DESIGNER’s STORY
Stephen Burks is both a traveler and a designer.
For over a decade, Stephen Burks has dedicated his work to building a bridge between authentic craft traditions, industrial manufacturing, and contemporary design.
Since 2005, Burks has consulted with nonprofits including Aid to Artisans, the Clinton Global Initiative, Design Network Africa, Artesanias de Colombia and the Nature Conservancy, uniting the artisan, the designer, and global brands in a triangle of immersive development.
With his New York–based studio, Stephen Burks Man Made, Burks has produced innovative products, furniture, lighting, and exhibitions for a range of international clients including B&B Italia, Boffi, Cappellini, Dedar, Dedon, Harry Winston, Missoni, Moroso, Parachilna, Roche Bobois and Swarovski.
Burks has exhibited at the Studio Museum in Harlem and the Museum of Arts and Design, as well as receiving numerous accolades including the Illinois Institute of Technology Alumni Professional Achievement Award, the Brooklyn Museum Young Modernist Award, the Architektur & Wohnen Audi Mentor Prize and the 2008 United States Artists Architecture & Design Target Fellowship Grant.
Stephen Burks is the 2015 Cooper Hewitt National Design Award winner in Product Design.
READ MORE BRAND DESIGNER’s STORIES
Born in 1954, member of the Milanese tradition that generated designers such as Castiglioni, Zanuso, Magistretti and de Lucchi, graduated in architecture at the Politecnico of Milan in 1979. Since then, he has designed for most of the leading names in the furniture and lighting sectors. Minotti and Rodolfo Dordoni: the company started working with
Born in São Paulo, Kogan is the founding architect and professor of all the team at studio mk27. As the architects of the team, Kogan is a great admirer of the Brazilian modernism generation, seek to fulfill the task of rethinking and giving continuity to this iconic architectural movement. The projects of studio mk27 place
Vico Magistretti was born in 1920, in Milan. In the post-war period he was actively involved in the reconstruction, both on the theoretical side through the MSA (Movement for Architectural Studies) of which he was one of the founders, and on the practical side with projects for INA-Casa and QT8.
As the third generation of specialized wood craftsmen in cabinet making and restoration, in the seventies, Romeo Sozzi made his debut in interior decoration. Since 1988, he has managed his company, Promemoria, together with his three sons. In time, Promemoria has become not just a producer of internationally high profile furnishing, but a test bed
An authoritative presence on the contemporary French scene, Bruno Moinard has developed commercial and cultural projects for an international clientele, from Christie’s to Cartier, from Galerie Lafayette to the Musée des Arts Decoratif.
Since 2002 with Oki Sato providing direction to Nendo studio, it represents a refreshing, refined and cultured alternative to over-celebrated design. Meaning “clay” in Japanese the name Nendo implies the flexibility and malleability of that material their designs for the world of graphics, interior architecture and furniture.
