Material explorations, traditional craft and the hand of the maker place these emerging designers at the forefront of collectable design.
This piece originally appeared in est magazine issue 55: ‘Faces of Design’.
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Resistance is a form of expression. At least that’s the case for Known Work, a furniture studio founded by New York-based designers Danu Kennedy and Jeremy Levitt, along with Creative Director Alex Dilena. The new venture marks a move towards slower, intentional design – and is a natural extension of the trios celebrated interior studio Parts and Labor Design.
The name ‘Known Work‘ takes its cue from Georgia O’Keeffe’s assertion that “making your unknown known is the important thing.” It’s a sentiment that runs through every detail of the brand’s debut collection, which plays with dualities – rigid geometry and softness, mass and void, refinement and rawness. “Designing for us is about expression, realising something that was inside you and extracting that. When we’re designing furniture and lighting it’s of the utmost importance to us that it functions well,” Kennedy says.
Known Work’s first collection, Perceptions, draws from a rich interplay of materials, such as walnut, ash, patinated steel, and raw aluminium—each chosen to age with grace. Shapes feel archetypal but slightly unfamiliar: an ottoman with bulbous, spherical feet, a sofa with razor sharp, origami-style angles. The approach is rigorous yet intuitive, borrowing cues from sculpture and architecture.
Known Work is a new furniture company, founded by Jeremy Levitt and Danu Kennedy.
Repeating forms give the debut collection a sense of continuity; the block shapes of the Perceptions Cube side table and plinth are also visible in the Perceptions Catch-all.
The designers work collaboratively from their Brooklyn studio, approaching the design process with a loose curiosity. “We really see Known Work as an opportunity to express ourselves freely and create outside of the context of a project. The beginning of an idea can be a napkin sketch, a conversation, an article of jewellery or clothing, an experience, a colour,” Kennedy shares.
While a background in interiors informs the precision of its pieces, Known Work is not about replicating a ‘look’. Instead, it’s about exploring objects as open systems. “We really wanted to celebrate the inherent tension between linear forms and soft organic geometries, each piece embracing that in its own way,” Levitt says.
This exploration of an idea is what gives the work its depth. Known Work invites interaction and reinterpretation, asking the user to notice not just the object, but the life that gathers around it. “Rather than see furniture or objects as interchangeable or disposable, [we] see them as artefacts, heirlooms, items to be treasured and passed down generationally. The environment you live in should be an expression of your values and we feel strongly that it also affects your physical and mental health,” Levitt says.
Known Work offers a counterpoint to disposable culture—it’s furniture as living artefact. There’s a sense that these are not just objects to own, but to dwell with, deeply considered forms that hold space and meaning. With a collection rich in material integrity, and conceptually robust, Known Work’s practice embraces the simplicity of human nature.
The debut Perceptions Collection by Known Work explores the tension between linear forms and softness.
With striking angularity, the Perceptions Bench commands attention.
Known Works’ debut Perceptions Collection is an invitation for the senses to go deeper.
The rounded socks on the base of the plinths adds an element of whimsy.
The footstool has also been given surprise and delight.
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