Editor’s Letter
Simple is not simple When I read that Rolf Barfoed, the maker featured on this issue’s cover, describes his aesthetic as ‘visually simple, technically complex’, I was intrigued. Furniture of every age has had its own definition of simplicity. In its day, a 17th century Louis armoire might have sat at the lower end of the ornate spectrum, but that place would be lost today. In the 1800s, the exposed joinery of Arts & Crafts style furniture was used as a design element that spoke of honesty and a rejection of ornament. Nowadays, simplicity of form in contemporary furniture may have a pared back look which relies on engineered joinery that is anything but simple. Making well crafted furniture on a commercial scale adds another level of complexity. Rolf is a career furniture…
