Stephen Burks (designer)
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Stephen Burks is an American designer and a professor or of architecture at Columbia university.[1] Burks is known for his collaborations with artisans as well as incorporating craft and weaving into product design. He is the first African American to win the National Design Award for product design.
Early life and Education
Burks was Born in Chicago in 1969.[2] He studied architecture and product design at the Illinois Institute of Technology and Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture.[2]
Career
Burks first founded his personal studio in New York in 1997, then called Readymade.[3]
He first started developing his own design practice heavily influenced by craft culture in 2000 when Italian design brand Cappellini first put his designs into production.
in 2003, Missoni commissioned him for Luxe fashion house. Patchwork vases, designed by him, was the first handmade objects produced in his studio.
In 2005, Burks went to South Africa to collaborate with international artisans from countries such as South Africa, Senegal, and Philippines sponsored by Aid to Artisans. There he started working with hand-crafted furniture, baskets and fashion accessories which he became known for later in his career.
Burks started his own design business at 2007 after meeting with Willard Musarurwa; a street vendor making wire souvenirs for tourists. After meeting each other in a local design institute at Capetown, they launched TaTu wire outdoor furniture together.
Burks held his eponymous solo exhibition in 2011, named "Stephen Burks: Man Made." where he exhibited his practice of merging craftsmanship and contemporary design.
In 2019, Stephen became the first product designer to attain a Harvard Loeb Fellowship[1]. Since, he has served as an expert in residence at the Harvard Innovation Lab. He also taught at Harvard Graduate School of Design.
Awards and Honors
Illinois Institute of Technology Alumni Professional Achievement Award
Brooklyn Museum Modernism Young Designer Award
Smithsonian Cooper Hewitt National Design Award in Product Design
- ^ a b "Stephen Burks". Columbia GSAPP. Retrieved 2021-10-13.
- ^ a b "Man of the World". American Craft Council. Retrieved 2021-10-13.
- ^ ""I've been the first and only African American to work with all my clients," says Stephen Burks". Dezeen. 2020-05-26. Retrieved 2021-10-13.