Who/About us
Built on the combined experience of it’s founders Connie Chisholm and Kirsten White who, besides having active design practices have more than 30 years of design teaching experience and ten years of community facilitation experience.
Connie Chisholm has been a practicing furniture designer and maker in Toronto since 1996, producing commissioned and speculative work. She has extensive teaching experience in the fields of designing and making, having taught at Sheridan College’s furniture program for 10 years and more recently, the industrial Design program at OCAD University. Connie is also the principal of Codesign, a social enterprise that brings post-secondary design students together with Canadian communities to work on projects of mutual benefit at a local level. Connie has travelled extensively in North America, Australia, Europe and West Africa, which included a six-month placement volunteering in a small rural village in The Gambia.
Kirsten White has been an active member of Canada’s design community for almost three decades. As an industrial designer, she creates practical and thoughtful product designs. Her is furniture found at some of the world’s most prestigious spaces, including London’s Canary Wharf and the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. Her work has also been featured in exhibitions in Toronto, Boston, New York and Milan. During the past decade, Kirsten has travelled professionally to Indonesia, Peru, and China to explore how to combine the world of mass-produced design and the work of individual makers and craftspeople to offer better, more sustainable products. Since 2004, Kirsten has taught at Ontario College of Art and Design and Sheridan College in Toronto Canada. When not sharing her passion for design, she can be found gallivanting across the globe with her family.
In June of 2016 Kirsten and Connie began collaborating on projects for CoDesign. CoDA (CoDesign Abroad) was born shortly thereafter.
Connie Chisholm has been a practicing furniture designer and maker in Toronto since 1996, producing commissioned and speculative work. She has extensive teaching experience in the fields of designing and making, having taught at Sheridan College’s furniture program for 10 years and more recently, the industrial Design program at OCAD University. Connie is also the principal of Codesign, a social enterprise that brings post-secondary design students together with Canadian communities to work on projects of mutual benefit at a local level. Connie has travelled extensively in North America, Australia, Europe and West Africa, which included a six-month placement volunteering in a small rural village in The Gambia.
Kirsten White has been an active member of Canada’s design community for almost three decades. As an industrial designer, she creates practical and thoughtful product designs. Her is furniture found at some of the world’s most prestigious spaces, including London’s Canary Wharf and the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. Her work has also been featured in exhibitions in Toronto, Boston, New York and Milan. During the past decade, Kirsten has travelled professionally to Indonesia, Peru, and China to explore how to combine the world of mass-produced design and the work of individual makers and craftspeople to offer better, more sustainable products and careers. Since 2004, Kirsten has taught at Ontario College of Art and Design and Sheridan College in Toronto Canada. When not sharing her passion for design, she can be found gallivanting across the globe with her family.
