Awards & Recognitions
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2021
HiP Award
Steelcase Work Tents
Best of Neocon
Desk Wizard: Silver
2019
Best of Neocon
Roam: Gold
2017
Best of Neocon
Verb Media Table: Gold
Bivi Dual Height Worksurface: Gold
2016
Best of Neocon
Bassline Table: Product Innovation Award
Bive Dual Height Worksurface: Gold
2015
HiP Award
Thread: Honorable Mention
Brody Worklounge: Winner
Campfire Additions: Honorable Mention
Best of Neocon
Thread: Silver
Brody Worklounge: Gold
Product Innovation Award
Thread: Grand Prize
Brody Worklounge: Grand Prize
A+ Awards
Brody Worklounge: A+ Award
Interior Design Best of Year Awards
Brody Worklounge: Best of Year
Edison Awards
Brody Worklounge: Silver
2014
Spark Design Awards
Trea: Gold
2013
Red Dot Design Award
T7 point of Care Cart: Winner
iF Product Design Award
Diffrient Smart: Gold
Float Table: Winner
Interior Design Best of Year Awards
V6: Honoree
Element Disc: Gold
Best of Neocon
T7 Point of Care Cart: Gold
International Design Excellence Award
Diffrient Smart Chair: Finalist
Element Disc: Silver
Spark Design Awards
T7 Point of Care Technology Cart: Silver
Interior Design Best of Year Awards
Diffrient Smart Chair: Honoree
PIN UP Design Awards
Element Disc: Silver
Diffrient World: Special Prize
Bureaux Expo
Float Table: Les Trophees de l’Innivation
Mix Interior Awards
Element Disc: Winner
Diffrient World: Winner
Architects Choice Award 2013
Float: Winner
2012
Appliance DESIGN’s Annual Excellence in Design
Horizon: Gold
Australian International Design Awards
Element Disc: Grand Prize
Mode: Grand Prize
ZON Max: Merit Prize
HEALTHCARE DESIGN’s “Most Innovative Product Designers”
T7 Point of Care Technology Cart: Winner
IDEA- International Design Excellence Award
Horizon: winner
Next Generation Luminairies
Horizon: Winner
Architect’s Choice Award
M/Flex: Silver
Mode: Silver
Diffrient Smart: Bronze
PIN UP Design Awards
Horizon: Bronze
Nightengale Awards
V6: Gold
V6: Best of Competition
Spark Design Awards
Element Disc: Bronze
2011
Appliance DESIGN’s Annual Excellence in Design
Element 790: Silver
ZON: Bronze
Best of NeoCon
Float: Silver
Horizon: Silver
Buildings Magazine Innovation Awards
Float: Merit Awards
Horizon: Silver
Good Design Award
Horizon: Winner
Trea: Winner
ZON: Winner
FIRA Ergonomics Excellence Award
Freedom Chair: Winner
Liberty Chair: Winner
M2 Monitor Arm: Winner
M8 Monitor Arm: Winner
GOI Design Awards
Horizon: Special Award for Excellence
ZON: Winner
Green GOOD DESIGN Award
Horizon: Winner
Trea: Winner
ZON: Winner
IDEA – International Design Excellence Award
Diffrient World Chair: Finalist
Horizon: Finalist
Float: Bronze
Trea: Bronze
Element Vision: Winner
2011
Interiors & Source Peoples’ Choice Award
Horizon: Winner
Lighting Design Awards
Element 790: Highly Commended
Red Dot Design Award
Horizon: Winner
Spark Design Awards
Horizon: Winner
2010
Appliance DESIGN’s Annual Excellence in Design
Element: Gold
Australian International Design Awards
Element: Winner
M2: Winner
Benelux Office Products Awards
Element: Winner
Best of Boutique Awards
Diffrient World Chair: Honorable Mention
Horizon: Winner
Best of NeoCon
Element Vision: Silver
XON: Golc
Buildings Magazine Innovations Awards
Element Vision: Citation of excellence
Horizon: Citation of Excellence
M8: Citation of excellence
Paramount: Grand Prize
FX International Interior Design Awards
Horizon: Winner
Horizon: Finalist
GIO Design Awards
Element: Winner
M2: Winner
Switch Mouse: Winner
Green GOOD DESIGN
Element: Winner
I.D Annual Design Review
M2: Honorable Mention
IDEA International Design Excellence Awards
M2: Bronze
