Difference between revisions of "Chen Chen & Kai Williams"

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[[Chen Chen]] and [[Kai Williams]] met while attending the Pratt Institute and founded the company in New York City in 2011 at [[13 Greenpoint Avenue]]. The studio creates a wide range of products from one-off and limited production collectible works to specialty commercial goods.  
[[Chen Chen]] and [[Kai Williams]] met while attending the Pratt Institute and founded the company in New York City in 2011 at [[13 Greenpoint Avenue]]. The studio creates a wide range of products from one-off and limited production collectible works to specialty commercial goods.  


Past clients include Whitney Museum, Phillips de Pury, Gagosian, Kvadrat, Shinola and Mission Chinese Food. Presentations of their work have been held at the Museum of Art and Design (USA) and the Venice Architecture Biennale (Italy).
Past clients include Whitney Museum, Phillips de Pury, Gagosian, [[Lion Dance Costume|Kvadrat]], Shinola and Mission Chinese Food. Presentations of their work have been held at the Museum of Art and Design (USA) and the Venice Architecture Biennale (Italy).


==Material Exploration==
==Material Exploration==

Revision as of 02:22, 26 June 2018

CK-Portrait 2016 02.jpg

Chen Chen & Kai Williams is a design studio that explores materials and new ways to use them. The studio invents new techniques and materials or diverts common industrial supplies to off-label applications.

Chen Chen and Kai Williams met while attending the Pratt Institute and founded the company in New York City in 2011 at 13 Greenpoint Avenue. The studio creates a wide range of products from one-off and limited production collectible works to specialty commercial goods.

Past clients include Whitney Museum, Phillips de Pury, Gagosian, Kvadrat, Shinola and Mission Chinese Food. Presentations of their work have been held at the Museum of Art and Design (USA) and the Venice Architecture Biennale (Italy).

Material Exploration

The first collaborative project of Chen Chen and Kai Williams was the Cold Cuts Coasters, produced by soaking strips of spandex netting and rope into urethane resin and then wrapping it around a primarily wood core. This experimental method of playing with materials has become a signature of the studio, especially in the creation of composite materials (two or more disparate types of materials combined into one).

Notable composites include UV bonding cut stone to glass as seen in Floating Stone tables and encasing glass spheres in zinc for Brittle Star lights.

Manufacturing Partners

In addition to self production, the studio also designs products for manufacturers.

Areaware

Good Thing

Tai Ping Carpets

Environments

While a small part of the practice, the studio has been the designers of retail environments including a display system that is used in 3 Baggu Store locations as well as adapted for tradeshow booths. To outside viewers this system may be surprisingly minimal and is designed to disappear once the highly colorful and graphic products are placed on it.

Mission Chinese Food

Études Pop-Up

Studio Objects

The original objects that are the ideological basis of the studio were all hand produced in the studio. As the studio has grown to design for manufacturers and self source with factories the core practice of the studio has remained Studio Produced objects.

Self Sourced

In the beginning the lack of resources prevented the use of the traditional manufacturing supply chain. This forced the the studio to be more inventive with the use of materials. As the studio grew, and gained the ability to access factories, the challenge is to imbue the same inventiveness when the products are made with the same machines as every other product.

Since 2014, the studio has been working with fabricators and factories in the United States and overseas to produce Self Sourced products mainly in metal and ceramics.

Anecdotes

The decision to put Chen's name first was to reference the CK of Calvin Klein.