Today we’d like to introduce you to Dan Cramer.
Hi Dan, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I began making ideas while studying art and architecture in college. After reading books and writing papers for 15 years, I felt the world come alive. To think, to conceptualize, and then physically create sparked a curiosity that continues to motivate my daily life.
After completing my undergraduate degree, I spent six years learning craft skills—first as a carpenter and metalworker, then as a cabinetmaker and furniture maker. At age thirty, I entered the 3D Design Department at Cranbrook Academy of Art, from which I received an MFA. During my time there, I immersed myself in modern industrial design. Since then, my career has focused on watching culture and designing products that intuit and support the way we live our lives.
During the past decade, I’ve observed a decline in suburban residential growth and a return to smaller, modern (and often very chic) homes in urban centers. These include dwellings of 500 to 700 square feet. Living in these smaller spaces requires a new paradigm. Tiny Tables is a beginning, and I’m looking to develop a new model for an evolving way of life.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
My biggest professional challenge was having been taught a lot about the design process and theory, but not much about the business of design. Design education was all about experimentation. When I graduated, I expected that the industry would respond to experimental design, that was not a business reality. In those first years out of grad school, I needed to acquire business acumen. I approached that learning as if it were a design problem I needed to solve. I experimented.
I supported myself by making custom pieces for clients of architects and interior designers. To a degree, I was successful, but it didn’t provide a stable or consistent income. I began talking to manufacturers in the contract furniture industry. My first chair in commercial production was introduced about 5 years later by a local company (Touhy Furniture).
After working with Touhy on several projects, I went to China to teach design and I traveled extensively. It was 8 years before getting another of my chair designs into production. During that long spell between successes, I taught at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and worked on custom projects. Then, in 1998, I designed and prototyped Molti, a chair for Gunlocke Furniture. Molti was introduced in 2000 and its’ success changed everything. Within a year, sales exceeded all expectations. In seven years, Molti became the largest-selling chair in Gunlocke’s 100-year history. Twenty-two years later, Molti continues to sell in large numbers, to universities and to healthcare facilities. It’s likely that you’ve been seated in Molti! In 2002, I began working with KI Furniture in Green Bay, WI. A relationship that lasted twelve years and garnered many awards. (Awards are available from our relationship with KI—if you’d like them)
In 2018, a new client posed an interesting problem: How might we add tables to our living area without cluttering our space? My client had downsized, moving from a 3,500-square-foot house to a 1,200-square-foot loft. Their beautifully designed coffee table simply wasn’t enough and there wasn’t space for occasional tables. Guests needed to leave their seats to set down a coffee cup or find a surface for an appetizer plate. I designed the first tiny tables to solve their dilemma. The initial response was so strong, that in 2019 I thought, so why not own a furniture company? I began to offer Tiny Tables in the retail market, working with retailers in Minneapolis and Chicago. Soon, I began to design new products to create a family of small tables and lamps. Now, Tiny Tables are available online https://www.tinytablesdesign.com/ .
But COVID compromised our ability to expand our retail presence. Retailers who were displaying Tiny Tables closed and were slow to reopen.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar, what can you tell them about what you do?
I’ve been an independent designer and maker for 45 years. My practice has specialized in designing and prototyping furniture for the contract furniture industry. Much of my recent work has been developing seating systems used in healthcare facilities and university settings. My largest clients are, The Gunlocke Company and KI Furniture. I have also designed and fabricated custom projects for clients of local architectural offices.
I’m most pleased by my ability to provide opportunities and support to young designers still finding their own voice. Talking to them about the business of design, and encouraging them through times of angst is one of the most satisfying aspects of what I do.
I’m deeply involved in a design/fabricate cooperative that encourages the development of new ideas in design, The Fourth Street Guild. It’s located in Minneapolis and is home to nine design professionals of various ages.
I have a passion for searching out products that people can’t find or identifying problems that people have, but don’t yet recognize. My job is to invent solutions.
What matters most to you?
I’d love to see the most affluent in our country grant half of their wealth to overcome significant challenges in our society. Those challenges include, improving the quality of public education and establishing adequate environmental protection.
I try to help prepare the next generation of designers to cope with the business of design. Our coop exists to keep the cost of studio space low to allow them an affordable workspace to solve new design problems, to find a voice and mature in a space which offers them dignity.
Small. Sustainable. Indispensable. Tiny Tables is just the beginning. I’m looking to develop a new model for an evolving way of life. Check us out at https://www.tinytablesdesign.com/ or Instagram #tinytablesdesign.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.tinytablesdesign.com/
- Instagram: TinyTablesDesign
Image Credits
Pamela Belding
Cramer Studio
