Born on July 22, 1968, Cebu, Philippines, Kenneth began his passage to design in 1987 studying Industrial Design at Pratt Institute in New York.
While completing his degree, he apprenticed for a leather and wood workshop near Florence, Italy. In 1994, he studied Furniture Marketing and Production at the Export Akademie Baden-Wurttemberg in Reutlingen, Germany under a private and state scholarship program, and subsequently worked in Bielefeld and Munich.
Coming back to home to Cebu in 1996 to manage Interior Crafts of the Islands, Inc. a furniture design and manufacturing company founded in 1972 by Kenneth’s mother (Betty Cobonpue) a famous designer known for creating new techniques in working with rattan. Discovering that modern design could have a new face using natural fibers and materials, Kenneth then set out to create pieces, which form his collection today. Integrating locally sourced organic materials with innovative hand-made production techniques offered an alternative to the Western definition of modern design.
He has earned great recognition at locally and abroad for his works. His recent works have produced critical acclaim within the design community wherein several of his designs were selected for the prestigious International Design Yearbook 2002 Edition curated by Ross Lovegrove, 2004 edition curated by Tom Dixon and 2005 edition curated by Marcel Wanders. In Phaidon’s 2007 booke “& Fork” underscores Kenneth’s position as a leader of a new movement incorporating new technologies with crafts. He has appeared on European television including Deutsche Welle and Dutch TV, countless international magazines such as Wallpaper, Newsweek, and TIME Magazine as well as respected newspapers including The Washington Post and the Shanghai Daily News. His works have also appeared in movies and television shows such as Oceans 13 and CSI: Miami.
