A product designer, jewellery maker and inventor, Kia Utzon-Frank studied as a goldsmith, silversmith and metalworker at the Royal College of Art. With a strong architectural and sculptural thread running through her work, Kia earned an InnovationRCA fellowship for her pioneering shutter system, the Louver Twisting Comb – an ingenious mechanism that uses comb-fitted bars and strips of flexible fabric to create a fully configurable blind with both aesthetic and industrial applications. The innovation won Kia several prizes, a nomination for a Dyson Fellowship, and was widely covered across the media, with features on BBC Radio 4, Wallpaper*, It’s Nice That and others. She’s currently working on bringing the product to market, alongside designing jewellery and furniture, experimenting with inventive new structural forms and exhibiting her work, under the KUFstudio's moniker, and has exhibited across the US and Europe and has featured at the Sir John Soane Museum, the London Design Museum, the V&A and more.
Zetteler helped Kia spread awareness of her jewellery, products and miscellaneous design projects, offering strategic guidance on her publicity campaigns and social media channels.
What happens when you mix a visionary textile artist and a maverick designer/inventor? Simple: Curved Twist – the immense, immersive, interactive installation from Fay McCaul and Kia Utzon-Frank, unveiled at Collect Open 2017…
Under normal circumstances, we’d be busy sharing all the exciting projects we have lined up for Milan Design Week, and we were ready and raring to go and do just that, but the universe (and the WHO) have other plans...
KUFstudios founder Kia Utzon-Frank talks all things design and being part of the The Z List as we reflect on her journey.
New collaborators Kia Utzon-Frank and Fay McCaul talk synergy and innovation ahead of their debut appearance at Collect Open.
We catch up with groundbreaking designer, jeweller, baker and creative polymath Kia Utzon-Frank as she prepares for Clerkenwell Design Week and Design Undefined