When it comes to Tim Cozzens, forget the adage, “Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach.” Cozzens, who has been training and nurturing a new wave of furniture designers for four years at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, is someone who practices what he teaches.
The 37-year-old furniture designer/craftsman/teacher is a one-man, full-service design force–bringing to his work and students a background in interior architecture, woodworking and furniture design.
“He is not just a furniture designer. He can set the tone for a room or a series of rooms as part of a bigger picture,” says architect Drew Ranieri of the Chicago architectural design firm Ranieri + Associates. Ranieri became acquainted with Cozzens at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where Cozzens teaches a two-semester furniture design and fabrication class and Ranieri taught interior architecture design studios.
Ranieri applauds Cozzens ability to convey a philosophy of furniture design that integrates both aesthetics and utility. But Cozzens’ most important lesson, he says, is that it is possible to make furniture for a living.
It’s not only students and teaching colleagues who are inspired by Cozzens’ pragmatic design approach. Nick Patinkin was a client for whom Cozzens fabricated a kitchen storage unit and island. Patinkin became so inspired by the furniture-making process he registered for Cozzens’ class.
When Patinkin completed the course at the Art Institute, he convinced the designer to give him an unpaid apprenticeship.
“There was so much more to learn,” he says.
Last year, he worked three days a week at Workshop, Cozzens’ West Side design studio, with Cozzens and his two assistants, fabricating designs for clients. In a full-circle twist of fate, Patinkin assisted in the fabrication of pieces for clients of his own former architect, Ranieri, who had been hired based on the success of Patinkin’s home.
“The first cut was the hardest,” Patinkin says, but in time he became more confident.
Cozzens’ work is commissioned by residential, corporate and retail clients throughout the nation. A designer’s designer, he has created showrooms, fixtures and exhibit furniture for to-the-trade firms such as the Thomas Job showroom in The Merchandise Mart, Interface Flooring Systems, Harbinger Flooring and Prince Street Technologies. He has designed everything from dining and bedside tables, audiovisual cabinets, dressers, mantles and office work stations to a humidor for Chicago restaurateur Charlie Trotter.
All of Cozzens’ pieces share an uncommon commitment to craftsmanship, a sense of humor and purpose, and an understanding of the interior environment. One of the pieces in which the fusion of his architecture background and experience as a craftsman is especially strong is his Golden Cabbage bed. Inspired by Joseph Maria Olbrich’s renowned 1898 Secession Building in Vienna, the bed tested Cozzens with its larger scale, use of visual and implied structure, and three-dimensional ornament.
The bed is constructed from cherry and beech wood with hand-cast pewter laurel leaves, in homage to the “gilded cabbage” dome of Olbrich’s building. The legs are capped with sheet-pewter sections, hammered to fit and fastened with small escutcheon pins.
Cozzens’ designs strike a subtle balance between seemingly contradictory desires–a love of ornament and a designer’s penchant to strip away excess. Within the design process, he explores an unlimited range of possibilities drawing from new materials and combinations of materials; from fashion and architecture; from the contemporary and historic.
He has a particular interest in the architecture of the Viennese Secession, a style characterized by blending geometric structure with organic ornament. This juxtaposition is mirrored in Cozzens’ own work.
In addition to the accomplishments of historic design movements, inspiration for Cozzens came from his father, Thomas Cozzens of Oak Park. The senior Cozzens was a cabinetmaker who passed his technical knowledge and passion for handmade, heirloom-quality furniture construction on to his son. The household tools were never off-limits to Tim.
“I was so comfortable and happy building things in the workshop I didn’t know you could actually do it for a living,” Cozzens says.
It took time for the Atlanta-born designer to build a career on his foundation as a craftsman. Each stop on his professional path, however, effected a future in furniture.
After earning an interior architecture degree from Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Cozzens enjoyed stints at some of the best architectural firms in New York and Chicago. His decision to pursue a master’s degree in fine arts in woodworking and furniture design at the Rochester Institute of Technology School for American Crafts in Rochester, N.Y., makes him a multi-faceted design force.
Moving back to Chicago after graduating from the Rochester Institute, Cozzens conferred with some local furniture designers. He got a rude awakening when he realized he couldn’t work as a furniture designer, pay off his student loans and eat at the same time. He dusted off his interior architect’s hat, joined the Chicago architectural design firm Perkins & Will as a senior designer, and began teaching furniture design with the hope of starting his own design studio.
He first taught at Northern Illinois University and the University of Notre Dame’s Industrial Design program in South Bend, Ind. And in 1994, he signed on to teach furniture design at the School of the Art Institute.
Cozzens says teaching enables him to stay connected to innovations in design concept and theory, while he passes on his knowledge of technique and construction. He continually re-experiences the discovery of the creative process side-by-side with his students, which energizes his studio work.
Ranieri, with whom Cozzens collaborates on projects for architectural clients, commends Cozzens’ ability to impart his passion for his craft.
“He gives his students a deeper design insight–with him they’re not just designing a table in a vacuum. He makes them understand it’s not just what you make; it’s how you make it, why you make it, and where you make it.”
WANT TO LEARN MORE?
Here are other places to learn furniture design:
Schools
Bauhaus Apprenticeship Institute, 339 Harrison St., Oak Park, 708-383-5358. Instructor: Berthold Schwaiger. Assistant (from November): Kevin Finegan.
Elston Woodworking School, 2228 N. Elston Ave., 773-342-9811. Instructors: Paul Christofersen, Robbie Field, Kevin Finegan, Berthold Schwaiger, Jeffrey Specht.
Furnituremaking Workshops at J. Miller Handcrafted Furniture, 1774 W. Lunt Ave., 773-761-3311. Instructors: Jeff Miller, Bruce Sharp.
Apprenticeship program
David Orth, 1107 Chicago Ave., Oak Park, IL 60302 or orthfurn1@aol.com.
For more information, contact the Chicago Furniture Designers Association at 773-862-0776.
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Tim Cozzens can be reached at: Workshop, 346 N. Justine St., Suite 308, Chicago, IL 60607; call 312-491-1282 or fax 312-491-1283.
