The next exciting step

My year of placement has been quite a journey. I've been working for almost 6 months at Twentytwentyone as an e-commerce content manager. When I started, I wasn't sure what I would be learning from the job, but I've got to agree that my year with Twentytwentyone is nothing less than a massive learning experience. 

My interest in furniture design took a backseat as I got deeper into design management and cultures. Working in Twentytwentyone, being in constant contact with beautiful pieces of furniture has helped me put me back on track on furniture making. I also feel that I'm beginning to cement the design language I would like my work to have as I work towards my self-initiated project to build a line of furniture. Faye Toogood's Spade chair is one of the chairs I am in love with. Simple, geometrical, and minimal. The success of a few other designers and brands with Twentytwentyone have inspired me further and has given me the confidence to make the big move. Tiipoi and Maison Bengal, brands built around Indian design language have inspired me to look back to the material culture I grew up in for inspiration.

So what's next? As we come closer to the end of this Diploma and Professional Studies, it an exciting time for me as I leave Twentytwentyone in few days to start working on my own project fulltime. 

The idea of building open source furniture is an exciting one. It's democratic, inclusive, and a chance to explore the incredible manufacturing technology we have today is exciting. To achieve the truly open source furniture making process, I feel that understanding and redesigning furniture joinery is a necessity. This process if done right can make this open source designs more accessible by reducing the number of steps to achieve a usable, good looking end product. With this vision of open source furniture, my self initiated project will be concentrating on building 3D printable furniture joinery which can be downloaded by anyone everywhere. As I prepare myself to throw myself into this project completely, I'm extremely grateful to Twentytwentyone for giving me the opportunity to learn the business side of the furniture industry.

Jessy Heikrujam
Design Management and Cultures