Design Expo: Brian Graham Learning Lunch

Design Expo is an even that occurs every year at Texas Tech. At Design Expo a day full of events occur such as the learning lunch and then the actual expo that includes many vendors from all over the nation in the textile, flooring, furniture, paint, and many more industries. The event which was the most information and the most interesting this year, was the Learning Lunch which included a lecture by designer Brian Graham.

Brian Graham is an interior designer from San Francisco who is the owner of his own company, Graham Design. Graham began by telling the crowd more about his background which included him getting his degree in Interior Architectural Design at California State University, Long Beach where he also served as a professor. He also added in that he began as only an interior designer and now has branched off to be a furniture designer after gaining experience in the interior design world and learning how furniture and other items are assembled and put together. Graham explained that to design furniture is a very complicated process because everything has to be broken down and you have to explain how to assemble each furnishing piece by piece. This become apparent as Graham began to show his sketches and sections of some of the furniture he had designed.

Graham also explained his design process to the Learning Lunch and his design inspirations. He included designers such as Florence Knoll, Charles Eames, and Richard Nuetra as his design inspirations or mentors. Also, Graham showed all of his sketches and his studio for everyone to better understand his design process. In his studio, Graham has pictures of all kinds of furniture to give him more inspiration while designing and also a chart created by Charles Eames explaining the relationship of designing with a client to better help him. In addition, Graham went through his design process step by step by showing his process of quick sketching which was very interesting to see because it is almost exactly like the process we are learning to use in Collier's 2383 studio.

The Learning Lunch and the Design Expo are very information and educational tools every year which help to better understand and appreciate the designing process involved in interior design.