This website is the home to the hybrid design practice of Joel Kern. Joel’s constructionist design approach takes shape through a range of media types — oscillating between the characteristics of typography, multi-materiality, and spatiality. This approach straddles the borders of graphic design, environmental design, architecture, and social sculpture.

Joel currently works for Lutron Electronics Inc. providing creative direction within the Communication Department. Previously he was freelancing as a senior designer for MTWTF and Frank Collective from his studio in Red Hook, Brooklyn. In 2020, he launched common material, an art and design platform focused on producing objects and environments. Joel received his MFA (Graphic Design) from Rhode Island School of Design, where he self-published his thesis AMONG, and his BFA (Graphic Design) from the Lamar Dodd School of Art — University of Georgia. Joel is interested in the human relationship to space and new ways of connecting community.

View a catalogue of the visual outcomes of his practice over the past 10 years. These works include rejected, in-progress and completed projects from various points in his career. Download his CV here.

For freelance inquires or just to say hi please send an email to jkernnxi@gmail.com