cost
effective method of furniture manufacture an a mass- production
scale. He discovered computer-driven routers, that is machining
centers capable of performing incredibly intricate tasks over and
over again. So what intricate task did Green decide to have the
computer perform? He chose the workworker's challenge and mark of
fine craftsmanship: the sliding dovetail joint. In the structural
system Green developed, the furniture pieces fit together, he says,
like a Chinese puzzle box. No screws or hardware are required for
assembly; each piece interlocks with the next.
Unable to convince major furniture manufacturers to
shift their paradigm, Green decided to go into the furniture-making
business himself in a more traditional crafts production shop He
had to engineer backwards, and adapt his designs to smaller machines
and the human hand.
Still the basic premise of Green Design Furniture--the
Chinese puzzle-box assembly--remains unchanged, and final assembly
is left to the purchaser. The finished chairs, tables, desks, bureaus,
and credenzas are shipped flat vialFedEx. We're the first and only
manufacturer of high-end furniture what can get a product into people's
homes in two days, boasts Green.
Green calls his approach craftsman programming--an
oxymoron, perhaps, to those who view hand vs. machine as an ideological
battle. But Green, who is as comfortable working in front of a computer
as he is sanding a tabletop by hand, refuses to be drawn into that
conflict: In today's world, with hand labor being as expensive as
it is, if a machine can do something beautifully, why not let it?
And while Green is quick to tout his method's revolutionary potential,
he also sees his work a part of a long tradition of American craftsmanship,
a tradition defined by invention.
For a profile of Dougs career, this article
by Peter J. Stephano is probably the best yet.
Inside the meticulously preserved, 130-year-old brick building on
Portland Maines waterfront, theres a showroom full of
solid cherry furniture. Its beauty is captivating. But its joinery
is genuinely ingenious. Shoppers in Green Design Furnitures
gallery-like space admire the dining tables, chests, chairs, computer
desks, beds, and bookcases made from rich lustrous wood. The lines
of the pieces look contemporary, yet somehow appealingly familiar.
None of the showrooms visitors, through, realize from their
first encounter that most of the furniture before them easily disassembles
to lie flat in a box for shipping or moving. Until they're informed,
they see nothing of the line's unique, patented, fastenerless joinery
system that makes quick take down an assembly possible. But to Doug
Green, the innovative woodworker who created the pieces and their
means of joinery, that's the mark of good design.
From woodworker to industrial design; a path of
creativity
"I realized only fairly recently that before
I was a veer a woodworker, I was an inventor, says Doug Green,
the founder and head of Green Design Furniture. As a kid in Scarsdale,
NY, he regularly took things apart and reassembled them in different
form. He was a born tinkerer.
"I went to college right here in Maine,
Doug continues, "then I taught preschool. But I got caught
up in the handcrafts movement of the late 1970's. And as a hobby,
I began woodworking..."
After two years of teaching, Doug got completely hooked
on woodworking, bought a full line of tools, quit teaching and opened
a little shop in Topsham, Maine. "I was doing custom furniture
and repairs, ad did it two or three years before getting a job as
a cabinetmaker with Thos. Moser," recalls Doug. "At that
time he had six cabinetmakers, up in the old Grange Hall in New
Gloucester. Each cabinetmaker was completely responsible for a piece
of furniture--a great learning experience for me."
Doug worked for Moser for a year, and during that
time followed his natural inclination to find better ways to do
something by designing jigs that sped up a process or refined it.
"It was fun, finding more efficient ways of doing things,"
he says. This phase of Dougs career would soon end, though,
(as he) enrolled in the graduate program for industrial design at
The Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York.
A look at the world through designing eyes
Pratt Institutes industrial design program was
nuts and bolts, according to Doug. It blended current manufacturing
technology with creativity to arrive at a product. It was about
materials and processes and how things were made in the world--
and conceptual problem solving.
