Hi, I'm Jack Burns. I co-founded Genusee and Major Arcana Spirits, and for the past decade I've been a professor at Parsons, teaching at the intersection of design and business. I hold a Master's in Transdisciplinary Design and a Bachelor's in Fashion Design. My practice centers on using craft, design methods, and facilitation to help articulate preferable ways forward.

I'm always up for a conversation and would love to hear about what you're working on. JackAndrewBurns@gmail.com

Selected Work

Major Arcana

I am a co-founder of Major Arcana Spirits.  Most of the work getting the bottle to the shelf is invisible: years of relationship-building with family-run distilleries in the Oaxacan highlands, learning a craft that rarely leaves the villages it comes from, and the slow, unglamorous business of moving something rare and enmeshed in red tape across borders and into a bottle to build it into something that lasts.  We’re are currently in our first phase of our five year plan and the best is yet to come.

Genusee

As a co-founder of Genusee, I designed the circular business model and oversaw its implementation. I directly managed funding strategy, product design, PR & marketing strategy, photo and video shoots, art direction, manufacturing systems, supply chain, hiring, and brand partnerships. Maneuvering from micro to macro throughout all parts of the business provided an opportunity to build a more holistic and ethos-driven company that valued people and environmental impact over profits.

Pedagogy

Teaching, learning, and facilitating critical conversations are instrumental parts of my practice. I have developed curriculum, consulted and built on corporate + academic partnership programs and taught as a professor in Bachelors and Graduate programs for over a decade.

Consultant

I have worked with international and domestic institutions and companies as an independent consultant. This work is centered on strategic research and crafting action plans for companies, organizations and brands to expand beyond the status quo and prepare for what comes next. Please email me for a list of clients and work samples.

Selected Engagements

  • Speaker: Primer Conference, Experiences of Time (2022, San Francisco)

  • Panelist and Exhibited Works: Worldmaking Media Show (2022, NYC)

  • Exhibited Works: GAEA A Garden Of The Second & Third Dimensions (2021, NYC)

  • Juror: Elaine Gold Launch Pad + CFDA (2018, NYC)

  • Panelist and Speaker: United Nations Economic and Social Forum (2018, NYC)

  • Visiting Lecturer and Design Thinker: Sub Rosa (2018, NYC)

  • Panelist: CFDA Education Summit (2018, NYC)

  • Panelist: Eileen Fisher Leadership Institute: Fashion For Good Systems (2018, NYC)

  • Speaker and panelist: Global Brands Group Sustainability Conference (2018, NYC)

  • Fellow: CFDA Elaine Gold Launch Pad (2017 - 2018, NYC)

  • Cohort Participant: XRC Labs (2017, NYC)

  • Exhibited Works: United Nations Global Arts At Carnegie Hall (2016, NYC)

  • Speaker: China Innovation Conference (2016, Shishi, Fujian)

  • Exhibited Works & 1st Prize Winner: LDNY Competition (2014, NYC)

  • Fellow: Parsons Design Lab Fellowship (2014, NYC)

  • Exhibited Works & 1st Prize Winner: Louis Vuitton Reconstruction (2013, Paris)