IDSA Chicago met at Specimen, a custom guitar and amplifier maker and repairer in the Humboldt Park neighborhood on February 21, 2006. Owner Ian Schneller gave an intimate tour of the workshop and described his unconventional methods of guitar making, including how he developed his own custom tools and processes. He also talked about the history of guitar making and how Chicago was once a home for several guitar shops. His familiarity with guitars and the need for extra hands around the shop has motivated him to set up the Chicago School of Guitar Making, and it seemed that a couple people in attendance were impressed enough by his knowledge and expertise that they were interested in signing up.

Surprisingly enough to us though, Ian wasn't particularly aware of what kind of work modern professional industrial designers did, nor did he show any great interest in understanding why we were there or how our work related to what he was doing. Perhaps because of his cynicism about the decline of quality in guitars and amps as a result of mass production, he faults industrial designers for being part of the industrialization of his craft. To that end, it was acknowledged that the shift towards mass production was inevitable, but the discussion provided a unique and visible critique on our role in the disappearance of quality handcrafted goods. The awkwardness and introspection that I'm sure many of us felt was a testament to the success of this Design Loop, as it revealed an opinion of our profession that we don't often see.








Text: Maria Weber
Images: Michael Carrow