Curriculum - In depth Context Furniture MFG: beginnings of a mass customization company

(Images of Context Furniture’s chair illustration and first chair)
Context Furniture's belief in mass customization started with a very simple principle. Founders Bryce & Kerry Moore wanted to make a simple chair, but not just any chair. It was a specific chair design they would draw again and again in graphic illustration programs on their computer. They bemoaned the fact that they didn’t live in the “future” where they could input the design into a computer and a machine would output the chair or it’s components. The more they questioned why this wasn’t possible, the more they realized it might be – by using a combination of panel materials and CNC cutting methods.The concept of taking a simple two-dimensional graphic like a chair profile and producing an object was inherently exciting. There seemed to be no limits to what their imaginations could conjure in 2D and could be fabricated in 3D.

(CNC router working on a flat plywood panel.)
The pair started drawing multiple versions of the same design. In the stool variation, for example, all designs shared the seat pan, but different outside profiles changed the look and function of the object.

(The Narrative Collection stool variations
This was their first taste of mass customization. They launched the 14-piece Narrative Collections with the excitement of sharing this process with the world.

The repsonse to the Narrative Collection was positive, however the inherent understanding of the customizable process was hard for the consumer to grasp. Context decided to use a historical reference yet same modern process to explain their idea. The William & Mary Collection, which uses a iconic turned furniture leg as a flat graphic, was something the public could relate too. At this point the company also moved away from a solid process to component based constructions that allowed for even greater customization by mixing and matching parts.

In 2005, Context began working with Scott Klinker, 3D designer in residence at Cranbrook Academy of Art. Klinker approached them with his flat-pak ready to assemble designs. His concept and design approach dovetailed perfectly into the Context Manufacturing processes. Bryce and Kerry Moore’s dream of designing and manufacturing in a digital-to-digital process, one where a digital design is manufactured directly into a usable good, was fully realized. Currently, over half of Context Furniture’s production is based on design customized to client’s specifications.