I was indeed fortunate to have been given personal guidance and mentoring in my first years as a designer by such 20^th Century American furniture industry giants as E. M. Knabusch and E.J. Shoemaker at La-Z-Boy, Morrie Futorian and Elmer Klein at Mohasco, and Laurence Schnadig at the Schnadig Corporation. 

These men instilled in me a full appreciation of how important it is for any new design to be thoroughly thought over and worked out before going into production.  The outer appearance, comfort and ease of use are obviously very important elements to generate consumer interest in new designs, but that is only the beginning of good design.

Every aspect of the product must first be considered from maximization of raw material yields, standard parts utilization, and long-term performance, to the creation of new and original innovations and inventions.  Whenever possible, U.S. patents should be pursued to protect this very valuable intellectual property from being copied.

Good design should provide products that will sell over a long period before they need to be replaced.  These products should be designed to fit the manufacturing capabilities of the client causing no production bottlenecks, excessive purchased costs, or safety issues.  It should also have favorable material, labor, energy, and scrap, costs.  Today, environmental and ergonomic concerns must also be addressed.  Incorporating Feng Shui principals into our designs is also part of our philosophy.

Expert design should benefit all aspects of manufacturing and sales – by positively impacting the selling price, thereby making everyone’s job easier to do best of all, every sales dollar becomes more profitable on the bottom line of the balance sheet!  

Most importantly - in these times of rapid change - new products should seek to satisfy both the demands of today and the emerging needs of the future by identifying and developing new technologies trends and functions and integrating them into those designs at their conception.