Pratt Institute

Education

Industrial Design Coursework, Ohio State University
MID, Pratt Institute

Biography

Karen Stone is Director of Design for Knoll, Inc. Responsible for the design of Knoll Showrooms, exhibits and trade shows, Karen has had the additional responsibility for the direction and development of new product collections for Knoll. She is also responsible for bringing sustainable design, new materials and technologies to Knoll product design and establishing direction for new finishes for Knoll products. She began her career at Knoll in 1991. Her award winning work with Knoll has been noted in ID, Domus, Interiors, Inside Design Now, and other publications. Prior to her work at Knoll, Karen was Senior Designer at Bonnell Design Associates (New York) where she worked on showroom designs, exhibits, interiors and signage for clients, including Interface, Guilford, Teknion, Steelcase, Design Tex, ModernAge, Shearson Lehman Hutton Plaza and Mellon Bank. From 1984 to 1988, she was Showroom Designer for SunarHauserman, working with consultants such as Frank Gehry, Sottsass Associati and Michael Graves Architects. She began her career as an Interior Designer with Dyer/Brown (Boston) and Symmes, Maini and McKee (Cambridge, MA), beginning in 1981. Karen has worked on the design of stage sets for regional theater and enjoys abstract painting. Her formal training in music and music performance throughout her childhood, has had a tremendous influence on her current work in design. Her passion for experimenting with spatial relationships and objects in space developed at an early age. In the fall of 1998, Karen began teaching three-dimensional abstract design within the Industrial Design Department at Pratt. Karen was Visiting Professor at Samsung Art and Design Institute, Seoul, South Korea, summer 2007. She has served as a juror for design competitions and leads talks on design to student groups. She has been a volunteer with the International Center, mentoring young designers who are seeking guidance in their pursuit of employment or study in design. Karen is a graduate of Ohio State University in Industrial Design (BS) and Pratt Institute Industrial Design (MID) and has also studied at Oxford University, England.