As an industrial designer, you have to have
the freedom to question things, Doug explains. Sometimes,
when you become too expert in a field of knowledge, your expertise
limits your ability to ask questions and to innovate. At Pratt,
I was taught to become a generalist.
Easy-to-assemble furniture goes to the patent office
In the late
1980s Doug began sketching an idea for a take-apart sofa made
of the fewest possible components. It also had to be lightweight
and easily assembled and disassembled. In 1989, he started prototyping
his idea, but in chair form.
Doug experimented with many types of joinery, and
finally decided on the sliding dovetail as the key. I took
me a long time to figure out how to do the long, tapered dovetails
that enable the pars of a piece of furniture to interlock,
he says. When I finally got the chair done, it was a creaky
and unattractive piece of furniture with Baltic-birch plywood sides,
seat and back. Everybody who saw it thought that it was a very strange
looking piece of furniture, and it was. Yet, the joinery technique
worked.
Driven with the idea, Doug went to work making furniture
with the dovetail joinery. He made everything-tables, case pieces
and desks. By the time Doug was finished, he had 15 pieces of furniture.
Id also started working with a brilliant
patent lawyer, Abbot Spear, a then 87-year-old Maine attorney. He
came out of retirement to work on the project, Doug comments.
He filed a patent for me in 1992 that 30 claims for creating
different structures using the sliding dovetail as interlocking
joinery, and it was awarded in 1995. The reason that it is a patentable
idea was that during the patent search, we found out that the field
of self-assembling, or fastener-free, furniture was all tab-and-slot,
puzzle-type furniture. Mine was the first where joinery was part
of the furniture, and it wants visible when the piece was assembled.
The patent involved the order in which the pieces went together,
too. So its not the sliding dovetail thats patented,
its how you create the structures.
My idea was to get a patent on the process,
then license it to a big furniture manufacturer and get a realty
from every piece of furniture of my design that they sold.
Doug continues. My patent-applied for furniture and I got
a lot of attention in 1993. Then, I painfully realized that the
furniture industry as a whole isnt real progressive in terms
of design. As a result, I had this great idea, and not one seemed
to want it because it would involver restructuring how they make
furniture. One CEO told me that they couldnt keep their machinery
accurate enough to produce the precision needed in my furniture,
and they doubted that they could train their workers either.
The birth of a business: Green Design Furniture
Doug did have offers from large furniture companies
to buy his design outright, but after working on it for three years,
he wasnt about to give it away. So Green Design Furniture
was born.
Looking back on whats happened, its
like this idea had a will-a mind of its own, says Doug. This
space [a former pottery factory] became the companys first
store. The furniture I built with the help of one other guy in a
little shop in Brunswick, Maine. That was in 1994. Now I have nine
[eleven as of 2002] people in the production shop. Today, about
80% of Green Design Furnitures business comes via its catalog,
which customers order from advertisements in the New Yorker magazine
and the Wall Street Journal newspaper. At this writing, the companys
mailing list contained 30,000 names. Last year, 35% of the
people who ordered from us the first time, placed a second order,
Doug says. A typical first-time order is one piece, but we
have people who order $10,000 to $12,000 worth of furniture at a
time. A lot of that happens on the second or third order.
Theres a definite customer service aspect to
this type of business, too, according to Doug. Because our
furniture is shipped unassembled, it can go by Federal Express fast
and at a reasonable cost to the customer. For example, we got a
call this morning from a woman in Chicago who ordered and eight-drawer
dresser. We can put that on the Fed Ex truck today, and it will
get to her in two days from now. And with conventional furniture
and freight, theres a 24% chance that it will be damaged before
it gets to the customer.
We have less than one percent damage. And the furniture doesn't
seem to be bothered by humidity changes. I dont know whether
it the built-in tolerances, the cherry wood that all moves at the
same rate, or the joinery, but we dont have trouble.
And because the customers handle each component in
assembly, theres nowhere to hide anything less than the best,
even to the inside of a drawer. Thats why the craftsmen at
Green Design Furniture must keep the quality level high, from the
wood to the joinery, to the finish. Doug explains: Were
such a micro dot on the radar screen nationally, our reputation
for quality and customer satisfaction is of major importance.
