joel wakeman graduated from the rhode island school of design in 2006 with a bfa in industrial design.
he is consistently intrigued by the methods, means and materials of how things get made and consequently spends much of his time peering under things and upending furniture to discover how it was put together. the industrial design department afforded him the opportunity of interacting with and learning from a myriad of talented designers and makers from almost every field of manufacturing along with constant exposure to many diverse workshops, tools and processes to build up his arsenal of skills and resources. partly because of so many skill-building opportunities and his manifold interest in all of them, joel was generally dissatisfied with the current widespread divorce between designers and the manufacture of designed goods. therefore, he has endeavored to truly “manufacture”— literally meaning “make by hand”— the things he designs in order to continue learning by doing and for the integrity of both the objects and the designs.
joel is currently designing and building custom furniture on commission out of his own workshop. he is also pursuing the possibilities of growing his own food and timber in the near future and continues to be interested in many diverse but always overlapping skills and processes.
he is lovingly and faithfully assisted in every aspect and step of design and construction by his lovely wife, miranda, who is extraordinary in more ways than can be counted here.