Good design
Designer Glendon Good , MBA '89, was a GSB student when he created his first collection of furniture. After graduation, Good, who studied design along with business, began making furniture commercially. He ultimately founded his Berkeley, Calif., company, Abraxas, to manufacture his designs. Since then, Good has gained considerable recognition from the design world for work that the San Francisco Chronicle has described as "industrial elegance at its best."
The overall effect of Good's designs is one of artistic elegance coupled with practical simplicity. He has stated a desire to erase the dichotomy between industry and art. Such an ambition seems appropriate for the son of an artist and a physician.
A piece particularly evocative of Good's personal aesthetic is the Poseidon Screen. This xylophone-like room divider (76 by 120 inches) is constructed of 60 hand-cut aluminum tubes. The screen, as much sculpture as furniture, will flex into nearly any configuration. It won the 1993 Roscoe Award from Interior Design magazine and has been made a part of the permanent design collection at the Smithsonian Institution's Cooper-Hewitt Museum.
Good's designs (which also include aluminum tables and stools) are represented by galleries and museums, including the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the Oakland Museum, and the Gallery of Functional Art in Santa Monica, Calif.
Founding Abraxas has allowed Good complete control over the production of his work. Everything is made by hand, and he allows no chemicals in his work with recyclable aluminum.
At 31, Good has achieved remarkable success. His future profession was a mystery to him while growing up, he says, but he does allow that he "always wanted to make things."
Paul Neimann
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