About
Learn more about NextFab, our services, and the future of making.
Makerspace
A place with all the tools you need for your creativity and hands-on-learning.
Membership
Our Members
Events
Furniture maker and Artisan Accelerator participant Benny Jimenez on heritage-inspired design, hidden faces, and getting your hands dirty.
Benny Jimenez graduated from Drexel University last spring with a degree in product design. He spent his last three years of school in the woodshop, and his work grew from small models and incense burners to chairs, a wardrobe, coat racks, and lamps. His senior thesis became a furniture collection inspired by his Colombian and Jewish heritage, and it’s now the foundation of his business. This fall, he joined NextFab’s Artisan Accelerator to build his next collection.
We talked with Benny about challenging furniture’s old guard, the thrill of his first show, and why you shouldn’t spend six months thinking about something you could build.
“I’m Benny Jimenez. I graduated from Drexel University last spring with a product design degree. That’s really where I got into fabrication. I focused on woodworking for the last three years of school. I started making little models, then incense burners, and it took off from there into full-scale prototypes: chairs, a wardrobe, coat racks, and lamps.”
Benny found NextFab through fellow Drexel alumni who work in the shops.
“I reached out and said, ‘I don’t know what to do. There’s no makerspace anywhere in my price range.’ They both told me about this program and said it would be the perfect opportunity. So I applied and was lucky to be in the cohort.”
“It really started with my senior thesis. I created a furniture collection called JIME, the first four letters of my last name. It’s culturally inspired furniture.”
The collection pushes back on a long history of exclusivity in furniture design.
“Historically, the main canon of furniture comes from a very neoclassical place. There’s an elitism to woodworking, and a masculine ‘it’s not sturdy, it doesn’t work’ mentality. I wanted to challenge those views and look at the aesthetics I’ve been surrounded by and attracted to, and see if they could be good inspirations for furniture.”
“You can still take cues from popular design styles like mid-century modern or Bauhaus, but add something new to change those narratives a little. My senior collection was substantial enough that I thought, ‘If I made another one, this could sustain me for a bit.’ So now it’s about building a brand and making another collection.”
“My dad’s Colombian, and I grew up with my abuelos in the house. My mom’s Jewish. Having multiple perspectives around was helpful in sending me down a path of figuring out what I like.”
“Something I reference a lot is the little trinkets around the house, like models of Colombian chiva buses. Even though they’re just toys, they have this beautiful, unique style that comes from a deeper history. There’s such a mix of Spanish woodworking and pre-Columbian tradition, and that mix created a Latin American aesthetic. It’s really interesting to create modern objects that breathe that history.”
“It’s the mixing, for sure. Spanish woodworking is absolutely gorgeous, and so is Spanish architecture. The missions in those Latin American towns were problematic in some ways, but they’re really beautiful, and traditions still breathe through those places in an interesting way.”
“Neoclassical and mid-century modern have their own merit, too. They’re designed well. There’s a reason they became so popular. So it’s about taking all of those styles and adding details and stories you wouldn’t usually see, like animal heads and hidden faces. Those traditions were kind of lost, and I love bringing them back.”
“I definitely have a ‘whatever’s pretty’ mentality about it. But there are hard traditions in woodworking, and sometimes it helps to follow them, because wood misbehaves a lot. Sometimes there’s just a right wood for the job.”
“Mixing woods creates an interesting story, too. We have a lot of domestic hardwoods here, and adding little pieces of exotic wood adds a cool element. A lot of wood tones go really well together. It’s very aesthetic-driven.”
“It’s expensive, for sure. Wood is just expensive. It’s a blessing that YouTube exists, because it used to be way harder and less accessible. And someone in the shop who knows something you don’t is really helpful.”
“It’s also hard to get into the club. A lot of it is very show business. There are expensive fairs where you meet people and build a community, and there are good sides to that. Being in those shows is something I aspire to. But it’s hard to make a name for yourself when you’re not making much money from it yet. It’s a weird middle ground to be in.”
