KENNETH COBONPUE

This is a story of an imaginative boy named Kenneth, who was exposed to the craft of furniture making at a young age. His mother, a furniture designer and founder of Interior Crafts of the Islands, Betty Cobonpue, built furniture in the backyard of their home in 1972 with just a few carpenters. Exhibiting an innate curiosity for the world around him, his childhood was filled with memories of crafting toys with craftsmen and artisans who surrounded him. “As a child, I made things that crawled, rolled, and flew from scratch,” recalls Kenneth—an expression of creativity from his childhood, which he wished to last forever. Taking pride in Filipino craftsmanship, he had a vision of enriching the firm with fresh and modern designs that reflect local skill and ingenuity. Driven by a strong urge to evolve the traditional ways of local craftsmanship, his single-minded insight shifted the landscape of local furniture design and put Cebu on the world map. “In the past, the Philippine industries didn’t have brands, so we create our products, and they go under different brand names abroad. I did not want my designs sold and branded under different names all over the world. I wanted to change all that even at the risk of losing clientele,” Kenneth expresses. In 2001, he then established his namesake brand—Kenneth Cobonpue.