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Furniture designer skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted experts

Dr. Jennifer Jorgensen Ph.D.,

Chris Chapin

Below we've compiled a list of the most critical furniture designer skills. We ranked the top skills for furniture designers based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 12.1% of furniture designer resumes contained sketch as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills a furniture designer needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 furniture designer skills for your resume and career

1. Sketch

Here's how furniture designers use sketch:

Initiated and oversaw development from initial concept sketch to final production, working closely with Chinese engineering and manufacturing vendors.
Developed handbags from initial sketch through final product including material sourcing, development of prototypes, sampling and technical specifications.

2. Industrial Design

Here's how furniture designers use industrial design:

Manage 1 industrial design employee and several subcontractors including: mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, graphic designers and industrial designers.
Contributed mechanical and design patent worthy industrial design work on numerous projects that significantly improved the viability of the product.

3. Adobe Photoshop

Here's how furniture designers use adobe photoshop:

Trained designers in using Adobe Photoshop.
Design company catalogs from both rendered furniture pieces and photos taken of actual pieces utilizing Adobe Photoshop and Corel Draw.

4. Rhino

A Rhino is a computer application software for graphics and Computer-Aided Design (CAD) developed in 1980 by Robert McNeel & Associates. It's a computer 3D application used for 3D printing and is used for reverse engineering in fields like graphic design, 3D printing, multimedia, industrial design, architecture, computer-aided manufacturing, and a few others.

Here's how furniture designers use rhino:

Created furniture 3D Cad models using Rhino and Solidworks for clients of Orlando Diaz-Azcuy including JANUS et Cie and Matsuoka
Created concept sketches, Rhino 3D NURBS geometry, and 2D/3D renderings.

5. Auto CAD

Here's how furniture designers use auto cad:

Make full-size drawing (Auto CAD) and freehand based on design concept for sampling.
Designed Hydraulic Cylinders for Manufacturing Worked with Auto CAD in design application.

6. Design Furniture

Here's how furniture designers use design furniture:

Sell and design furniture and accessories
Design furniture based on the style of residences and businesses.

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7. Space Planning

Space Planning is one of the most important elements of interior decorating. The interior designer takes the space available within a building, an apartment, a house, or another type of structure which is being renovated or otherwise altered, and then they begin to play around with the space, creating visions and revisions of the space on paper or in a specialised design program, according to the necessities of the project and clients at hand.

Here's how furniture designers use space planning:

Managed all commercial office furniture space planning.
Develop space planning, design and presentations.

8. KeyShot

Here's how furniture designers use keyshot:

Collaborated with internal publisher team to design gaming products, using Photoshop, Illustrator, and KeyShot.
Create renderings in Keyshot for sales and assembly Illustrations.

9. Office Furniture

Here's how furniture designers use office furniture:

Joint sales calls with office products sales reps to further penetrate their customers to increased sales of contract office furniture.
Created architectural/schematic drawings using CAD for the design of classical home and office furniture workingdirectly with the client.

10. Product Development

Product development is the complete procedure of creating a product from concept until release of the final product. Product development has many stages after which a product is released into the market. Identifying the need, creating the opportunity, conceptualizing a product, and providing a solution, all are different stages of product development.

Here's how furniture designers use product development:

Facilitated the documentation of technical drawings, revisions, and construction notes related to product development.
Inspired creations of lighting, furniture and home accessory products from design to product development.

11. R

R is a free software environment and a language used by programmers for statistical computing. The R programming language is famously used for data analysis by data scientists.

Here's how furniture designers use r:

Reviewed all B and R lines, vision lines, blackout lines and clearances.
Helped engineering stall design the Gerald R Ford aircraft carrier.

12. Design Projects

Design projects are used to create a product or service to serve a specific customer or client need. They may entail thinking about the ideas, materials necessary for the idea and the steps that will be followed to realize the idea.

Here's how furniture designers use design projects:

Consulted clients, executed personalized interior design projects, designed home furniture and completed 3-D renderings.
Interviewed new clients to gather information related to interior design projects; subsequently, coordinated information and participated in project planning.

13. Design Development

Design development is used to refer to a number of positions and skills in a number of different industries. In the architectural world, Design Development is used to refer to an architectural plan that is already halfway or more done but needs further development, alteration, and testing. In the automotive industry, it refers to the skills necessary to create and develop new car, engine, and other designs, as well as to ensure that all designs are safe and effective.

Here's how furniture designers use design development:

Designed and built multiple scaled and full size furniture prototype models for design development
Managed junior level designers and assisted all major account design development.

14. Design Process

The process by which a product is formed is referred to as the design process. It requires the conceptualization of what the product may look like in terms of aesthetics, what it will be made of and most importantly, what it will do. A design process puts this process in order so that the creation of the product is seamless and has the least amount of errors and slack while it is being made.

Here's how furniture designers use design process:

Managed projects from the design process through manufacturing, finishing and installation.
Provided in-home consulting as part of the design process.

15. Design Concepts

Here's how furniture designers use design concepts:

Originated and developed creative design concepts to create both functional yet aesthetically appealing spaces in both residential and commercial spaces.
Developed design concepts for various clients' marketing/advertising plans, including corporate identity, print advertising, and collateral materials.

5 Furniture Designer resume examples

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What skills help Furniture Designers find jobs?

Tell us what job you are looking for, we’ll show you what skills employers want.

What skills stand out on furniture designer resumes?

Dr. Jennifer Jorgensen Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

The retail industry is robust and requires many skills. Content and industry-related knowledge are essential, including comfort with computer applications like Adobe Creative Suite and Microsoft Excel. Beyond knowledge of the industry, job candidates need excellent communication skills in written and oral forms. It's also highly recommended that job candidates have work experience in their area of interest, which could include an internship, job shadow, or part-time position.

What furniture designer skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?

Chris Chapin

Professor and Chair, Kansas City Art Institute

I would recommend they take this time to learn and practice new digital tools of the Product Design field. The expectation, once they enter the profession, is that they will already be up to speed on the tools. I advise students to research their target employers and become familiar with the ways in which they work. This pandemic period is a great opportunity for students and graduates to round out their skills, knowledge, and professional perspective via online-course offerings. There is also no guarantee that a job will be waiting for them. In which case, it is best if they are prepared to create their own career starts with a spirit of persistence and entrepreneurship.

What type of skills will young furniture designers need?

Bennie F. Johnson

Executive Director, AIGA, the professional association for design

Our Design Futures research from 2018 covered this topic in some detail. Some highlights of needed skills include an understanding of business models, complex systems, and data. One of the seven Design Futures trends is "Bridging Physical and Digital Experiences," which has become even more important in a COVID world. Of course, mastering craft and specific tools remain important, especially for entry-level work, but so is a general ability to "learn how to learn," as the rate of technical change (and obsolescence) is only getting faster.

In May of 2020, AIGA conducted an industry pulse check survey around the impact of COVID-19 on the design community and found, not surprisingly, that adaptability skills continue to be the most critical for design professionals, and collaboration made the list of top five skills for the first time.

Do you want to know more?

List of furniture designer skills to add to your resume

The most important skills for a furniture designer resume and required skills for a furniture designer to have include:

Sketch
Industrial Design
Adobe Photoshop
Rhino
Auto CAD
Design Furniture
Space Planning
KeyShot
Office Furniture
Product Development

R
Design Projects
Design Development
Design Process
Design Concepts
Shop Drawings
Market Research
Technical Drawings
CNC
Web Design

Design Solutions
Design Services
Table Saws
Sales Floor
Furniture Specifications
Jigs
Cost Estimates
Furniture Sales

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

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Updated January 8, 2025

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