Ken W.

Background

About Ken W.

Ken West is an accomplished product designer with over 20 years of experience in the field. He has led numerous experience research and design projects for clients around the world, including Apple, IBM, AT & T, and Home Depot. His work has generated billions of dollars in revenue and impacted millions of users. In addition to his for-profit clients, Ken has also contributed to Historically Black Colleges and Universities, raising over $50 million in direct contributions and strategic partnerships through his fundraising and self-sufficiency strategies. Ken has also applied his skills in the financial sector, creating business intelligence tools used by top investment firms. He has a passion for combining art and information in his work, as evidenced by his development of in-store kiosks for Japan's Shisedo Cosmetics and the creation of online and offline experiences for the Museum of World Religions in Taipei and Paul Allen's Experience Music Project in Seattle. In addition to his commercial work, Ken has also supported product design initiatives within government agencies such as the National Highway Transportation and Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. He has also helped establish user research programs at the state level, including in Connecticut, where he worked to improve access to government services across 36 agencies with a total budget of $35 billion. Ken is also a fine art photographer with works exhibited internationally and held in private collections and the permanent collections of The Mint Museum and the City of Atlanta. In 2021, he published his first book of photographs,"The Beauty of Everyday Thangs," which celebrates the "revolutionary normalcy" of black lives. The book, which features a foreword by Stic of Dead Prez and photo editing by former Life magazine editor Bill Shapiro, is in its third print run. He is currently working in the increased integration of machine learning into an array of environments such as government and global trade. Ken holds graduate degrees in Art History, Political Science, and Educational Communication & Technology. He received his Art History and Political Science degrees from The Ohio State University and his Educational Communication & Technology degree from the Steinhardt School at New York University.