Parker Pierce

CNC Programmer / CAD Designer for Manufacturing

My ideal role is one where I’m acting as a bridge between design and manufacturing. My background is in custom carpentry and I’m knowledgable on furniture materials and production methods. I enjoy and exceed at prototyping and design for production, especially in the furniture industry. I’ve spent some time professionally and personally solving problems that arise when translating design to the shop floor. I relish the nitty gritty details of furniture construction, and strive to create and maintain products that are intuitive and effecient.

I grew up working with my late grandfather, who was once a handyman and carpenter. He taught me how to use power tools and do work around the house. He built all the cabinets in his house, including some wacky ones in corners and odd places. I didn’t fully appreciate this until later. I’ve always wanted to make things, and manufacturing connected with that for me immediately. I worked with Bayer Brother Sets in Dallas for a year. They can build anything, let me use their shop, and have taught me so much. I worked in custom residential trim for a year, while doing work on the side. I learned even more here, especially how to be an effecient carpenter - even in odd scenarios where you are working on the fly. I discovered that Scout Design Studio was hiring, and I’d admired their furniture since relocating to Dallas; I jumped at the opportunity. I worked with them as a carpenter for a year, and then was promoted to become a CNC programmer. The portfolio below focuses on work I’ve done with them and for myself.

I’ve self studied in CAD, furniture design, and manufacturing/craft history for around 5 years.

In my time in this industry, I’ve learned to think backwards. It’s something that Joel Bayer taught me. I didn’t understand it at first, but I think that a backwards attitude is perfect for custom production. You start with a sofa, take the fabric off, take the foam off, take the suspension off, disassemble it. You’re left with a sheet of plans, some material, and tools. Every corner is considered, nothing is left to chance. Yet it’s breathable, flexibile. Change your idea, play with it, and the rest follows. There’s something beautiful about creating; there’s a magic in that process. I find myself at home here - in the impossible problems and the headaches and the splinters - and in the satisfaction of when it all comes back together.

Resume

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Portfolio

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Scott Sectional // For Scout Design Studio

The Scott Sectional was made for clients out of Florida. They wanted a large, contemporary piece with no expense spared. The sectional is upholstered in mohair, and features a tight seat and back. When developing the frame for this piece, I identified 4 sections to seperate: chaise, corner, straight, and corner end.

Finished Scott Sectional before leaving Upholstery Warehouse for delivery

Rendering developed for manufacturing reference

I developed a model in SolidWorks to merge the client’s size requirements, our manufacturing methods, and the client’s reference pieces and images. By developing a model of the completed piece at scale, I was able to work backwards to producing our frames. Additionally, renderings like this one give the manufacturers reference for the completed project. Soft good modeling is difficult. Foam, fabric, dacron, and suspension systems are breathable, movable, and more dynamic than a typical hard surface. However, an upholster can study a rendering like this one to begin their work.

This model is just a starting point, and the frames follow. As a manufacturer ourselves at Scout, I was in constant dialouge with upholsterers to make sure that the frame could address all of their needs.

This is where the fundamental dimensions of the sectional’s frame begin to come to light. This is particularly notable in the right view. The end panel creates the pitch of the back, the seat height, the seat depth, back height, and overall depth. I use this panel as a pattern all around the piece. It will be adjusted for other parts. For example, the middle panels have the same joints, but have a seat cut out so the suspension can move as the client sits. This sketch is one used by the manufacturing team to assemble the frame.

Straight Frame technical drawing, click to expand

Corner Frame technical drawing, click to expand

This was a difficult piece of the frame to design. It is the short corner piece. It was later used as the basis for the corner end piece. The corner panel is based on the end panels that are prominent throughout the entire frame.

The unique corner panels are longer than their other counterparts, and have mitered ends to fit snugly into the front panels. Each joint where the panels touch each other contributes to the overall strenght of the piece. Once the skeleton is assembled, it is stronger than the glue and plywood that comprise it.

