Studio Kusama-Hinte was a Brooklyn-based fabricator of custom furniture based on our own original designs. We are no longer in business but have left the site for informational purposes.
Our designs blend functionality, welcoming aesthetics, fine craftsmanship, and the honest expression of natural materials. We respond to our customers specific needs and preferences with tailor made designs, yet all of our works shares an aesthetic and fabrication approach that is distinctly our own.
It is fair to call us furniture nerds. The elegance and invention of Finn Juhl, Jean Prouvé, Børge Mogensen, and Hans Wegner, among a great many others, provide us with an inexhaustible reservoir of inspiration. Our work is also informed by the work of Shaker and Arts & Crafts makers, who remind us that good furniture must be durable, functional and timeless. George Nakashima, James Krenov, and Wharton Esherick teach us that wood is a living material, one that is best approached with respect, care, and sensitivity.
We are profoundly aware that every production decision we make impacts the environment. All of our wood is sourced from regional owner-operator sawmills. The quality of their lumber is not only superior to commercial suppliers, but our suppliers are all deeply rooted in their local communities and economies, and harvest and mill their lumber in a manner that has minimal negative environmental impact. All of our furniture is handcrafted in our Gowanus workshop, using a large compliment of hand tools and basic woodworking machinery.
Consumer culture is premised on the exploitation of human beings and the environment in order to produce cheap and disposable products. This situation is abhorrent to us, and our approach couldn’t be more different. Not only do we want our customers to be enlivened every time they interact with our furniture, we aim to produce work that will continue to be useful and appreciated for generations to come.
Jeffrey Kusama-Hinte, serves as the designer & lead maker of the Studio. He resides in Brooklyn New York, with his spouse and two children. In a previous incarnation he was an Academy Award® and Emmy Award® nominated, Golden Globe® winning Producer and Director working under his Antidote Films banner. When not making furniture he still dabbles in film production. He currently the Chair of the Board of Trustees on The Type Media Center, a non-profit home for a diverse array of independent journalists and truth-tellers at all stages of their careers.
