About Us

Tiger Tandem Design is a side project of designer/craftsman Devon Shannon. The company was founded in January of 2009 in a small workshop in Kirkland Washington.

 The company name, Tiger Tandem Design, has the intended meaning of super cooperative design, and comes from my own rather ridiculous and improper use of the word tiger as an adjective meaning intense or super. The name intended to convey, at least on some level, the extent to which pieces are designed for a very specific interaction with existing furniture or the physical constraints posed by the corner of a room.

We offer limited production pieces  as well as custom work— where we work with you to develop a design that suits your space and your budget.

 

 Furniture Design

In all furniture, I favor clean modern lines, organic forms, and a high contrast in colors. I always try to include several different reflective surfaces or materials, so as to maintain visual interest. I favor minimalist designs and see a good form coming from the interaction of interesting and well proportioned shapes.

 I prefer heavily figured or grained woods like Walnut , Oak , Wenge and Zebrawood . However, the uniformity of straight grained American Cherry is very elegant, and appropriate when there is a lot of competing visual textures. General I want a balance, too much figured in a piece looks Craftsman like, too little —Ikea like. Other materials I use, such as metal legs or enameled table tops, are uniform and smooth surfaces, so the figure in the wood imparts some ciaos .

Finish are very important to all furniture. I want a finish with luster and water white clarity . I build up may layers of finish for depth as well as durability and avoid finishes that warm the wood. Most people expect wooden furniture to have a warm glow simply because that’s how American furniture was finished for the last hundred years. All oil-based top coats yellow over time, especially if exposed to direct sunlight and this is something we expect to see . I try to keep everything very cool and favor water based finishes that wont yellow.