Full disclosure: Ryland Quillen attends my alma mater of Savannah College of Art and Design [SCAD], so I’m a bit like a big sis bragging on her little brother – but with legitimate reason. Employers, take note – this native of Johnson City, 
Tennessee, is currently working on his BFA in Furniture Design, and if all goes as planned, he will walk across the stage with his diploma at the end of May. I became aware of him though a SCAD newsletter article that lauded his significant victory in a national design competition. So how did Ryland go from building an unattractive, uncomfortable chair out of 2×4’s and rusty nails when he was in middle school to having a furniture manufacturer putting his winning chair design into production while still in college” Boy, am I really happy to tell you.
What led you to pursue furniture design”
I had wanted to be an architect since I was in elementary school. I was unusually obsessed with skyscrapers, drawing futuristic cityscapes (complete with flying cars) in the margins of my notes and begging my parents for graph paper to draw my floor plans. Frank Lloyd Wright was also a personal hero of mine growing up.
When I was looking at colleges I began to see industrial design programs sharing spaces with the architecture programs. The industrial design projects the colleges displayed were way cooler than any of the architecture ones, so I gave up my childhood dream of architecture and began to pursue industrial design. Industrial design gave way to furniture design and I ended up in one of, if not the best, furniture design programs in the country.
I chose to pursue furniture design because I was interested in being able to create something aesthetically pleasing, yet still functional. In furniture design, there’s a constant battle between form and function. Say you designed this awesome lounge chair with these sweeping, organic curves. There’s one problem though, your lounge chair doesn’t fit the human proportion, so it’s ridiculously uncomfortable. Designing furniture is sort of like solving a puzzle, constantly trying to fulfill both form and function so you have a nice finished product.
What courses at SCAD have contributed most to your furniture design proficiency and confidence level”
My favorite furniture classes have been Soft Furnishings and my Advanced Furniture Design. In Soft Furnishings we competed in the Project UDesign [see below] competition with Century Furniture so we got to go on a field trip to the factory and learn about upholstery. Advanced Furniture Design was more about research and insight into the design process. It was a tough class but I don’t think I’ve ever learned so much in one class before then.
Congratulations are in order as you recently won Project UDesign with your “Alifair” eco-friendly wing chair! Please tell us about the competition.
Project UDesign was a sponsored competition that my Soft Furnishings class competed in. We were told to redesign the wing chair, a style of chair that had not really changed over the decades, utilizing eco-friendly BioH Foam. Whichever design won the competition was going to be produced by Century Furniture out of Hickory, North Carolina, so we had to do a little market research and design within their stylistic constraints. I’ll bring up the puzzle analogy again by saying we had to solve the problem of designing something that was distinctly ours, yet still able to fit in Century’s product line.
When I went to sketching my designs, I began to think of the wing chair’s function throughout the past. Wing chairs were originally intended to be placed by the fire, the wings protecting those seated from cold drafts while still trapping in the heat coming from the fireplace. Since we live in a technologically advanced society where fire as a necessary means for warmth is obsolete, the wings are really just aesthetic and not really serving a purpose. I highlighted this by placing cutouts in each wing, giving the illusion of a solid wing that’s not really there. I redesigned a wing chair for the modern day, where the wings don’t need to trap in heat.
What would be your dream job and your dream project” I think I’d like to be my own boss one day, doing freelance work or maybe working for a small design firm. My ultimate goal would probably be to get one of my pieces in the Milan furniture fair. I’d love to be considered as the designer that put American design back on the map. What do you hope to be doing by 2016 and where do you hope to be doing it” Designing furniture in space. How do you see yourself contributing to the industry overall” I’m here to offer my perspective in design. Hopefully I will get a few objects put into production at some point in my life. Have you had any internships, jobs or commissions in the field of furniture design as yet” I actually just sent out a resume for an internship last week. Unfortunately, I’m a little behind on the internship game. I’m planning on doing one this summer so I can use my graduation money to pay for rent and food since most internships are unpaid. I’m totally willing if anyone wants to offer me a job or internship. EDITOR’S NOTE: If you are as impressed with Ryland as we are and would like to contact him – for a furniture design position, perhaps – drop him a line at rylandquillen@gmail.com. You’ll be glad you did. On a more personal note… What lasting impressions did your hometown have on you” What time of day are you most productive and why” What’s your favorite comfort food” What movie have you seen lately that you would highly recommend to others” If you could go anywhere in the world, where would it be” 
The reward of winning the competition was having the design put into production and getting royalty checks for each sale. This is a huge deal for a poor college student, having not graduated yet but already have a piece in production. Oh yeah, there was also a $1,000 check. [See Ryland sitting in the prototype in the photo to the right.]
Johnson City was a great place to grow up and it definitely had many last impressions on my life. Growing up in the Appalachian Mountains gave me an appreciation for natural beauty, something I took for granted until I moved to Savannah. Of course, Savannah is beautiful in its own unique ways, but nothing beats waking up and seeing mountains from your front porch, inhaling a nice big breath of fresh mountain air. My father used to tell me when I was younger that the reason so many Irish immigrants settled in that part of the country was because it reminded them so much of their homeland. To an extent, I believe him because a walk through the woods during spring brings about ten billion shades of green.
I’m usually most productive sitting in my room. I tape posters and pictures that I find inspiring on my walls so being surrounded by that really helps. I do have some friends that I like to get together with and brainstorm. I get so many great ideas from looking at something from a different perspective, and my friends really help with that.
Biscuits and gravy. I would eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner if I could.
The last great movie I saw in theaters was Black Swan. I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a beautiful, psychological thriller.
Where wouldn’t I go” I would take a trip to anywhere in the world. There are so many things to see in the world and I want to see them all.
