matt young furniture and graphic design

Matt Young is principal of Chung Design in Memphis, Tennessee. Since founding Chung in 1992, Matt has designed in 2D, 3D and everything in between. Although his client list is diverse, he has specialized in the paper industry for the last five years and has worked with every major printer in America. He has won numerous national design awards and his work is included in the permanent collection of the Museum fur Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg, Germany. His work extends from packaging, collateral, web sites, and posters to furniture design -- which, one might say, is his true love.

The Designetwork talked with Matt about the intersection of graphic and furniture design, and how they inform his process.

The Designetwork: Briefly, what is your professional history in terms of your educational training, the types of projects you started working on and where that has led you?

Matt Young: I received a BA from the University of Memphis. Towards the end of my Master's program, I was offered an amazing opportunity with a local firm. At the time, it was the best agency in Memphis and now has grown into one of the largest design firms in the Southeast. I worked there for six years, became a senior designer and then left to start my own firm in 1992.

In terms of furniture design -- my father was a chemistry and physics instructor but his hobby was furniture making. I was always in the woodshop with him. He created mostly early-American pieces and successfully built over 100 in his lifetime. Watching his ability to transform something beautiful and functional from simple pieces of wood instilled in me a passion for furniture design.

When I became a designer and my taste became more sophisticated, I became fascinated with mid-century furniture. I had spent a lifetime looking at all types of furniture design and now was able to determine what really moved and inspired me. It was then I started to design my first pieces.

About five or six years ago, when I had designed 30 different pieces, I was in the process of starting a furniture design business. We were able to make two pieces in that series and put a catalog together. Around that same time, Chung experienced tremendous growth and the furniture aspect was temporarily put on hold. However, I have been able to design a few pieces for individuals and see them come to fruition. I designed an identity for a private dining/entertainment club in Memphis and, through the course of that project, was also able to design a few pieces of furniture that they used. Watching something that I have designed come to life is always fulfilling.

TDN: At what point did you start to expand your focus to other areas of design, and what were the factors that caused that?

MY: When I was younger I had an interest in furniture design, but when I started school, all of my attention was focused on attaining my degree. After I became more confident and established in my career, I realized I wasn't designing anything for myself. It was all about solving other people's problems, doing all of the work -- and at the end of the day -- it still wasn't mine. I realized I had to balance the client work with design that was personal -- so I returned to furniture design. Something that I could call my own and that fulfilled me.

TDN: If you were not satisfied, disillusioned, burned out... Did the "new" discipline eventually give you a new perspective?

MY: Absolutely. No matter what job descriptions I am afforded, I am a designer, plain and simple. Whether I design graphics, furniture, or clothing -- I am still a designer. Venturing out into other aspects of design influenced the way I looked at other design projects as well. When I began designing furniture, I knew in order to make them realistic and functional, I would have to consult other professionals from the beginning -- such as wood mills, carpenters and cabinetmakers. This inspired a more collaborative approach to our graphic design projects at Chung. We began inviting printers, photographers, copywriters, etc. to each project at its inception for their input. Quite often, through this exercise, we were able to illicit great concepts from a printer or photographer. This collaboration was a byproduct of being able to broaden the role of "graphic designer" to "designer."

TDN: At The Designetwork, we like to expose people to the behind-the-scenes of the creative process. Once you started designing furniture, what was your creative inspiration?

MY: Throughout my career, my sources of inspiration have been extremely varied. In the beginning, I tried to mimic the design that was happening around me, and that worked for a while. But you have to evolve. The point at which a designer really matures is when they can put convention aside and open themselves up to other possibilities. Inspiration can come from almost anything; it's in the way you perceive and process it. Once I started getting more confident, I realized that the creative part is not the most difficult aspect of my job -- it's convincing the client that it will be the best solution. On any project I have worked on, I could come up with 50 different solutions. Figuring out which one best solves the problem is just the first hurdle -- the next twenty are getting the client to embrace your vision and believe in it.

TDN: How different is the process of designing a logo from designing a chair?

MY: A logo is really a great metaphor for comparing the two. A logo is a single, solitary statement -- that while initially may be visually compelling, it encompasses so many other responsibilities: does it convey the product/brand, is it understandable, does it transfer easily to other mediums, etc... Similarly, a chair must be functional, comfortable, light enough to move, etc -- and all of these things have to work in tandem. At first glance, the logo and/or chair design are usually judged by appearance only. What makes the design successful is it's ability to continue to work beyond the first impression.

TDN: What other multi-disciplinary designers are you familiar with? What have you learned from their approach and their work?

MY: One designer that has influenced me is Michael Vanderbyl. Even though he worked on a totally different scale, I find his experience similar to mine. Vanderbyl started doing graphic work for a furniture manufacturer that made high-quality, traditional pieces. Through the process of working for this company, he started to contemporize their image and eventually got the opportunity to design a piece of furniture that worked into a line for MV. He was able to determine his inspiration, evolve with it and then achieve his goal. This demonstrates not only the power of design, but also the importance of trust between designer and client.

Chuck Anderson (founder of CSA Design) was another influential person. Anderson met a man with a vault of old, original clip art (from early to mid-century) and saw the potential of these graphics. His work with these graphics started an enormous "nostalgic" trend in design in the mid-80's. Requests for his clip art during this time were so numerous, that he was able to start his own stock agency. But it was Anderson's self-realization about design that I identified with -- it was the same as I was beginning to conclude after many years in the business: I love the creative process and the challenges of the work, but everything that I design is for someone else. Talking with him gave me the opportunity to learn from his experience -- at some point we have to design for ourselves in order to be truly fulfilled.

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