How NFL Star Michael Bennett Became a Force in Design

After wrapping up an 11-year NFL career that included a Super Bowl championship with the Seattle Seahawks and three trips to the Pro Bowl, Michael Bennett could have easily taken the path often tread by retired athletes and go into coaching or broadcasting. But Bennett had something else in mind.

In 2020, he answered a creative calling he says he’s felt most of his life by founding Studio Kër, a design studio and brand that specializes in sculptural furnishings and home goods.

“I’ve always had a passion for design,” Bennett said. “My brother likes to joke that I always had good taste, even growing up, whether it was clothes or the objects that I like.”

Studio Kër allows Bennett to explore that eye for design while also incorporating the history and traditions of the African diaspora, as well as more modern themes of social justice. Bennett — who studied at the Heritage School of Interior Design and is currently finishing an architecture degree at the University of Hawaii — has devoted significant time and resources to social activism, and that quest for justice permeates his design aesthetic.

“I’ve always worked around this idea of systems that are broken and protesting them, and when you really look at the world, it comes down to design,” he said. “The ghetto is not natural — it’s designed without empathy. I started thinking about design as my form of resistance.”

Studio Kër’s first collection, which made its debut earlier this year and was designed by Bennett and late industrial designer Imhotep Blot, was guided by that sense of resistance against oppression and reverence for the Black experience. Kër is the word for “home” in the Wolof culture, the largest ethnic group in Senegal, where Bennett discovered his family has roots. Making that connection between his ancestors’ homeland and his current life as a Black man in America remained top of mind as he created the pieces in the line.

“Being an African American in America means dealing with the history of slavery, and because of that you may not know where exactly you come from,” he said. “I did a DNA ancestry report and found that my ancestors came from Senegal. That was central as I thought about this idea of home and community through object architecture.”

Bennett’s Mo-Mo dining table draws inspiration from artist Akili Ron Anderson’s sculpture of “The Last Supper,” as well as the traditions of both West African and Black American families. Topped with a rotating tray for serving food, the substantial circular table can accommodate 10 people, encouraging guests to gather and connect through food and conversation.

“The table tells the history and importance of matriarchs in the Black family,” he said. “I’m really looking at these experiences because on one hand, I’m full-blooded American, but then there are these crumbs of the past that are very Western Africa.”

The “Gumbo” lounge chair, partly inspired by DC Simpson’s stacking polypropylene “Monobloc” chair, is made of fiberglass and cushions. And “Paw Paw’s” dining chair, made with either African Sapele or Argentine rosewood, has asymmetric spines that nod to patterns seen in traditional West African culture.

“This idea of asymmetry in an object — I’m looking at how these forms and structures have a connectivity to the history of the Black community in America,” Bennett said.

Bennett’s current study in architecture allows him to further play with structure and form in his designs.

“Architecture influences everything I do,” he said. “I see the connection of architecture in how I structure anything I’m designing, whether that’s furniture or something like a doorknob or a candle vessel.”

While telling his own story through design, Bennett also has worked to allow other people of color to have the same opportunity. In 2021, he established an endowment at the Rhode Island School of Design to enable more talented people from marginalized and underserved communities to attend the institution. He said supporting the next generation of designers of color helps not only the individual students, but culture at large.

“It goes back to the idea of systems — until a part becomes part of the whole, the systems don’t change,” he said. “So giving people of color more access to design and becoming designers allows them to apply these skills to their communities, which can lead to changes that can bring on major paradigm shifts.”

As Studio Kër evolves along with Bennett as a designer, he said he’s open to where the journey takes him, refusing to be pigeonholed by medium or aesthetic. And no matter what he designs, he believes this practice will allow him to connect to and uplift not only members of his current community, but the ancestors who came before, as well.

“I don’t see myself as one type of designer,” he said. “I think of myself as a spacial designer who is constantly thinking about how we interact with space, whether it’s through objects or how a room is laid out. We’re crafting these objects and spaces that turn into relics, and these relics become references that anchor us to the history of our culture.”