Mimicking Memphis - Cat / Fish Table

I was so excited when the paper I picked out the box said “side table” - I was already making something like a table that doubled as a dog bed in the style of Memphis anyway. What a fantastic coincidence!!!

Except the rest of the people in my group absolutely did not want to make it and instead chose to recreate a glass table Memphis made. Okay, well…

I sort of sadly drew a version of the same table where, instead of random weird shapes holding up a glass plate, it was cats holding up a fish. We sat in a line, passing down what I drew at the end of the line, then all the way back to me, and the loved the idea.

But then they didn’t like it wasn’t geometric, so it was sent back to me again, but then they didn’t like so-and-so, so it sent back, and so on, until it was something we all liked.

That same process continued for every other design aspect of the table as we went on—shape of the fish, colors, how to fix a hole, I messed up on the slit size (cardboard is not 3/4 inch thick), and so on. And in the end it looked pretty good.

I had an unbelievably shit morning that day at home, and an unbelievably great afternoon at school. I felt like a movie producer—I felt like I was working for a client and helping us all make something that looked nice. It made me feel… employable.

I feel as though if this is the process of being a designer condensed into a small span of time, I chose the right course.