Inside the shop, furniture components travel on
wheels
Although Dougs
furniture prototypes were done in ash, maple, cherry, and white
oak, Green Design Furniture now produces-except by special order-only
in cherry.
Unlike any shop that builds furniture in batches,
at Green Design youll never see it (except for straight-backed
chairs) being assembled until just prior to shipping. Because Doug
has designed the furniture to assemble without fasteners, the components,
such as table-leg assemblies and tops, can be shaped, joined, sanded,
and finished individually. And the parts travel from work station
to work station on carts. At shipping time, workers test-fit a furniture
pieces components, make any necessary corrections, then disassemble
them and wrap for shipment.
When we set up a production run, we do the setup for
each pattern. When we get the fit, we then can run all the pieces,
says Doug. Making furniture this way combines traditional
woodworking with this machining process. Part of each production
run is building components: ripping, planning, jointing, edge-joining-getting
them to uniform dimensions. When the components are done, we start
the machining of mortises and tenons, and routing the dovetails.
Its the dovetails that prove critical. The
engineering for the sliding dovetail is difficult because its
tapered, Doug says. That means that its wider
at the back and narrower at the front, so that it locks when fully
joined. We cut the female dovetail, which opens five thousandths
of an inch-little more than a hair- at an inverted pin router to
match the male tapered dovetail. I have designed three differed
router tables to make the male dovetails with accuracy. What we
are using is the third generation.
Basically, its a pattern router with a
linear motion bearing, he adds. Its a precursor
to a CNC [computer numerical control] machine that well design
someday to do the male dovetail with perfect accuracy. Until then
weve been able to closely simulate CNC technology manually.
Theres little doubt that Doug Green will in
the future have a CNC machine of his design. With childhood heroes
like Henry Ford and Thomas Edison, its a little wonder that
his greatest pride comes from his furnitures patent credit.
That reads, Douglas Green, Inventor.
I am very proud of PC Worlds assessment of our Geek Factor.
I didnt even know we had one until this came out.
A Few of Our Favorite Things
Elegance and Function for the Office
Constructed of high-quality solid mid-Atlantic cherry
wood, Green Designs pricey computer desk dares to combine
elegance and ergonomic functionality. The Green Designs desk arrives
unassembled, but putting it together is simple and fun. Most desks
consist of particleboard and screws, but this artisan-crafted furniture
uses interlocking joinery in the hardwood, so its five components
fit together in minutes, much like a jigsaw puzzle. Its the
first all-wood desk to have a full-length 45-inch sliding tray for
a keyboard, mouse, and papers. You can easily tuck computer cables
into an opening in the to of the desk, where theyre held in
place with walnut covers. Beneath the desk, brass clips help organize
the cables. Sure its pricey, but show us any last-a-lifetime
art that isnt.
Whats hot: Beautifully crafted ergonomic
computer desk is functional art
Whats not: Extravagantly priced.
Geek Factor: Low
Ihave tremendous respect for this writer, Suzi Parker. After all,
she has been the only reporter to notice my resemblance to a famous
movie star. As a matter of fact, shes the only person to notice
this resemblance.
Heirloom-quality pieces are shipped for you to
assemble
PORTLAND, MAINE
On a typical Sunday afternoon, Doug Green can be found
sanding furniture in his workshop, a few blocks from his spacious
showroom near Portland's waterfront. A few years ago, Mr. Green
packed up his bags, locked up his New York City apartment, and opened
Green Design here. He had an idea: Make high-end wooden furniture
that snapped together like jigsaw puzzles and could be shipped via
Federal Express to the young modern on the go.
His idea worked. Today, Green ships out Arts and Crafts
mission-style tables, computer desks, beds, bookcases, and sofas
that can be assembled and dissembled in a matter of minutes.
