Designing and Prototyping Your First Chair
A course by Muka Design LabIndustrial design studio
A course by Muka Design Lab, Industrial design studio
Learn slow design techniques to build a wooden chair for artisanal production
Award-winning studio Muka Design Lab, Lucas and Laxmi design furniture and mass consumption products that are thought and created for their end-user. They believe in slow design and collaborate on artisanal projects with local craftsmen and workshops. Their work has been highlighted in AD Architectural Design, Fast Company, Archi Expo, Deezen, and El País.
In this course, Muka Design Lab teach you how to design your first ergonomic wooden chair, from start to finish: from the first ideas to the creation of your first prototype in human scale. Learn slow design techniques to apply to your fully functional and sustainable design.
What will you learn in this online course?
15 lessons & 25 downloads
What Will We Do in this Course?
1 minute, 23 seconds
The History of the Chair
2 minutes, 56 seconds
About Chairs
3 minutes, 51 seconds
Materials
4 minutes, 49 seconds
Free idea sketching
6 minutes, 35 seconds
Developing the idea
16 minutes, 15 seconds
What's included in this course?
Start by getting to know Laxmi and Lucas, co-founders of Muka Design Lab. They tell you about their professional experiences, their passion for furniture, and its purpose within their studio, and show you some of their influences.
Begin the course with an introduction to the world of chairs and get introduced to the slow design materials you’ll use during the course.
Muka show you their conceptual process and some tricks to find ideas. Start by sketching chairs, refine your drawings, and select the one you prefer. Create the dimensions for your technical plan to develop a model on a 1:10 scale.
Create your prototype to human scale and test the different parts and design, to solve the possible imperfections before it is made. Once your design is finished, you’ll be able to contact a local artisan to materialize your idea just as you imagined it.
Lastly, photograph the result by taking certain factors into account such as the art direction behind your image, to then share it on social media and promote your design in the best way.
What is this course's project?
Design a wooden chair, create a prototype with a 1:1 scale, along with the technical plans for its production with an artisan.
Who is this online course for?
This course is for creatives with a love for furniture design, interior design, architecture, and handmade objects.
Requirements and materials
Previous industrial design knowledge is not required to take the course, but it is necessary to have some experience in freehand drawing, drawing of plan, and perspective, and be quite skilled with your hands.
The course can be done in an analog way, with pencil, paper, a meter, a ruler, scissors or cutter, cardboard or foam board, fabrics, glue, tape and a cutting mat.
If you want to take your project to another level, you can use a computer with specialized software of your choice: to draw plans (Autocad, Qcad, Freecad...), to draw and color (Illustrator, Photoshop...), for 3D and creation of perspectives (Solidworks, Rhino, 3D Max...), and to render in 3D you can use a program like KeyShot, Corona or V-Ray.
Reviews
- 2 years ago
Me gusto muchísimo. me llevo paso a paso en el proceso creativo.
- 3 years ago
sweet and pleasant course, interesting that they use local production
- 4 years ago
Me está gustando aunque acabo de empezar.
- 4 years ago
Excelente curso, alem de fazer você pensar fora da caixa, Te deixa com otimas informações tecnicas
- 4 years ago
Curso muy bueno y bastante completo para las horas limitadas de un curso de domestica. Impresionantes los recursos adicionales. Muchisima cantidad y calidad. Recomendable 100% para introducirte en e mundo del diseño de mobiliario.
Their work has been featured in AD Architectural Design, Fast Company, Archi Expo, Dezeen, and El País. The studio’s projects have won international awards at exhibitions in Milan and Los Angeles, as well as a German Design Award and a RedDot Award for Design Concept.
Content
- U1
Introduction
- Presentation
- Influences
- What Will We Do in this Course?
- U2
The chair, the great icon of furniture
- The History of the Chair
- About Chairs
- Materials
- U3
Sketches and concepts
- Free idea sketching
- Developing the idea
- Scaling and making the blueprint
- U4
Models and Prototypes
- 1:10 Scale Model
- 1: 1 Full Scale Model (Part 1)
- 1: 1 Full Scale Model (Part 2)
- Final Prototype with Artisans
- U5
Show Your Design to the World
- Product Photography and Art Direction
- Present Your Design to the World
- FP
Final project
- Design and prototyping of your first chair
What to expect from a Domestika course
Learn at your own pace
Enjoy learning from home without a set schedule and with an easy-to-follow method. You set your own pace.
Learn from the best professionals
Learn valuable methods and techniques explained by top experts in the creative sector.
Meet expert teachers
Each expert teaches what they do best, with clear guidelines, true passion, and professional insight in every lesson.
Certificates
PLUSIf you're a Plus member, get a custom certificate signed by your teacher for every course. Share it on your portfolio, social media, or wherever you like.
Get front-row seats
Videos of the highest quality, so you don't miss a single detail. With unlimited access, you can watch them as many times as you need to perfect your technique.
Share knowledge and ideas
Ask questions, request feedback, or offer solutions. Share your learning experience with other students in the community who are as passionate about creativity as you are.
Connect with a global creative community
The community is home to millions of people from around the world who are curious and passionate about exploring and expressing their creativity.
Watch professionally produced courses
Domestika curates its teacher roster and produces every course in-house to ensure a high-quality online learning experience.
FAQs
You’ll learn how to design, sketch, and prototype wooden chairs, applying ergonomic principles, manufacturing techniques, prototyping, and finishing, plus how to collaborate with artisans and visually document your projects.
This is an intermediate-level course, recommended for those with basic knowledge of design, architecture, or prior interest in furniture—but you don’t need to be an expert.
You’ll need materials like wood, foam, foam board, glue, a craft knife, ruler, markers, and a sketchbook. Basic modeling and cutting tools are also recommended.
The course blends both approaches, focusing on handcrafted design and collaboration with local artisans, while incorporating innovative techniques and slow design principles to create functional, sustainable products.
Yes, the course covers ergonomics basics, proportions, and comfort testing to help you design and prototype functional, comfortable chairs.
Yes, you’ll learn about plywood, wood bending, and other key processes essential for making modern, innovative chairs.
You’ll be able to design and prototype your own chair—from concept and sketches to building models and functional prototypes—integrating your creative identity and sustainability.