IIDEX/NeoCon Canada Innovation Awards
Horizon: Bronze
M8: Bronze
ZON: Bronze
Interior Design Best of Year Award
Horizon: Merit
ZON: Second Prize
NeoCon East people’s Choice Awards
Horizon: Third Place
Red Dot Design Award
Diffrient World Chair: Winner
Spark Design Awards
Element: Gold
2009
Best of NeoCon
Element: Gold
M2: Gold
T6 Point of Care Cart: Silver
Buildings Magazine Innovations Awards
Diffrient World Chair: Citation of Excellence
Element: Citationof Excellence
M2 Grand Prize
ZON: Grand Prize
GOOD DESIGN Award
Diffrient Technology Light: Winner
Diffrient World: Winner
Element: Winner
M2: WEinner
ComfortSeating Awards
Freedom Chair: Best Environmental Sustainability
Liberty Chair: Best Seat
Design Center Stuttgart International Design Awards
M2: Fokus in Silver
FX International Interior Design Awards
Diffrient World: Winner
iF Product Design Awards
Diffrient Work Light II: Winner
IIDEX/ NeoCon Canada Innovations Awards
6G keyboard: Silver
Diffrient World: Gold
L6 Notebook: Bronze
M2: Bronze
V7: Winner
Interior Design Best of Year Award
Diffrient World Chair: Metit
M2 Monitor Arm: Best of Year
Mixology
M2: Winner
Spark Design Awards
M2: Bronze
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StruXure Inc., a division of AZEK Corp.
Grand Rapids, MI | 2022–2025
Vice President, Product Development
Steelcase Corp.
Grand Rapids, MI | 2012–2020
Global Design Director | Workplace Innovation
2018–2020
Global Design Director | Seating, Microsoft
2017–2018
Design Director | Turnstone, Education, Worktools
2012–2017
Humanscale Corp.
New York, NY | 2009–2012
Design Director (de facto VP, Product Development)
mmckenna LLC
New York, NY | 2003-2009
Creative Director
Ingo Maurer LLC
New York, NY | 1999-2001
General Manager
Henry Dreyfuss Associates
Wood-Ridge, NJ | 1997-1999
Industrial Designer
Ingo Maurer GmBH
Munich, Germany | 1994-1996
Industrial Designer
Approach
Markus McKenna is an industrial designer whose work spans furniture, lighting, workplace products, and industrial design. His career includes work with Steelcase, Humanscale, and Henry Dreyfuss Associates, as well as collaborations with artists and designers on projects that cross the boundaries between product design, art, and the built environment.
McKenna approaches design as both a technical discipline and an intuitive search for coherence. His process moves between drawing and physical models, each informing and challenging the other. Ideas often emerge through this iterative process, but their essential character is frequently recognized before it can be fully explained: an intuitive sense that the parts have resolved into a compelling whole.
Technical problems are generally approached directly and methodically. The more elusive questions—those of proportion, expression, material, and emotional resonance—require a different kind of attention. For McKenna, the goal is not simply to solve a problem, but to discover a solution that feels inevitable.
He is practical in execution, impractical in motive. Technical competence is a means rather than an end, providing the freedom to pursue ideas whose value may be difficult to quantify but whose success can be immediately felt. The work is driven by a search for vitality, elegance, and coherence: qualities that allow an object to be not merely useful, but alive with purpose.
Across different scales and disciplines, McKenna’s interest remains consistent: to create things that are technically resolved, visually compelling, and emotionally resonant. The measure of success is ultimately the work itself.
Contact
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