David started in the design field as an apprentice under the tutorage of a well known European furniture designer at the Jasper Corporation (today known as Kimball International.) While there, David was involved in the design of a vast array of products including pianos, organs, office furniture and seating, and home furnishings. An opportunity to advance his career developed at Ditto Sales, Inc. to help create a new brand called Versteel, where he also designed a number of products.
In 1997, David started dg associates to fulfill a dream of creating his own design firm. David has received 3 ‘Best of NeoCon Awards’ and ‘Adex Awards’ along with numerous design and mechanical patents.
dg associates designed and developed a number of product lines for JSI including “Connect” modular lounge and table group; “Encore” modular lounge and table group; “Ballad” lounge group; “Debut”, “MVT”, “Motif”, “Tara”, “Heritage” seating groups; “Axis” and “Bently” occasional table groups.
Michael Shields of id3 studios has worked as an industrial designer focused on contract office and institutional furniture for the past 30 years. Trained as an Industrial Designer, Michael has broad experience designing durable medical equipment, contract healthcare furniture, as well as seating, casegoods, tables, and panel systems for office environments.
After working for Knoll and subsequently leading the design and development teams at Brayton International for 12 years, Michael launched his independent design studio located in central North Carolina. His studio has been successfully providing clients with innovative, award winning design since 2001.
With five Best of Neocon Gold awards and over two-dozen patents to his credit, Michael continues to provide “out of the box” concepts. Believing that form truly does follow function, he prefers to improve the way a product works or is manufactured prior to addressing aesthetics. Designing for disassembly, facilitating recycle-ability via single material components, and reduced complexity help reduce costs while fostering environmentally responsible products. “Conservative contemporary” best describes Michael’s stylistic approach, following a “less is more” path to aesthetic solutions.
Examples of id3 studios’ work for JSI include the “Hedron” linking lounge series and the “Newton” line of management / conference seating.
Fun, energetic, experienced defines our JSI design group. With both new product introductions and existing series enhancements, our process begins with input from our end users. Customer service to product development, engineering to handcrafting the product, our team works together brainstorming solutions and targeting future demands to produce satisfactory results.
With an entire lineup of projects in queue, we will be working tediously throughout 2010 bringing many exciting introductions to the marketplace.
