Currently residing in Matera, Italy, Sean Yoo was born in Seoul and raised in Los Angeles, making him emblematic of the multi-cultural, globally fluent designers of his generation. His first career was as a city planner, but a visit to the Noguchi Museum in New York inspired him to pursue design. "I was particularly attracted to the way Noguchi applied sculptural qualities to common household objects," says Yoo. "It seemed to give meaning and purpose to otherwise meaningless objects."
Yoo immediately enrolled in the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, graduating in 2000 with a degree in industrial design. After a successful debut at the 2001 Salone Satellite in Milan, he and Angela Tarasco launched their studio, Apt 5 Design. Yoo's work embodies versatility, with projects ranging from a compact bed and desk unit designed for a South Central Los Angeles housing project to Opus Shelving, a recyclable shelving unit that was inspired by a repeating pattern he noticed in the ruins of Pompeii. Read more >
