Profile of a Furniture Designer/Builder: Jory Brigham's full "origin story"

[Nicholas Noe]

Hi everyone, I'm the guy that wrote the article on the Domino, and Jory Brigham's take on the Domino, that you may have seen linked on this forum previously. Those of you familiar with the "Framework" TV show, or Festool's catalog/videos/recent JLC Live event, will recognize him.

Brigham runs a furniture design/build business out of his shop in California, and during the course of interviewing him for the Domino article, I was struck by how unusual his story was. (I've interviewed a fair amount of furniture designers for the site I work for, and Brigham's story is kind of a cake-taker.)

I subsequently had the pleasure of interviewing him extensively and writing up a full profile piece--essentially the story of how he went from a kid learning to use tools from his dad to becoming a successful American furniture maker.

For anyone who'd like to read it, it's here:

http://www.core77.com/posts/35767/Furniture-DesignerBuilder-Jory-Brighams-Unusual-Path-to-Success

Brigham is humble to a fault, and seemed bewildered that I'd want to interview him; but I'm glad I did. I always enjoy hearing the stories from the guys in the Festool videos, and it was nice to really be able to drill down on this one.

hope you enjoy it,

- Nick

 

[rst]

Your story was great and Jory certainly deserves all the success possible.

 

[peter halle]

[member=49148]Nicholas Noe[/member]

I loved the article. I have additionally loved Jory's work and also meeting him and talking to him when he had time.

Hope you stick around tell us more about yourself and what articles you are working on.

Peter

 

[Wooden Skye]

Nick

Great article. I second what Peter said, I hope you stick around. 

 

[nclemmons]

Welcome to FOG - great writeup on Jory!

Hope to see more of your articles / profiles shared here.

neil

 

[Billedis]

Beautiful article, and I wish Jory all the best in his future endeavors.  Bill

 

[Nicholas Noe]

Thanks all for the warm welcome! I've actually been lurking on the FOG for a while and finally dived in. I'm a huge Festool fan, but before I get to that:

[member=1674]Peter Halle[/member] , I'm the Senior Editor over at the design/tech blog Core77. My background is in industrial design. I was trained to use traditional shop tools starting in 1989; back then the table saw had no riving knife or blade-guard, a drill was something you plugged into the wall and used a key to change the bits on, protecting yourself from dust was considered sissy, and run-out on all tools was a given. We never used the term "re-work" because it was assumed that your first cut was never your finished cut; so it was all just "work."

After graduating, I did ID for about 12 years, then gained the opportunity to write about it, which I found far more interesting; I got to travel, see and learn about other designers and industries, meet folks like Jory, and hear their stories (always my favorite part). In the absence of doing real design work I amassed some cheap tools to do DIY projects around the house. Because I didn't use them frequently, and was accustomed to crappy tools anyway, I bought the cheapest I could get.

I suffered under those tools for years. I won't name the brands to malign them, because they do a good enough job of that themselves. Then last year, after much debate I picked up an RO 90 and CT 26 to complete a sanding project I'd been putting off. Festool's prices seemed absurdly high to me but I was curious, and I figured I'd just return them within the 30-day period if they didn't live up to the hype I'd been hearing.

The first time I used the Rotex and the CT I couldn't believe it. I kept saying Where the heck is the dust? If I couldn't hear the tool and see the material disappearing, I wouldn't have been sure the damn thing was on. Sanding was always the thing I hated doing the most because of the mess, and the Rotex actually made it…fun.

After that I fell down the rabbit hole, at least as much as my writer's budget would allow: ETS 125, TS 55, T-15, TI-15+3 and a bunch of accessories. When I started writing the Domino article I bought one of those too, because I could write that one off on my taxes as it qualified as work research. I recently attended Festool Connect in Providence and they gave all us attendees a free 18V battery, the clever bastards, so now I'm looking at the cordless Carvex.

Having used these tools, I now can't go back. As someone familiar with the product design industry I'm well aware of the necessities of compromise and have become used to substandard, short-lived products creeping into all areas of life. To find a company like Festool, who seems actually concerned with product longevity and quality, has been an encouraging breath of fresh air.

Yes, they charge up the wazoo for their products, and I won't say they're perfect--I was really puzzled after picking up one of their $25 tape measures that seems positively made in China--but overall I've seen the alternative to Festool, and I don't like it. I'd rather spend more to get a product I'm happy to use for what I hope will be long years to come.

Incidentally, I'll have the opportunity to visit Festool's facilities in Germany come May. If there's anything in particular you guys would like to hear about and see written up, please do let me know. I'm still not sure what my access will be and what the visit will consist of, but if there's some question you have that I can answer, I'd be happy to look out for it and try to provide it.

- Nick

 

[AofD]

Thanks!

 

[nclemmons]

Awesome back story on your introduction to Festool

As for your visit to the factory, I'd love to hear how Festool does design strategy, planning and iteration - I know they use outside firms for some of their ID, but also know they have a very creative 'system-driven' approach to how things work together.  So it would be interesting to hear their design process - some tools like the Vecturo are rebadged Fein tools, while tools like the Domino are absolute breakthroughs.  How does Festool decide the different strategies and what role do internal teams, customer research or outside design firms play.

And given Festool has things like robotic flying birds and penguins, how do those explorations affect their product planning in terms of core research influencing designs that go into production.

I assume you will be doing a Core77 article coming out of that visit.  Look forward to reading it!

neil

 

[bkharman]

Nicolas,

Great article!  Before Jory was a superstar, he was just Jory on this site. We all knew he made awesome stuff and was on his way to bigger and better things but "I" never knew he would impact me the way he did.

To me he is the Bill Hader of woodworking. That is a guy I want to hang out with all day. Learn what I can about the trade during the day and have a blast afterwards just shooting the proverbial ----.

I recently made a drawer front out of a bunch of off cuts from Birch plywood for a shop cabinet and at first I wanted to grind into the wood ala Jory style, but instead I elected to go my own route with a strip of tigerwood in a bow tie for the drawer pull.

I immediately thought of all the YouTube videos he made that I watched over and over and over thinking how awesome his work is and how it makes me want to be a better hobbyist with my work. I have always been artistic with most things I do and it is starting to come outlet in my woodwork.

Thank you Jory for "being you" and exposing us to you awesome madness. And thank you Nicolas for sharing his story with us. I hope you do more like this.

Cheers. Bryan.