Hi, I’m Jack Burns,

Welcome to my studio, I am a designer with an extensive background in designing innovative business strategies, managing multidisciplinary teams, and crafting forward-thinking pedagogical programs. My dynamic range of experience includes: starting the first circular-economy eyewear business, with mentorship from Fjord and IDEO; serving as a professor in the premier U.S. fashion program; and recently earning a master's degree in Transdisciplinary Design. My practice centers on strategy, foresight, and design-led research methods. I aim to holistically envision and execute narrative-based design strategies from a micro-to-macro approach.

For all inquiries please email JackAndrewBurns@gmail.com.

Awards, Publications, Exhibitions, & Speaking Engagement

Since 2014 I have had the pleasure of sharing work with the world through exhibitions, published interviews, speaking engagements, and mentoring.

Selected panels, awards, and 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)

Selected articles and coverage of my work:

World News Tonight with David Muir  | T Magazine (The New York Times)  |  Vogue | Elle  |  Bustle  |  Refinery29  |  Sierra Club | Forbes  |    Crain’s  |   The Cut

Selected Work

Genusee - Co-Founder

Genusee is the first circular economy eyewear brand. Made from recycled single-use plastic water bottles in Flint, MI, each eyewear purchase upcycles 15+ water bottles. Committed to building social and environmental impact through business, design, and collaboration, Genusee focuses on hiring and training displaced and returning citizens to create products of purpose and need.

As a co-founder of Genusee, I collaborated, developed, and oversaw the business model, funding strategy, product design, PR & marketing strategy, manufacturing systems, supply chain, hiring, brand partnerships, and was involved in day-to-day operations. Maneuvering from micro to macro throughout all parts of the business provided an opportunity to build a more wholistic and ethos-driven company that valued people, impact, and community over profits.

Pedagogy - Professor & Higher Education Consultant

Teaching, learning, and facilitating critical conversations have been instrumental parts of my practice since I began working in design over ten years ago. Among other notable achievements in the educational field, I have been a Professor at Parsons The New School for Design for over four years and consulted design education programs in the US and abroad. Teaching and working with emerging design methods in the classroom has helped bolster the capacities of my other professional practices.

Parsons The New School for Design — Professor

Over the course of the Spring 2018 semester, I worked with Daniel Lee (Parsons student) to create clothes that responded to and addressed the needs of people living with disabilities. The project was developed in tandem with the Cerebral Palsy Foundation and Parsons with mentorship and textile donations from Anna Sui.

Left to Right: Jeron Hermon, Daniel Lee, Peter Trojic, and Anthony Lopez photographed by Richard Copier at the Design for Disabilities gala.

Curriculum Design Consultant

I worked closely with Yvonne Watson, Antonia Craig, and Kelly Grossi to develop course descriptions, learning outcomes, flexible schedule formats, and training procedures for prospective instructors to ensure that the inaugural program exceeded the internal university and MSCHE standards.

Over the twelve months of the MPS Fashion Management course, students would be exposed to a wide range of courses, including Systems and Strategies, Technology and Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Manufacturing and Production, Global and Local Leadership, Retailing and Service Design, Professional Development, Digital Studio and Branding, Communication and Social Media, and a multi-semester research course that culminated as their Capstone Project.

International Higher Education Consultant

I developed and delivered Human-Centered Design workshops, business design lectures, and advised on strategic operations for the top four higher education companies across 23 campuses in China. I designed a strategic overhaul of ACG's creative education practice resulting in an 18% uptick in accepted students to preferred international universities (their primary KPI). I also facilitated workshops centered on zero waste, designing through making, non-linear design processes, Socratic methods applied to design, design futures methods, stretching the imagination with impossible tasks, and conceptual narrative development.