"I want people to see furniture as an investment,"
says Green, who slightly resembles a younger Richard Gere. "I
also want them to be able to keep a piece forever - an heirloom.
Furniture isn't made like that much anymore."
Indeed, most modern furniture has screws, nuts, bolts,
and glue that can weaken as years pass. It's hard for one person
to pack it up and move it from coast to coast. But not Green's designs.
He patented a method of manufacturing that utilizes the strength
of the wood to hold the piece together. This system of interlocking
joinery allows parts to slide and lock into each other. They can
be packed flat and shipped almost as easily as an airline ticket.
Ten years ago, he was living in New York, using his
bed as a couch. An industrial designer with a penchant for woodworking,
he wondered if there was a way to make a couch that saved space
and was easy to transport.
That's when he began experimenting with prototypes
that had sliding dovetail joints. One day, after many tries, he
succeeded.
"My designs worked, but I knew that to start
a business I didn't need to be in New York," says Green.
He headed to Maine, where he had worked as a cabinetmaker
years earlier. He chose Portland because of its history and attitude.
"This harsh climate has attracted gritty nonconformists
for years," says Green. "I knew I could get a good pool
of people to work here. There's a creative freedom here for people
who want to do their own things."
He opened his business on the waterfront, which was
shabby and run-down just six years ago. Today, the area surrounding
Green's showroom hosts funky antique shops, eclectic bistros, and
designer boutiques.
In his showroom office, Green designs all of the furniture.
Each piece is then handmade from Pennsylvania cherry wood. A perfectionist,
he hires people with little woodworking experience because he wants
to train them in his own methods.
He employs about 15 people; the average employee is
24 and has a college degree. In the workshop, associates - as Green
likes to call his employees - listen to punk band Siouxsie and the
Banshees, jazz great Charlie Parker, and Irish band U2 while turning
cherry wood into quality works of art for customers across the country.
Fifty percent of Green's business comes from the West
Coast. More than 47 percent of his customers are repeat buyers.
And at least 85 percent of purchasers buy the furniture from the
catalog or Web site (www.greendesigns.com).
This fall, Green will unveil two new dining-room tables.
He expects them to be popular, but no piece, he says, can compare
to the best-selling computer desk.
"If you are going to sit at a desk all day, and
sometimes all night, you better like that piece of furniture,"
says Green.
His computer desk is clean in design and functional.
It features a 45-inch sliding tray for keyboard, mouse, and papers.
Computer cables run through precision-cut openings in the top. It,
too, boxes up and can be shipped overnight.
This Japanese-influenced furniture isn't cheap. The
desk costs about $2,500 before shipping. A king-size bed runs $2,775,
plus $300 for Fed Ex delivery. A solid cherry bench is $875.
When Green started producing his "jigsaw-puzzle
furniture," he also began to design and fine-tune the manufacturing
process. For the past six years, he and his crew have invented,
fabricated, and perfected their own machines and production patterns.
The technique works. Last year, Green Designs was
a million-dollar business.
"Our business has caught on," he says. "We
now have a rhythm going, and it doesn't hurt that we have a great
track record with customers."
Green signs the first 100 pieces of a line. His keen
attention to detail and precision has earned him several prestigious
design awards.
In 1993, he was selected one of the top designers
of the year by Time Magazine.
In 1997, his designs received an award for "value
and versatility" at the Philadelphia Fine Furniture Show.
And Green's work isn't just in homes. A Green hall
table greets visitors in the Portland Museum of Art, which was designed
by renowned architect I.M. Pei.
A senior partner at a Washington law firm noticed
a small sketch of a table in the catalog. He called Green and asked
if he could adapt the design into a 23 foot-long conference table.
Green said yes and designed and delivered the table.
Buyers quickly recognize the quality of their purchases.
"The customer puts it together, so he will see
every aspect of the furniture from the inside and outside,"
says Green, who has been known to toss aside a piece that isn't
working.
"There's no fudging here. Every piece has
to be perfect."
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