My BFA project at the Memphis College of Art, the Mino Chair is my first foray into the world of furniture design. Since beginning my study of Graphic Design, I have come to realize that to be a designer is not simply to manipulate 2D imagery. Design is a way of thinking that can and will be applied to all media and formats. Designers are problem-solvers that seek out all manner of challenges to provide a solution to. It is this idea that led me, a major in graphic design, to present a piece of furniture as my final senior project.

I once thought that art and design were about making things look pretty. Now I understand that design especially is about making things work, and work well. Function is greater than aesthetic. In order to be a great designer, one's primary goal must be to create something that works the way an audience wants or needs it to work. Always think about the end user, whether its a microwave you're designing or a poster for a concert.

For my BFA, I wanted to create something that resonated this idea. In order to this, I knew that the piece must be interactive, it must physically, not just visually, engage the viewer. I thought of many digital and electronic pieces that a viewer could interact with through movement or projection, but these faded away as I considered how non-essential their functions would be.

I ended up choosing a chair because the existence of such an object is based entirely on its purpose. Can something really be called a chair if you cannot sit in it? While it may seem a simple or obvious goal, mine was to make a object that fulfilled this question. I also imposed other criteria on myself as to how what the specific end-user goals of the chair were: comfort and stability.