It’s been a privilege to have had Isa Dorster from France at the school for the past two weeks, teaching our students the finer points of visualisation in 3D.

The skill to first draw a piece of furniture and accurately measure its dimensions is a key element that all students have to master.

Without the ability to visualise their designs onto paper it would be quite impossible for students to design and make fine furniture.

Isa has been coming to us for some years now, and for the rest of the year teaches at the lycée des métiers d’art georges guynemer near Montpellier.

Isa also teaches our students aspects of the history of design, giving them an understanding of how furniture design evolves over time, or how it can be shaped by conflict or war.

One student whose visualisations have become works of art is Stephen Barr.  At the start of the course he could barely draw – and now his watercolour visualisations could be hung in an art gallery!

The trick to visualisation is to create geometric perspectives using two vanishing points, better allowing students to create real pictures of the furniture they want to make.

That’s not to say that modern CAD techniques are wrong, and some of our students do adopt computer aided programs to help their creative processes.

But it’s always best to start from the beginning, and Isa’s hard work means that our students now understand how perspective will help them design beautiful furniture that they can be proud of.