Hasta La Ideas

I met Katrina Vonnegut (yes, she’s related to Kurt) at her textile studio in Bushwick, Brooklyn, a small space in one of those perpetually cold industrial buildings. After we chatted and I ogled her vintage Brother sewing machine (see pictures), we traversed windy streets lined with faceless warehouses and side-stepped rotting animal carcasses (not joking) as 18-wheelers rumbled by on a nature walk, of sorts, that led us deeper into the heart of Bushwick to the woodworking studio where Brian Kraft, her boyfriend and business parter in the newly sprung furniture partnership Vonnegut/Kraft, works.

Origins

Katrina was Brian’s neighbor before she became his girlfriend and business partner in a design studio that marries Katrina’s background in furniture design as well as her skills as a textile artist with Brian’s experience as a craftsman and builder. Katrina has a degree in furniture design from RISD, where she also studied and worked with textile designer Liz Collins (Watch this Cool Hunting video of her winning first place for her Cradle Chair in the Billes Products International Design Contest in 2008). After she graduated and moved to New York, she worked freelance building sets and making costumes for commercials and music videos. “I had thought I wanted to do that, but it’s such a disposable industry. And it’s such a fast turnaround you can’t control quality as much as you might be able to on a longer project, like a film.”

Oddly enough, Brian majored in literature at NYU. While he was kicking around job ideas post graduation, he began working part-time in a woodworking shop in Bushwick, and it just kind of stuck. Katrina describes him as “a traditional cabinetmaker. I don’t know if he would consider himself a designer, but maybe more recently, since we’ve started to collaborate with one another he would.”

Design Ethos

Though they both worked with furniture for years before teaming up, it’s their collaborative effort that enabled a piece like the Maize bed, a design born out of necessity that has since become their most iconic product, fueling a Kickstarter campaign that raised over $6,000 to fund their booth at ICFF. When Katrina and Brian found themselves in need of a new bed, they saw it as an opportunity to design and build something together.

And it’s not the only time new designs have sprung from a personal need. “I’ve made a few sweaters because I needed one or because I lost my favorite sweater,” Katrina says. “I try and recreate a similar pattern but maybe with new colors. I think those are the best things, because you know that they’re really genuine.”

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