Visual Studies of Master Designer Paul McCobb
(Originally published in 2011, Illustrations by Alan Pepin)
I admit that I know little of the history of McCobb himself. Searching online, I found a great blog by Jonathan Goldstein, (paulmmcobb.blogspot.com). Jonathan is currently researching McCobb, and has quite a few interesting posts which include original catalog pages as well as images from the McCobb family archive. It is definitely worth your time.
This post is simply about taking a closer look a few of McCobb’s classic chair designs. There’s no chronological timeline here - just an array of studies based on the beautiful works by McCobb that I find intriguing.
Studying designs in this way allows me to really appreciate them for their proportion and balance, much like drawing out a study of some great master work. You get a much stronger feel of the design itself, and hopefully some insight into what was most important to the designer. Taking it apart visually, and then putting it back together, you can sense the directions that he or she took - what they chose to emphasize and what might have been eliminated.
"I’ve always believed that architecture is more important than decoration. Scale and proportion give everlasting satisfaction that cannot be achieved by only icing the cake."
- Billy Baldwin
For more information, check out Paul McCobb at Wikipedia, or Jonathan Goldstein's great blog dedicated to Paul McCobb, paulmccobb.blogspot.com
Alan Pepin / Creative Director reddogrun.com