History of Industrial Design Week 9 Part 1: Plywood!

These videos were made in 2020 as a desperate COVID-era attempt to help keep students engaged in learning as in-person teaching stopped. With no support, no resources, a ridiculous "production schedule," and no idea they would become a sort of permanent record of the time, I just threw them at YouTube. The students mostly didn't watch them, but lots of others did, and that continues to amaze me. I decided to leave them up for anyone who is just curious about design.

NOTE: If you are a current student at Rhode Island School of Design and your professor has sent you here to watch these videos, you should really worry about how much tuition you are paying just to have a teacher sending you to YouTube instead of teaching you themselves. Just saying...

Links:
Mike Jarvi single piece bench:
Rotary Veneer Cutter:
Aalto bent knee:
Fritz Hansen Series 7 Chair:

[Lantertronics]

I never expected to say "I'm riveted about the history of plywood, " yet here I am, riveted about the history of plywood.

[davidzacher]

" Form is ornament" such a good quote - so concise and insightful... Thank you for these, I can not tell you how nice it is to have some Matt Bird back in my life!

[krissberzkalns]

Thank you Matthew for sharing insight into industrial design. One of the best and most insightful series of industrial design on Youtube in my opinion. No marketing agenda, just great design history! :)

[bycarolinakobayashi]

Tacos vs potato chip is the best metaphor, and i wouldn't change a thing. It's hilarious and memorable!

[LadyModiva]

I'm hooked to your lectures. I love especially the unedited Art Deco. Thanks for including the bloopers here!

[samslam]

Thank you so much for posting this and the rest of your lectures. Wonderful!

[cristinakaminski]

Your videos are much more interesting than Netflix, which, by the way, I have cancelled that subscription and now am subscribing to your channel.👍

[ainenidunaigh]

absolutely brilliant. I’ve watched the whole series. Thank you so very much. Fascinating about Art Deco.

[eleonoramassaccesi]

I love those lessons, I will listen all of them, I am an architect but no one told me in 30 years so many details of ID

[agroboy]

In Brazil in 2011 the school chairs and tables were all made of plywood. They were very fragile, if they lasted 1 year of use it was a lot. They started to peel at the ends leaving small pieces, sometimes we spent years studying in broken chairs or missing pieces of wood, a totally unpleasant experience. Exposure to sweat and the humid and hot tropical climate favored the soaking of this material and consequently rapid wear.

Regarding the aesthetics, they were pleasant and good-looking furniture, but the conversation changes when the subject is durability and rigidity.

I don't want to disfavor the advances of the time over plywood, but when it comes to the present day, I realize that things haven't changed much. At this exact moment on my work table (In plywood) I notice that one of the corners is already completely swollen and crumbled. :D

[spaguettoltd.]

The Dreyfuss Hudson locomotives got me into Art Deco stuff. What a great video!!!

[lucyward]

Fabulous plywood lecture Matthew Bird, enjoyed every last nugget of it 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻🥳

[MrJwhdz]

Who knew the history of plywood could be so fascinating..and that bit at the end 🤣🤣🤣

[hedbox]

Sorry to hear about the petty criticisms. Fantastic video! Subscribed, thank you very much.

[jamesboekbinder]

Beautifully crafted and narrated, including the stubborn inserts and outtakes at the end. It's great to have lectures like this as an intro to work you can explore more deeply. Thanks so much!

[mobboss]

Matthew, "Our Sabbath Home" "Friendship, Loyalty, Truth" and "Visit the Sick" are all credos associated with the International Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF). A benevolent society much like the Elks or Masons. The benches you showed in the video we likely manufactured by The Gardner Co. for the IOOF to be used in their Fraternal lodges around the world.
Show Eames Demetrios the Gardner Bench, he will find it fascinating and tell you of a tenacious bench collecting man named Park Lee Taff but not just the bench. His lust for benches compel him to capture the entire lands surrounding the seating unit. See more via Kcymaerxthaere / Bench Spotting through your own research but remember, "Eventually everything connects"

[gbresaleking]

My grandparents had that charles ray eames wood table with rounded triangular glass top and plywood and leather lounge chair with ottoman and they got both from herman miller furniture company

[drzfinezt]

“Form is ornament”. Very true indeed sir! Like the cabriole legs on a Rococo fateuil.

[soficeck]

Thank you, thank you and thank you again!

[Boguslaw]

in 1881, Fitzland L. Wilson filed a patent in the United States for a new machine: the veneer lathe was born. It would go on to rationalise timber peeling and intensify the production of thin sheets of wood. But the real turning point occurred a few years later, in 1884.