This section presented challenges for our upholsterers as well. Initially, they were concerned with upholstering the back as it wrapped around the corner at a pitch. The tight seat enabled them to do some clever cutting with the foam, so that the top of the back would be colinear with the back of the frame. The upholsterers initially suggested that the back should have been near pitchless to make this process easier - but the result is undeniably well executed.

The Chaise section of the piece was also a difficult one to create. The upholsterers needed to be able to get inbetween the ottoman section and the arm that wraps around the back. There is a small space for them to fit dacron around the arm. This section was slightly different than the others, and it’s important to the assembler that universal dimensions and conventions of the piece remain consistent.

You’ll see where the arm dives down into the seat - it is the same width as the back rail. The bottom rail which runs under the seat extends all the way to the edge of the ottoman. The panels that support the bottom of the seat follow the same rules as the middle panels, just extended to be slightly larger than the total depth of the piece. The ottoman is on the same plane as the seat with a back, so the suspension and upholstering can be done exactly as it was with simpler sections.

Constructed frame for Chaise piece

This piece was very important to me. The sectional’s success sympolizes growth for me in this industry, and in my trade. I’ve always been inspired by contemporary furniture and its design. This piece’s frame was complicated, but it was solid, easy to assemble, and required little adjustment from the upholsterers. This project became a pattern for other frames that I would design. Particularly the Flann Sectional.

The techniques I used here benefit everyone in manufacturing: working backwards from a scale rendering, patterning the end panel to contain most of the piece’s important measurments, and reusing/editing assemblies. These practices maintain continuity and take guesswork/adjusting out of the equation for assemblers and upholsters alike.

Part of what prepared me for this project was working on other smaller upholstery pieces. With some practice, it was easier to visualize how the upholsterers would work around the frame. Additionally, my carpentry background pushed me to make the frame easy to assemble and understand. Parts should have an identifiable use and place in the overall assembly. Assemblers should be able to put the frame together with simple tools. For this frame, an assembler only needs a stapler, glue, and a measuring tape.

Flann Sectional // For Scout Design Studio

The Flann Sectional is an ongoing project to build a piece inspired by the Scott Sectional. It will be upholstered similarly. I designed this piece using the Scott as a reference. For this one, I liked the idea of easing the back into the seat like an arm. I was influenced by MCM pieces, including works by Pearsall, and a contemporary piece from Lawson Fenning. The piece has a slated completion date of Mar. 28th.

This shows a few different versions of the design. We adapted the design to be a bit lighter on the sides by removing arms. I ratcheted up the size of the radiuses on the outside of the piece to make it less boxy and rigid. Overall we settled on a design that was airy, and had a nice flow for the size that it would stand.

The practice of generating a scale digital model of the finished piece is one that I picked up when doing the Scott Sectional. Constructing the eased back in this form prepared me for the next phase - the frame design.

The frame construction itself was mostly simple. To start, I used the same end panel from the Scott Sectional, but scaled it down in certain areas. We have a smaller overall footprint for this piece, and the back needed to be smaller overall. Most of the frame’s assembly went together easily - but then I got to the eased back.

This shape is odd to manufacture. In our facilities, we have a 3 axis CNC machine, and traditional woodworking tools. This part of the sectional, the eased back, is one that I knew would be difficult to manufacture from the start. This is for a few reasons.

1) The slope of the arm is dictated by a spline, that would likely be difficult to upholster compared to a boxier frame.
2) The finished size of the back of the sectional is 5” at the top, and 8” at the bottom. It’s running into the curve of the back, which is a 16” radius. Therefore, the back is terminating along a curve.
3) To maintain a constant pitch, the width of the back is changing down the spline as it dives into the seat.

This picture is the first physical prototype of the arm. I brought it to upholstery so that they could tell me if it would work for their purposes, and if not get advice on how to change it.

We landed on this design for the eased back. By allowing the pitch of the back to change, we could keep a consistent width along the top. We also switched to using narrower foam. This allowed a thicker back - while mainting the important overall depth and seat depth dimensions we’d already settled on. There’s a piece at the end of the back missing, a hardwood heel. I ended up making these backs pictured, as well as the sectional frame.

