THE MAKERS
Jesse Mechanic
An American professor and public intellectual known for his work in linguistics, political activism, and social criticism. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", he is also a major figure in analytic philosophy and one of the founders of the field of cognitive science.
That is part of the Wikipedia bio for Noam Chomsky.
Mine would look quite similar, but rather than bore you with my (significant and far-reaching) accolades, I thought I’d keep this brief: I love to write and make things out of wood. Six years ago I made a truly terrible bench, just horrendous—gross, clunky, uneven design, poorly constructed. But it was a bench, and it worked as such. That sparked an unyielding obsession with woodworking and design that has only grown over subsequent years. I work out of an overflowing shop in New York making everything from bowls, vases, and sculptures to dining tables.
Much of my writing and activist work has been centered around human rights. It is my firm belief that we have enough resources on this planet to ensure everyone lives well, but poverty is rampant. So while we fight and work to re-organize things in a more humane fashion, I hope this project can provide a bit of help to those who need it.
Ryan Kahen
Ryan is a Brooklyn-based designer whose work is driven by the principles of architecture, the built environment and exploration. After graduating with an M.Arch, Ryan has worked for several design practices in New York, including Uhuru, SITU and A05 Studio, where he has led teams of designers and fabricators to deliver projects, ranging from custom commercial build outs to workplace campus solutions to award winning furniture systems. Ryan also leverages his multidisciplinary experience with his own practice, Kahen Design, where he creates furniture and products through an exploration of materials and processes.
All of this to say, I’ve been working in the design industry for a minute and have been a maker for as long as I can remember.
Limited by space, tools, materials, really anything you'd need to get started, I launched my own design practice by creating tiny house necklace pendants from cast concrete in my one bedroom apartment in Brooklyn. As I moved into a larger apartment and gained access to proper workshops, my work grew with me. I shifted away from a jewelry scale and focused on larger home accessories and furniture.
My work has remained heavily influenced by my architectural background and I am constantly inspired by this concrete jungle where dreams are made of. I love to explore and push the means and methods of making, whether that be a new material or technique. And yes my wardrobe is very monochromatic, but I try my best to bring a pop of color into the mix. I tend to make a mess but convince myself it's “organized chaos.” I work with a wide variety of mediums, but woodworking has and always will be my happy place.
Tim COHAN
Tim Cohan is founder and creative director of Cohan Design. A former Pentagrammer, he has designed brands for Warner Bros., Fisher-Price, and the Wizarding World, as well as the signage and wayfinding master plan for Hudson River Park in Manhattan. He also created and teaches a course called Brand Concepts in the MFA Design program at School of Visual Arts.
But wait; what does all of that have to do with Wood Moves? Let’s lose the third person narrative and I’ll tell you a tale:
I have been building things since 2015 when I moved into an apartment with a roommate, but almost no furniture. So we set up a woodshop in a spare room and made our furniture. Not so surprisingly, everything was constantly covered in sawdust no matter how careful we were. There was a lot of learning on the fly and many mistakes, but we improved and we still have all our fingers. We crafted custom built-in shelves and storage systems, stand alone furniture, and a bookcase that opens up to a pantry.
I’ve since converted that woodshop to a nursery, and shifted my focus to smaller pieces which I design and build at the Gowanus Studio Space in Brooklyn. This is about the time when I started working with Jesse and Ryan to get Wood Moves off the ground. It is a dream project for me in that it bridges the worlds of graphic design and woodworking.