Design Secrets: Furniture

explaining the Not So Soft Table. “The best, most successfully de-

signed objects are those that are immediate, that communicate,

in a way, their function, that say what they do.

I like how this table explains itself, and how it also explains the

design process in a way. You get to choose how much of it you

put together,” Burks points out, “even if there is only one way to

put it together.”

The Not So Soft Table was an unexpected outgrowth of Burks’

work with Mogu, a Japanese manufacturer of pillows filled with

polystyrene pellets. During his year or so as international art direc-

tor for the now defunct company, “I realized they were making

things in ...