scary thought...........
"At the end of the day, the people who know the difference between a real Nelson, Herman Miller bench and DWR's version are likely not the people doing the majority of the shopping at DWR"
if this is true and there are legions of folks who do not know the difference than DWR has done more damage to the design world than we know....... the last thing we need is to create a market of style shopping idiots who don't know shit from shine and rely on DWR to educate them.
its like cruelly teaching your children all the wrong word meanings on purpose for a laff.
Have to agree with that quote...
I've never purchased a piece of furniture from DWR. Back when I was too poor to afford design "WITHIN REACH", I lusted over their catalogs... back when they sold primarily authentic pieces.
When I eventually could afford the stuff, I ended up buying from circa50 and highbrow, since all the Herman Miller and Knoll pieces are standard pricing with free shipping.
And now I just buy vintage, or new stuff only at deep discounts.
Design within Budget
is called IKEA. Get over it already.
I've always found it funny that DWR gets to be the 'high price' punching bag. DWR's prices are perfectly in line with any other retailer... an Arco lamp costs the same anywhere. An Eames chair costs the same anywhere. An Emeco chair costs $415 if you buy it from Emeco, from Hive, or from DWR. Everyone knows that the 'Within Reach' is about having showrooms available to the public. Have you ever looked at Bo Concept? Ligne Roset? Roche Bobois? Montage?
Lunchbox asked me what's to like about DWR. I've bought a few things here and there, but the truth is I've become fairly good friends with an employee. He knows about design, he's nice, and to see everyone here revelling in his potential unemployment is a little sad for me.
No, I don't agree with their knock-offs, but I think they've done more to expose Modernism to average people than any mainstream retailer - despite Chewie's end-of-days histrionics.
Actually
They were called "Design Within Reach" well before they had nation-wide showrooms (maybe they had one when they first started?). I believe they rationalized their name by claiming to be one of the first mail-order catalogs to offer contemporary productions of modern design classics. I recall seeing an explanation to this effect in one of their early catalogs. I will credit them with that.
Yes Woody, you are somewhat...
Yes Woody, you are somewhat correct. While they weren't licensed back when starting up, in 1998 when they started up, Rob Forbes idea was to make modern furniture available to the masses, immediately. At that time, to get pieces from Corbusier, Saarinen, Eames, etc it took months from order date to when the product was delivered, not to mention you had to know someone (an architect or interior designer) to even have access to order the product. So Rob wanted to make design "within reach" to all, and emphasize the instant gratification factor as originally all pieces were in stock and ready to ship. Brilliant idea, even if it wasn't all licensed, it took Rob some time to get all the original vendors on board as that was his intention. Ray Brunner has ruined the company, whatever you think it's not Rob's vision, and thats why Rob "left" several years ago. And yes, I was one of those nice account executives who knew lots about design and was always there to help, adding in my interior design experience. I disagreed with a lot of things DWR did while I was with the company, and since I've left it's gotten even worse.
to put a finer point on it......
"but I think they've done more to expose Modernism to average people than any mainstream retailer"
that is true based on sheer numbers, but what is the quality of that exposure now ? creating their own version of the nelson bench does a disservice to all involved even to themselves, but obviously they are too stupid realize this.
"DWR's prices are perfectly in line with any other retailer... an Arco lamp costs the same anywhere"
not really true when you add in sales tax and freight
"but the truth is I've become fairly good friends with an employee. He knows about design, he's nice....."
but is he really your friend or does he just pretend to be because he wants to sell you furniture ?? i'd rather just get a straight forward professional and courteous deal when i buy things than try to have sales people try to become my friend..... that schtick gets old and its phoney.
"Ray Brunner has ruined the company"
true in more ways than one since he was the one who signed the leases for all the useless locations. plus ask any current or former dwr employee or vendor ... the guy is universally hated.
First off
Chewie...please...for the sake of this discussion can you just please admit that you worked for the damn company? You know WAY too much information that is very obscure.
