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ken & dana design is a venture between two college friends Ken Leung and Dana Chin.
Their story begins at opposite ends of the globe.
Ken was born in Hong Kong in 1979 to Michael and Annisa Leung. The pair had been making their living selling pieces of Lapis about the same time Ken arrived. Over the years Michael and Annisa found themselves traveling between Asia, Europe and the US using their affinity for natural minerals as their guide to growing the business. From an early age Ken was exposed to these beautiful stones, which remained one of the constants in a childhood where Hong Kong, San Francisco and Florida were called home.
Meanwhile in the woods of central Maine Frank and Patricia Duane Chin were in the middle of building their own home when Dana came into the world. Frank had made stops at Tufts, the Museum School of Fine Arts Boston and RISD in his educational journey and Patricia had just received a Masters in Social Work from Boston College. With artists and Educators as parents Dana's early years were as filled with stained glass and candle making as they were with berry picking and ski slopes.
On paths that couldn't have been more different the future designers found themselves at Lehigh University. As both Ken and Dana navigated their college years each ventured away from their creative roots. With Ken studying Economics and Dana Computer Engineering they found themselves whisked away from Lehigh to New York City's Wall Street.
In 2003 on the heels of leaving their careers in finance, the friends decided further intertwine their fates and mesh their creative interests with their entrepreneurial aspirations. Joining Ken's parents company the two were exposed to the world of jewels and the plotting for their own creative venture began.
Over the next year they wrestled with where they belonged in the worlds of art - fashion - sculpture - jewelry. Then in 2004, through an unexpected introduction by a mutual friend, they met fashion designer Doori Chung, whose energy and enthusiasm about her work galvanized Ken and Dana and encouraged them to continue exploring their ideas.
Doori too was excited about the prospect of turning her aesthetics into something more sculptural, and several dinner conversations later, the three decided to collaborate together to make a collection for Doori’s runway show (Spring ‘05).
It was through this collaboration that Ken and Dana started building their workshop. Armed with sketches and boundless optimism the two set off to realize Doori's vision. However, when the "no's" started to pile up they realized that there was a good chance they would have to do much of the construction themselves and with the purchase of pliers and a hammer their workshop was born.
Today the duo now produce two labels of sculptural jewelry by hand out of their NYC studio:
"b-side by ken & dana" : avant-garde pieces
"BYLU by ken & dana" : romantic works
In a blatant pat on the back ken & dana wanted you to know their work has been featured in the editorials of Vogue, W, Elle, Marie Claire, NYLON, Lucky, Harper's Bazaar, WWD, DailyCandy and others, as well as received design recognitions from GenArt, the World Gold Council, and the American Jewelry Design Council.
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