Graduate Spotlight: Francesca Melillo

Written by Olivia Longoria. Photos courtesy of Francesca Melillo.

Polished. That is how I’d describe graduate student Francesca Melillo’s work. 

This spring marks her final quarter in the furniture design program. Before SCAD, she earned her degree in Structural Architecture, combining the technicality of civil engineering and creativity of architecture. 

Following that, she spent some time working for a company that sells finishes and flooring, as well as Italian kitchens from the brand Pedini. Francesca was responsible for selling and designing custom kitchens for clients. During the pandemic until 2023, Francesca and her friend from college developed a few interior design, renovation, and architecture projects. She says that these experiences influenced her to pursue a career in furniture design. Attending SCAD has helped her plan to do so.

Francesca’s designs not only inspire her community at SCAD but also earn her impressive accolades as well. This year, she participated in an annual competition hosted by HD Awards and West Elm. The prompt was to design a dining chair, arm and armless, that fit the vernacular of West Elm products. Francesca’s design intentions were flexibility and adaptability. She wanted to create a chair suitable for various environments such as dining, bistro, and hospitality. She collaborated with FURN professor Fred Spector to develop her design.

She submitted her design at the end of winter, and learned she received 2nd place on April 11th! This is Francesca’s second year in a row as a finalist; last year’s competition prompt was to design a barstool. Her strategy was to keep an experience in mind- enjoying a cup of coffee, and that is how she reimagined the bistro chair. She focused on negative space, which she does often in her designs. She developed several different silhouettes in the sketching phase and created ¼ scale models to visualize her concepts. At the final stage of the design process, she interpreted feedback from her peers and combined two of her initial concepts. Francesca made sure the ergonomics and dimensions of the piece were accurate by creating mockups. When asked about her process, she described, “I immersed myself in the construction process, visiting Gulfstream daily to work on my chair. I was thrilled to be building my first chair. I completed it just one week before finals, which provided me with ample time to prepare additional renders for my presentation.” The chair is white oak, with Danish cord for the seating and backrest, creating contrasting textures.

Francesca’s time at SCAD’s furniture design program has taught her to seize every opportunity life presents, and that with hard work, you will reap great rewards! Advice she may give to fellow designers is to prioritize creating a schedule with built-in time for when things don’t go according to plan. Additionally, she feels it’s beneficial to avoid jumping into your first idea, but rather to give yourself time to explore and refine design concepts, because “the best idea may emerge from subsequent iteration.”

SCAD will surely miss Francesca’s presence on campus, but her peers and professors alike are confident that an exciting design future awaits her! Congratulations, Francesca!