Chen Chen

Chen Chen (born 07 January 1985) is a Chinese American designer and co-founder of Chen Chen & Kai Williams based in New York City.

Early Life

Born in Shanghai, China, Chen was raised by his paternal grandparents, who were biology teachers, until the age of 6. His earliest memories were of spending hours in his grandmother's office which was filled with shelves of taxidermied animals and jars of snakes preserved in formaldehyde. At age 6, Chen moved to Laramie, Wyoming with his parents where his father, a chemistry Ph.D candidate, would often take him to the junkyard to strip parts for their car. Their family moved to Toronto, Canada in 1995 before returning to the United States in 2001.

Education

Chen graduated from The Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, USA with a bachelor's degree in industrial design. He also studied abroad at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Chen met Kai Williams in 2004 while in History of Industrial Design class together

Career

From 2007 - 2011 Chen worked at the design store and gallery Moss where he worked with Murray Moss on how objects were to be composed and installed.

While at Moss, Chen had a small studio near where Kai Williams had a CNC fabrication shop and would often go there to use the larger machinery. During these visits talk began about working on some collaborative projects which eventually resulted in the two starting a design studio together.