Designing dilema

I'm continually puzzled by one aspect of woodworking and I don't know whether I should be...design!

Let me explain. I suspect that most people who are interested in building furniture of any sort like to have a go at designing something for themselves which has a unique 'this is me' feel to it, 'it's mine, I designed and made it, for better or worse' and if you don't like it...'well, you can shove it!' But I think that many (including yours truly) want to go some way beyond that and create something with a bit of a 'wow' factor, or maybe a piece that has a timeless, dateless quality...and that's where it starts to get really difficult, as those sorts of pieces can be counted on the fingers of one hand.

I would give my back teeth (if I had any) to create something like a Barcelona chair which is just about the sexiest thing on the planet on which to rest your bum (would you believe it was designed in 1929!) or even a classic Maloof rocker, not quite in the same league though. I would be more than happy as well to create a simple, beautiful cabinet where someone might say "Coo...fantastic, looks just like a Krenov piece"

And therein lies the difficulty, because no matter how hard I strive, my designs (and probably many other people's) are tainted (which seems a grossly unfair description) though coloured is more apt, by these fantastic, timeless creations that others have achieved. It seems to me almost impossible for a mere mortal woodworker to rise above this level of work because I find that all this wonderful stuff is continually kicking around inside my head so it's bloody hard to come up with anything that's remotely original, or perhaps I shouldn't bother... and that's the dilemma.

I want to.

Which then poses another question...how do I (or you, maybe) go about this nefarious and almost ethreal process of design?

Over the last few days, I've been pondering on just how to make this unit for the TV, a simple enough job, but one with a few considerations that have begun to surface. I've started off by looking at what's available on the t'interweb which is always useful and provides interesting comparisons, so now I've got lots of different sorts of images knocking around inside...all very confusing! The next thing I supose is the 'functional' element of the job...how big, what's going into it, what are their sizes?... after which I'll probabley get out the drawing pencils and a ream of A3 paper and start to scribble madly.

But, sadly, I know already... it's the 'form' part of the exercise that'll have the guys in white coats coming for me.