In terms of quality of the exposure - even if their salespeople are babbling incoherent idiots (I was in some of their NY stores) the average person can walk in and sit in an Egg Chair, or an Eames Chair. I learned more in 5 minutes of just looking at the Eames lounge than I had from months of reading about it. And occasionally you meet people who really KNOW what they're talking about. Like my friend.
And my friend doesn't care if I buy things or not. Mostly I've bought a few small Eames pieces, and some floor samples. Not a big spender by any means. It's near my building and we enjoy shooting the breeze about design - whether it's stuff they sell or not.
Lastly, I have no idea what Ray Brunner has done for the company for better or worse. If he's behind the copies I'm not a big fan...but then again it sounds like Roy Forbes was also a proponent of copied designs...so.. gotta call that one a draw.
Also
Chewie, if you sincerely care about the quality of design education through retailers (as you claim) and this isn't some vendetta against the company that fired you (as I theorize) you should really direct your attention to Room and Board.
Worse than DWR, R&B makes NO distinction between it's authentic pieces (Herman Miller, Wegner) and it's copies (Saarinen, Brno, LeCorbusier) It also copies Wegner (see below) Nakashima and Risom without apology or explanation. At least DWR makes the very small caveat of saying "inspired by".
THIS IS FUN.........
nope, sorry i have never worked for nor currently work for DWR, nor would i want to......
room and board deserves as much scorn for their knock-offs as well, but at least they don't position themselves as a "design" company.... lets face it they are more mom and pop watered down everyday furniture and throw in modern stuff to try to be relevant or for style points, but they make their money on inexpensive generic sofas etc....
time to come up with a new theory lucifer...........
I dunno
When I bring up Room and Board you acknowledge their mistakes, but move the attention back to DWR. You repeatedly post DWR's (often obscure) financial information, and you use some pretty vitriolic language. I mean, describing a companys behavior as "sociopathic", "diabolical", and "double-speak Dick Cheney would be proud of" goes a little beyond disagreeing with their policies.
I'm pretty ideological myself and I can't think of any company I dislike enough to use comparable language... maybe you didnt work for them yourself, but something is making this VERY personal for you.
i don't think......
i moved the focus back to DWR in that post, after re-reading the post i'm sure i didn't.
its nothing personal, i just think someone needs to stand up and state the truth.... DWR's behavior is much more hypocritical than room and board's.... as for the detailed financial info its all public information.
speaking of which, did you know that DWR was down to $400k cash in the bank in july ? thats pretty much bankrupt. they then sold themselves for $15 million.... less than the value of their inventory. if they didn't they would have had to close down. the question i have is, as a former shareholder.... what would happened to my shares ? how can you sell all shares in a company for 15 cents a share which would result in a loss for shareholders without having a vote ??
want to to know all the gory details ? just click on the link below......
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=177796&p=irol-sec
a fair questions deserves another......
okay lucifer, if you insist that i have a "personal vendetta" against dwr, which i do not......
why is it that you are always so quick to defend them ? even in indefensible situations like the nelson knock-off bench ?
if i am guilty of being overly negative towards dwr then surely you are guilty of being overly protective of them almost to the point of being in denial.....
do you work with/for them ?
As someone who was let go by...
As someone who was let go by the company when our studio was downsized from 5 to 3, I don't have a personal vendetta against DWR for being "wronged" in any sense. I want the company to succeed, its just sad to me that they are taking the path they are. I do agree with Chewy that I find Room and Board a little to blame in the whole misleading of licensed vs non licensed. As being friends with a R&B employee, their mission is to have a high quality product, regardless of the manufacturer. They happen to have Carl Hansen and Herman Miller, but their main intent is not to be the "source for all your licensed product needs" as DWR has claimed to be. The reason I have problems with DWR is because they have gained everyones trust in having "authentic" merchandise, and now they are selling knock offs, and their customers think they must be buying something authentic, when its just an imitation. Oh yeah, and I also think Chewy is a former employee...name starting with a J. am I right chewy?
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