INDUSTRIAL DESIGN · FURNITURE · PURDUE × LUMISOURCE
Cody
A knock-down accent chair for young people in small urban spaces — comfortable, easy to assemble, and packaged to ship flat.
A knock-down accent chair for young people in small urban spaces — comfortable, easy to assemble, and packaged to ship flat.
I mapped the audience, environment, and material direction before sketching — young and social users in limited rental lofts, with a palette that stays neutral, comforting, and soft.
Early sketches started from real floor plans — studio and one-bedroom layouts where an accent chair would sit facing a TV or beside a sofa, not as a standalone statement piece.
I explored velvet-and-metal frames alongside wood-and-fabric forms — testing how each direction handled comfort, cost, and the wrap-around silhouette I was chasing.
Six CAD iterations refined the tub profile — adjusting seat depth, backrest angle, and how the wrap-around back met the cushion from both front and side views.
I compared seamless joinery, visible external fasteners, and flat-pack assembly — landing on a knock-down system that keeps shipping costs low without sacrificing a clean finished look.
Concept 2 won for its soft form and the inward angle of the backrest in profile. The next challenge was making that geometry feel more inviting — resolved through a square insert connection and a bouclé-upholstered prototype.
The seat and backrest nest in a single carton with legs packed separately — roughly 29 × 27 × 10 in at 41 lb, validated against real FedEx Ground rates for affordable delivery.
Six colorways — cream, periwinkle, charcoal, ochre, light grey, and sage — let renters match the chair to whatever sofa or wall they already live with.
A styled interior render placed Cody beside a sofa in a compact living room — testing scale, color harmony, and how the rounded form reads against tighter urban proportions.
The finished chair delivers on the brief — personal, portable, and practical for people who move often but still want something that feels like home.