Flexible plywood is an amazing material for furniture manufacturing that shys away from traditional solid wood frames. Plywood panels are very stable, and strong when used correctly. But to mimic the complex curves that are carvable out of solid wood, you have to get creative. I started designing these pieces in a solid chunk, sort of like you would if you were manufacturing them out of solid wood. However, I knew that I could create the curved backs and tops with flexible plywood. The back piece of flexible creates the consistent curve for straight backed ribs to follow. It also sets the height, and I could trim the top of the ribs on a bandsaw to match the height of the back flex exactly. From there the flexible plywood top went on, and was kept long. I trimmed the back of it to match the curve of the back flex, and then measured the consistent 3” off of that curve. I trimmed the front, applied a second piece of flexible, and trimmed the next one

I designed and built these frames. In this picture you can see how the eased back assembly is made to fit in with the rest of the frame. Everything looks great, and these frames are essentially ready for upholstery. However, I was about to have some more work to do.

This piece isn’t for a typical customer, and our Director of Production decided that he wanted to change the design. No problem, we can do that, I just need a little time. He said that he’d like an arm on the left side, like what we’d modeled originally. There was some discussion of reusing the existing eased back. While in theory this is possible, I suggested that we remove the left back, and replace it with a piece which would include a full back that transitions into an arm along the curve of the section. I took a few hours modeling a replacement, and another couple hours hammering out how we’d build it and getting the CNC’ed components ready for machining.

New parts are highlighted here in red. I used the documents in the building of the frames.

This frame is now ready for upholstery. It took a little less than an extra day, and we were able to pivot and implement an alternative solution for the arm and back.

This piece is still being constructed, and the following pictures will show the upholstery process.

WG Desk // For Scout Design Studio

The WG Desk was made for a customer who requested an executive desk made using our burls used on Scout Label SKUs. We sell some desks, but none that match the luxury that this one exudes. It’s one of the first projects that I took on in my new role. I used familiar techniques to build the cabinets that form the sides of the desk. We have several designs that use this style base - rectangular, with a routed top profile, and a custom leg profile. For this piece I wanted to create a unique leg, chunkier and more pared back than others that we use. It’s also one of the first pieces we’ve produced that utilize multiple species of veneer. The look harkens to the furniture comissioned for Versailles, albeit it only sports a modicum of their adornement.

The references that the client passed along were modest silhouettes with specific elements of adornement. They wanted the look of different wood species, and the pure mass of an executive desk. My design has paneled drawer fronts, sides, and back. The paneling transitions walnut veneer, into a brass chamfer, and then olive ash panels. The legs are chunky, but orderly and neat. They’re solid walnut, and their mass is mirrored in the double walled cabinets that create the sides of the piece.

We knew that a marquetry heavy piece such as the first referenced picture would be a difficult task for even our most skilled carpenters. That aesthetic is outside of our normal veneering complexity, and recreating the layers and borders would be a time sink. We needed to balance an Old World look with our style of manufacturing.

I submitted several rounds of technical drawing drafts to the client. The main idea is there from the beginning. Later, a pencil drawer is added. A cutout is added to the back panel to make it more dynamic, and a grommet is added to the top for devices hidden in the cabinet.

The piece is visualized differently too. This is earlier on when I was still getting used to SolidWorks and wasn’t as familiar with the rendering abilities of the platform.

The sketches that follow are the ones that got approval, pending the results from a door sample that we’d complete in a month or so after the sketch was approved.

The client approved a door sample, comprised of walnut, brass, and olive ash. In my opinion, the brass is executed tastefully. The Director of Production voiced that we should keep brass use to a minimum; we wouldn’t want it to sneak into SKUs where it would become too gaudy. In the case of this fat, fancy desk, it was perfect.

After the sample was approved, I developed some more production drawings for our carpenters to be able to recreate the base and legs as modeled. The leg drawing was printed at scale and used as a pattern at a bandsaw.

The following gallery shows some images from the desk’s production.

And here’s the completed desk - just waiting to be delivered.

Nook v1 // For Nook

Placeholder, I'm still gathering supporting documents.

Coffee Table // Personal

Placeholder, I'm still gathering supporting documents.