Here, we ask designers to take a selfie and give us an inside look at their life.
Age: 35
Occupation: Designer.
Instagram: @stephenkenn
Hometown: Edmonton, Alberta.
Studio location: Los Angeles.
Describe what you make: We make objects for home and travel. Our home designs range from upholstered seating to dining tables and chairs, beds, and a new outdoor seating and table collection. Our travel designs consist of leather travel bags and a few accessories like our Travel Cocktail Kit.
The most important thing you’ve designed to date: The Inheritance Collection. It’s a minimal seating collection that is infinitely customizable both in size and material options. It’s been eight years since I first developed this collection and I still have the pleasure of looking for ways to refine it and offer it on a made-to-order basis.
Describe the problem your work solves: On the surface, furniture gives people a place to sit, and bags are a functional tool for carrying things. On a deeper level, we’re working to support our local community of craftsmen and fabricators, many of whom are immigrants or came from little, but are working to build their own small businesses here in my city. We’re proud to make all our designs locally, using the services of these small shops.
Describe the project you are working on now: I’m working on a new shelving concept. We’ve made a few prototypes, but it hasn’t been quite right yet. The first one was floor-to-ceiling in our home, made to hold all of my wife’s books, and the next version is floating off of the floor and it lives in our new showroom. I’m still dialing it in before we release it later this year.
A new or forthcoming project we should know about: We just completed a unique showroom concept in downtown Los Angeles, which will be a place where we can share our work and the work of a few partner brands in an intimate and personal setting. We’ll host potential clients overnight so they can make choices in a relaxed environment. We’ll use the space to throw dinner parties and cocktail nights, and have a place that we can continually show new work and test new ideas. It just opened in June during the Los Angeles Design Festival!
What you absolutely must have in your studio: Optimism.
What you do when you’re not working: I love to ride my motorcycle in the mountains outside of Los Angeles, visiting restaurants and cocktail bars with my wife Beks, and playing with my dog Obi.
Sources of creative envy: Poul Kjærholm, Axel Vervoordt, Tok Kise of Truck Furniture in Japan.
The distraction you want to eliminate: Overcommitting.
Concrete or marble? Concrete.
High-rise or townhouse? Loft.
Remember or forget? Forget.
Aliens or ghosts? ?
Dark or light? Always light.
