Jeni Tu brings an analytical curiosity to her work as a designer from her previous career as a journalist. After graduating from Harvard with a degree in literature, she spent nearly 10 years working as a top editor at a national arts magazine, as well as freelance writing about the arts, culture and travel for Conde Nast Publications and Louise Blouin Media, among other outlets. In 2009, she helped Modern Painters magazine launch its first-ever design competition, “Re:Vision,” juried by such design world luminaries as Ross Lovegrove, Renny Ramakers and David McFadden.
That same year, she left the publishing world to enter the Master's of Industrial Design program at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, where she won a 2010 Pratt/Umbra Award. Since moving to San Francisco, where she finished her design studies at California College of the Arts, Jeni has been a runner-up for the 2011 Yerba Buena Center for the Arts' Grand Lobby furniture commission and a winner in the 2012 Wilsonart Chair Competition. Her work has been exhibited at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair and NeoCon, among other venues, and appeared in publications such as the L.A. Times.
Whether furniture or products, Jeni’s work reflects a deep interest in materiality, fabrication methods and patterns. In her "spare" time, she likes to travel (like to Monument Valley, above), cook and watch movies.