The lecture titled “Design Stories” will be held on Tuesday, February 03, 2026, at 12:30, in FFB-22, which will be given by Karen Stone, adjunct associate professor from Pratt Institute, and Münire Kırmacı, visiting instructor from Pratt Institute. All students and staff are welcome.
Karen Stone is a former Director of Design for Knoll, Inc., responsible for the design of Knoll Showrooms, Knoll Retail Shops, exhibits, and trade shows worldwide; for bringing sustainable design, new materials, and technologies to Knoll product design; and for establishing direction for new finishes for Knoll products. Starting at Knoll in 1991, her award-winning design work spanned more than 30 years and has been cited in publications including ID, Domus, Interiors, and Inside Design Now. She created a new product line for the Knoll Shop retail store and established the Knoll Design Student Internship program.
An Adjunct Professor of Industrial Design at Pratt Institute, Karen has taught courses in Three-Dimensional Design and Furniture Design. She has conducted workshops at the Bauhaus Universität Weimar and Tsinghua University, Beijing, and is a Visiting Professor at the Samsung Art and Design Institute. Karen has led projects with the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts, Keio University, and Folkwang University of the Arts. She served as Pratt Faculty Advisor to the IDSA Student Chapter for 15 years and has led design workshops at New York City High Schools.
Karen has served on the board of the Brooklyn Arts Council, has been a panelist for Design for Social Impact in May 2016, Women x Design in May 2017, and Design50 in October 2018. She holds a BS in Industrial Design from Ohio State University, an MID from Pratt Institute, and has studied at Oxford University, England.
In 2018 she received a Distinguished Alumni Award for Professional Achievement from OSU, was a recipient of IDSA’s 20/20 Recognition, and received the Rowena Reed Kostelow professional design award in 2021.
Münire Kırmacı received a Bachelor’s degree in Interior Architecture and Environmental Design from Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey in 2001. She continued her design education in New York, studying Industrial Design at Rochester Institute of Technology and graduating with an MFA from Pratt Institute in 2006.
Kırmacı made her design debut at the MoMA Design Store in New York City in 2008 with Salt and Pepper Shaker in One, a popular product that quickly sold out and brought her recognition in the design scene. Soon after, Wounded Vase appeared at the Guggenheim Museum in 2010 as part of an exhibition entitled Haunted. In 2011, she was honored with inclusion, along with nine other designers, in the prestigious Talents at Ambiente exhibition in Frankfurt, Germany. Kırmacı’s following project, Co-Cane Walking Stick, was invited to join the Arigato Project during Tokyo Design Week in 2011. The project and subsequent book published by Gestalten World-Wide were created to support Japan after the devastating tsunami.
Kırmacı has enjoyed the privilege of working with Ferhat Dorkip, Benza Design, Harry Allen, TZ Design, Chelsea Architect, Ralph Lauren, ASA- Selection, Pratt Institute, Birsel+Seck, Knoll, and top museums like MoMA, Guggenheim, Walker Art Museum, Brooklyn Museum, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, and MoCA Cleveland.
