DATE & TIME
Friday, February 26, 2010 / 1:00 AM
CATEGORY
FEATURE
LOCATION
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON
Seattle's Whitcomb & Company founder, Andy Whitcomb, is mobilizing to innovate the furniture industry. Sustainability is the focus of this entrepreneur and graduate of Kendall College of Art and Design. Since having received his BFA in Furniture Design, Andy has been gathering a community of builders, designers and dreamers.
Andy's management strategies are along the lines of those found in John Hagel and John Seely Brown's 'The Only Sustainable Edge.' Furthermore, in the recent Harvard Business Review post 'From Do It Yourself to Do It Together' Hagel, Brown, and Lang Davison mention the institutional innovation that Whitcomb & Company has already adopted. Andy faces the risk and responsibility of a point man in the industry, but the smile on his face shows there is more going on than he presently admits and that it's going quite well.
After showing us his latest designs and process, Andy invited us to visit inside his home. It's a small, clean and cozy trailer parked inside the workshop. Picking up a slightly out of tune banjo, he played 'Red River Valley', singing 'Come and sit by my side if you love me, Do not hasten to bid me adieu but remember that Red River Valley and the cowboy who loved you so true.' And then he chuckled with that inspiring smile.
AUTHOR
Royal Nebeker
TAGS
ANDY WHITCOMB
FURNITURE DESIGN PROCESS
KENDALL COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN
RED RIVER VALLEY
SEATTLE DESIGN PHOTOGRAPHER
SEATTLE FURNITURE DESIGN
SEATTLE FURNITURE DESIGNER
SEATTLE FURNITURE PHOTOGRAPHER
WHITCOMB & COMPANY