Amy Kern

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Amy Kern

Professor of Industrial Design

Industrial Design

Biography

Amy Kern is an artist, designer, and educator whose interdisciplinary practice explores the evolving relationships between people, culture, objects, and the built environment. Working across furniture, lighting, installation art, spatial design, and practice-based research, her work investigates themes of perception, temporality, materiality, and emotional durability. Through experimental design methods, she examines how objects can cultivate meaning beyond their initial fabrication. Her professional, creative and scholarly work bridges fine art and design while advancing new approaches in pedagogy and practice.
In 2012, Kern founded a design consultancy specializing in humanitarian, universal, product, and environmental design. Over the course of her career, she has collaborated with manufacturers around the world, bringing hundreds of furniture and lighting products to market while serving as Director of Design for leading residential and contract furniture companies. This extensive professional experience continues to inform her teaching, bringing contemporary, practice-based perspectives into the classroom.

Research Interests

    Globalization, Ethnography, Humanitarian Design, Universal Design

Teaching Interests

    Participatory Action Research, Active Classroom, Socio-cultural Sensitivities

Education

MS in Industrial Design

Pratt Institute of Design

BA in Religious Studies

University of California

Personal Website

https://NA

Published Works

    Kern, A. (2026, June). Material Metamorphosis. Design Principles and Practices/ Common Ground Research Network. Kern, A. . REGENERATIVE DESIGN SPECULATION: A RESILIENT FUTURE-ORIENTED PEDAGOGICAL MODEL. , https://www.idsa.org/ Kern, A. (2025). CO-CREATING THE CAMPUS TO BRIDGE DESIGN THINKING, ACTION RESEARCH, AND PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE DESIGN. AMPS California Institute of Integral Studies, https://amps-research.com/ Kern, A. (2024). An Applied Approach to Cognitive Ergonomics in Restaurant Design. Ergonomics International Journal, Volume 8(Issue 3), 4. https://doi.org/DOI: 10.23880/eoij-16000330. Kern, A. (2024). Innovating for Student Success and Opportunity. The International Journal of Architectonic, Spatial, and Environmental Design, http://doi.org/10.18848/2325-1662/CGP Kern, A. . Environmental Psychology and Cross-Cultural Awareness in Ergonomic Design Education. , Kern, A. (2020, February). Universal Distance Design for Accessible Radical Collaboration in Education. FrancoAngeli Edizioni. Kern, A. . Digital Ethnography On Fire. (in press). Reconfigurations. Kern, L. A. . Collaborative and Experiential Learning for Success in Social Innovation and Open Innovation. International Congress on Technology, Science and Society, technosciencestudies.com/ Shin, T. J., Jennings, T. C., Kern, A. (2015). Contemporary Models of Design Research Problem Solving by Design: Implying a New Design Value Matrix in Design Process. National Institute of Design, India. Kern, A., Shin, T. J., Griner, V. D. (2015, August). Design Like A Chef. Industrial Designers Society of America / Eastman International Education Symposium 2015.