At last week’s International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) in New York, 25 designers from Art Center were honored in a retrospective celebrating the completion of a series of five innovative interdisciplinary studios sponsored by Bernhardt Design.

Personally championed by Bernhardt Design President Jerry Helling and Environmental Design Chair David Mocarski, the course was created to educate students in the process of designing products ultimately viable for production. At the conclusion of each studio, Bernhardt Design selected products for introduction in the commercial market. Since its inception, the design-through-production studio concept has served as a model for other similar educational programs.

Bernhardt Design’s partnership with Art Center came about from the school’s strong relationship with industry as well as its reputation as a leading art and design institution for more than 80 years. The studio course, hosted by the Environmental Design Department, has successfully trained students over the past seven years to design products that are visually stunning, appropriate for the commissioning manufacturer, fiscally feasible and suitable within the constraints of mass production. The products developed from the Bernhardt Design studios have not only been award winning, but commercially successful around the world.

Former Art Center students have embarked on successful careers, from designing for Marcel Wanders in Amsterdam to starting their own creative studios to working with top-tier manufacturers worldwide. Furthermore, the work of 20 designers from the program are currently in production with Bernhardt Design including the Red Dot Award-winning Loft chair by Shelly Shelly, the Audio chair by Chris Adamick, and Linc tables by Chase Wills.

Check out more of the work at the Designing Experience website.