RIT alumni network sparks high-end design collaboration

For RIT furniture design alumni George Dubinsky ’11 MFA and David Short ’13 BFA, reliability is paramount when searching for collaborators. 

After all, sustaining a high standard in everything they do is how they built their Philadelphia, Pa.-based company. Together, they run Edgewood Made, a custom furniture design and fabrication studio offering white-glove service to the country’s top interior designers, architects, and home builders. 

When a partnership is needed to install their work, Dubinsky and Short have inherent confidence in their alma mater. 

“The expectation of someone’s skill once they leave is such a high level. It means anyone who graduated from RIT, you can trust them,” Short said. “There’s a certain work ethic that breeds having strong relationships with each other.”

Exemplifying that RIT belief was a chance interaction between Short and Gunther Jacobson ’12 BFA (furniture design), who runs his own successful, custom furniture firm in Miami, Design By Gunther. 

A few months ago, Short flew to Miami, in need of an installer for a millwork package and kitchen cabinetry his company designed for a new, multi-million-dollar home in the area. 

‌

From left, Gunther Jacobson, David Short, and George Dubinsky.

After noticing on Instagram that Short was in town, Jacobson reached out, simply to try and reconnect. The conversation deepened to become a mutually beneficial professional opportunity, as Jacobson agreed to install the kitchen furniture in the house. 

“Going to the same school, we knew his skills and there was an automatic trust,” Short said. 

“I’ve dreamed of working with Edgewood Made because I think they are top tier,” Jacobson said. “Their work is out of this world — very clean, very crisp.”

This coincidental collaboration has a bigger twist. 

The interior design firm that hired Edgewood Made for the Miami home project also contacted an upholstered furniture company, Pivot Home, about completing the furniture package. As luck would have it, Jacobson does extensive work with Pivot, and he was tapped to frame the sofas and make a large, 360-degree foyer bench for the same house. 

‌

"The Sette" was designed by Jacobson for the same home in which he installed the work of Edgewood Made. Made of solid white oak, this 360-degree seating bench is 11 feet long.

It wasn’t until Jacobson made a site visit shortly before the kitchen install he had a realization: “I was like, ‘I think that couch looks exactly like mine,’” he said. “And as I'm reading through the paperwork I realized that the couch was mine.”

Unbeknownst to anyone involved, Jacobson also contributed to the furniture package for the same project Edgewood Made hired him to help with. Now complete, those elements in the house possess a quality and design sensibility shared by Edgewood Made, Design by Gunter, and RIT’s furniture design program. 

This work led to another similar collaboration between the RIT alumni trio, as well.

“It seems that this connection that somehow lined up in the stars leaves a lot of room for growth together, and I’m very excited about that,” Jacobson said. 

Jacobson is the latest RIT furniture design alumnus Dubinsky and Short collaborated with to install their millwork in various parts of the country. Among others, Edgewood Made has worked with Peter Basil ’12, Byron Conn ’13, and Adam Rogers ’10 MFA — all former classmates who also run their own studios. 

“The program has had some good golden eras,” Dubinsky said. “We had a good stint there but there have been some real rockstars to come out of that program.”

‌

Max Doulis

Part of the luxury kitchen cabinetry and millwork design by Edgewood Made and installed by Jacobson.

To Short, the supportive environment they were all part of at RIT foreshadowed fruitful and unifying post-graduate ventures.

“There was a healthy, competitive spirit where people were pushing the limits of process and working really hard,” Short said. “You had to work to keep up with everyone else. That energy lends itself to keeping in touch with people because it bonds you together.”