Chase Philpotts

I was commissioned to build an entryway bench for a client in Manhattan. The top is white oak with CNC’d sapelle bow ties and the base is red oak stained with alcohol based black dye. The client requested a slightly tall bench height to make sitting and standing easier, and some drawers for easy access to shoes.

Red Oak Re-Imagined - Professor Michael Sarno

This class was a special project sponsored by the American Hardwood Manufacturers Association who promote the use of american grown hardwoods. We had an opportunity to use red oak, the most prevalent hardwood species, as a medium to explore modern space-conscious furniture for an urban apartment. Each student was provided with 75 board feet of rough cut boards and spent the semester exploring, prototyping, and fabricating a final piece.

My approach to the prompt was to create a piece for storage and seating. This cabinet would house additional seating in plain sight. As a small apartment dweller, I saw a need for an extra chair to be accessible but not take up space when not in use. My finished design is called "Slant”. It is an angled credenza with several open shelves and a chair that slides out of one side.

I chose the most dynamic red oak boards i could find to highlight the inherent beauty of the material. The finish used is called cerusing. I finish sanded and stained the piece with a golden oak stain, then wire brushed the grain to prep the material for liming wax. The liming wax bleached the heavy grain and sealed the wood. This finish is a classic oak finish and develops a beautiful patina.

The American Hardwood Association held a contest at the end of the class. My piece was awarded third place. All of our pieces were then displayed at Wanted Design Brooklyn.

Summer 2019

I was invited to apprentice with Joshua Vogel at his company, Black Creek Mercantile and Trading Co. in Kingston, NY. Josh needed assistance fabricating a custom cabinet and vanity for a client on the west coast and asked me to work alongside him to complete the project. The cabinet is made of english sycamore sourced from a single tree and all of the details, joinery, and frame are hand finished. We worked from a series of technical drawings that Josh designed and completed the project in 7 weeks. The cabinet was bleached and then sealed with a white pigmented oil finish. Thank you to Josh and Kelly for the invaluable experience!

Photos are my own or from Kelly Zanetto where indicated.

Furniture Design Studio - Professor Frederick McSwain

We were challenged with developing a piece of furniture for space conscious dwellers, focusing on modularity, storage, and campaign furniture. I decided to use this project as an opportunity to work with a real client and design for a specific space and user.

My older brother, Brett, just purchased a small farm house in Pennsylvania and needed a new dining table. I explored the current offerings of folding leaf tables and chose to explore making a mechanism that would allow storage and actuation with one simple motion. I selected ribbon stripe sapelle for the table body and stainless steel for the mechanism and frame. I constructed the table in CAD to explore tolerances and make sure the concept was feasible.

The construction took place over 5 weeks in the Pratt Institute wood shop and metal shop. I first completed the woodworking and then transitioned to bending and welding the frame. The final proof-of-concept was successful and shows the potential for the mechanism.

While I continue to develop further iterations of the leaf mechanism, I fabricated a white oak frame to mount the table tops and delivered the finished table to my brother’s home in Pennsylvania in late May of 2020.

Summer 2018: DIS Furniture Program - Copenhagen, Denmark

I participated in the Furniture Design program at DIS (Danish Institute Study Abroad). We traveled through Denmark, Sweden and Finland to visit workshops, furniture manufactories, and museums featuring classic Scandinavian chairs. We then developed our own designs and constructed a prototype out of maple wood boards and other materials we chose. My chair, called Oresund, after the bridge that links Copenhagen to Sweden, is an homage to the classic simple forms of the mid-century modern movement. The fabric was designed by Aino Aalto and acquired at the Artek flagship store in Helsinki. The wood is sealed with a traditional Danish soap finish.

Industrial Design Technology - Profs Henry Yoo and Matthew Hoey

We were tasked with creating new ways to make music and sounds. My project partner Terence Li and I both grew up playing the guitar and wanted to explore collaboration and sharing in the music making process.

We created an instrument that would allow one person to play a 6-string guitar, or, with a simple action, split it in two. Two players can then play together on two 3-string guitars. Our prototype was built with two carbon truss rods and two sets of electronics so that both halves can be plugged in to amplifiers. We call it the Splitar. It allows twice the rocking.

Cube Project. Professor Brian Slocum.

Powder-coated steel, glass, and plastic.

This project involved studying negative space and capturing movement. The complete cube section is meant to appear as though it is falling from the lattice. The sculpture was then placed on its side to function as a table. It is constructed of powder-coated steel sheet and box tubing and a tempered glass top.

Industrial Design Technology - Profs Henry Yoo and Matthew Hoey

Solomon is a bedside lamp inspired by the beautiful Guggenheim Museum on Manhattan’s upper east side.

Gantri is a California based company that produces 3D printed lighting objects licensed from designers all around the world. This project was a contest among our cohort to develop lamp designs to fit into Gantri’s product offering. Over the course of 3 weeks, we went from initial sketches to CAD models to 3D printed prototypes. This was my submission for the contest.

Industrial Design Technology - Profs Henry Yoo and Matthew Hoey

Our first project in ID tech was a sponsored project with Red Bull and GoPro. We were tasked with developing a camera mount for rock climbers like our client, world champion rock climber Sasha DiGiulian, who provided her expertise and feedback to aid our development. Our team focused on creating an on body mount to allow the user to move the GoPro to different places on the body to capture new angles. After many hours of research at Brooklyn Boulders, we developed a magnetic vest that would allow the climber to move the camera, mounted on a bendable arm, to various locations on the chest and back. This design was selected by Sasha as the winning wearable design and she took it climbing in Colorado to demonstrate the concept. Here is a link to her review.

Industrial Design Technology - Profs Henry Yu and Matthew Hoey

Our team was paired with a need-knower named Nij. He was born with mild CP and has reduced function in his right hand. He needed help with everyday tasks around his apartment such as holding a cup or carrying a grocery bag. We documented his unique needs and requests and began sketching a prototyping solutions to help him reach his goals. Our final prototype utilized magnets to assist his gripping force, and a shelf to support the items.