“A big one is going to see other people’s work. I love to paint as well. When you see someone who’s dedicated themselves to figuring something out through a body of work over years, you can really see them thinking and working toward something.”
“Museums are really inspiring. At some point, craft started being shown alongside the paintings, and people said, ‘These chairs are exquisite. They should be viewed as art objects.’ Almost every big museum has a chair or design exhibit now.”
High-level work in his own community inspires him just as much.
“I was part of a show at DUDDHAUS here in the city. I was definitely the youngest person by a good margin, and some of the work was just crazy. Some of them are people I know, and I’m like, ‘You’re just a normal person. How did you do this?’ It’s scary, but also inspiring.”
“The DUDDHAUS BARPHA show. It was a great first show. I know, it’s a pun, and I know there will be some duds eventually. But for that first one, there was a line outside. I was like, ‘What? This is crazy.’ I really appreciated them including me.”
“The personal story behind it. It’s a weird balance, because it’s not a medical device that’s saving someone. But if you’re really into collectible design and telling stories through the objects in your home, then it’s valuable to you. When a maker has touched something, and you value that, it’s super valuable. That’s the edge.”
“A lot of woodshop, but I’m really trying to get into the metal shop. I’ve always been inspired by the furniture in Beauty and the Beast, how alive it is. I’m really into those long, drawn-out, curly wrought iron pieces. NextFab has forges, which I never had in college.”
“I’m trying to get into every shop and take a class here and there, because I have all these credits as part of the program. I probably wouldn’t be great at upholstery, but there’s definitely someone at NextFab who could help. Woodshop is the main one, but I’m trying to get everywhere.”
“A big draw was the tools. It just wouldn’t be possible for me to have a woodshop right now.”
He’s also looking for a wider community and a stronger business foundation.
“At Drexel, it’s pretty insular. You have your community there, but you don’t see people who aren’t ten minutes from Drexel. So I want to expand into the Philly community. And I don’t have a background in business, so running the numbers is a big goal. It’s easy to think it’s simple, and it is simple: if you’re not making money, you’re losing money. I want to really take something valuable from the business courses.”
“Definitely the community. After graduating, I’m not in the studio as much, and that was a huge source of social time. Now it’s people, real adults, who have their own businesses and are really nice, approachable, and super willing to help. The shops are great, of course, but it’s just nice to see people. And there’s a really nice dog there.”
“With the stipend and credits at NextFab, I want to push myself to make another collection of new ideas. I built up a base of skills with my senior collection, so it’s about going at it again and seeing where it goes.”
Long-term, Benny is thinking bigger.
“I definitely see myself getting another degree, maybe in architecture. It’s a selfish pursuit, but I’d love to expand this design language way past objects. My world expanded when I went from an incense burner to a chair. It would really expand going from an incense burner to a house.”
“Just do it, and mess up. It’s so easy to get stuck in a cycle of thinking about something for six months. If you’ve never made something before, it probably won’t work the first time anyway. But if you make it and it doesn’t work, you know why when you’re holding it in your hands.”
“Thinking in your room is helpful sometimes, but being in the woodshop and getting dirty is always going to be more helpful to your making skills. Don’t be unsafe, but take risks and just do it.”
He adds a note about the flip side of inspiration.
“Going to museums can get you stuck. You’re like, ‘What tool did they use for this? How is this humanly possible?’ Don’t put too much pressure on yourself. Your work isn’t going to be museum quality, and it might not be for 20 years, if it ever gets there. Just start early and get into it.”
“Even though there might be a high price point, the ideas I’m trying to communicate can still be accessible. It’s expensive because wood is hard to work with and expensive to buy. But I’m an approachable person. I’m really young, and I just want to learn. I’m no expert. I want to be immersed in every side of the Philly design community and be a part of it.”
Follow Benny’s work on Instagram and his website.
Ready to find your shop? NextFab’s Artisan Accelerator gives artists and designers the tools, space, credits, and business support to grow their practice.
Written in partnership with FORMATION. Media