Stefanie Kubanek is a New York and Munich-based designer and design educator whose work is inspired by her native-German roots and cosmopolitan perspective. She completed an apprenticeship in goldsmithing, earned a MA in Industrial Design at London’s Royal College of Art and completed the PLD program for leadership development at Harvard Business School. Her international perspective led her to senior design roles in studios in New York and London. In 2010 she left her position as an Associate Partner at Pentagram and launched Kubanek Design +, a New York and Munich-based product design office. 

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Her work for clients such as Herman Miller, United Airlines, Cargill, Riedel Glass, Nachtmann, Spiegelau and others ranges from designing contract furniture to airplane interiors and products to signage, packaging and branding.

 

Stefanie combines the roles of designer and design manager, engaging in every aspect of the design process from concept development, market research and business strategy to design, testing and production. 

 

For more than 15 years, Stefanie taught industrial design and design management at Parsons School of Design, New York. She was a contract professor at the Faculty of Design and Art at the Free University of Bolzano, Italy and has been a guest lecturer at design schools around the world.

 

Pursuing her love of collaboration, she often involves student 
teams in projects to integrate the energy and imagination of the young with the knowledge 
and resources of established businesses.

 

Stefanie has been a juror for the Industrial Design Society of America awards and the Australian International Design Awards.