Furniture parts design contest celebrates ninth successful year.

As Doug Mockett & Co. puts out the call for entries to this year's competition, the contest's founder recalls its glorious past.

The Doug Mockett & Company/Wood & Wood Products Design Contest was started in 1986 as a "Let's see what happens if...." Now celebrating its ninth

When our company started the contest, it was really in response to two things. First, I had written to three of the biggest names in product design, suggesting that they design some furniture components that my firm would make and market to the industry. Well, I waited for their replies, and nearly a decade later, I am still waiting to hear from any of these big shots.

Second, gnawing away at me were the many telephone calls we were constantly getting from people in the industry. People from the largest companies and people from small cabinet shops would call and say, "Hey, I've got this great idea for a frammis to go onto a whatziz and I can't do anything with it. Can you help me?"

So, we decided to forget the big shots and listen to our callers, which led us to think, "Let's have a design competition so that people from all over can send in their great ideas and we'll find new stuff to share with industry and have a lot of fun." So, off we went, charging into the darkness without a clue of what we were doing. It was probably best that way, too!

We made up an ad and ran it all over announcing a design contest just for furniture components, hardware and parts. We sent out a press release. Then, we sat back and waited. We didn't have to wait long. The phone rang off the hook. We got mail. We got entries. This was beyond our wildest dreams. One day we sat down on the floor with boxes and envelopes spread out all over and opened each of them up. We could not believe the ideas that were sent to us. They were great!

This was a real relief, because way down deep I wondered, "What if we threw a design contest and nobody came?"

All winners are First Place

Since that formative beginning, the contest has remained largely the same. The one thing that makes this competition unique is there is only First Place. There are no Second or Third Place awards, nor are there any Honorable Mention Awards. However, there also are no limits to the number of First Place awards the judges may grant. The number of winning entries has varied from year to year, from a low of one to a high of three.