Current DIRs

Our full curriculum begins July 11th, 2011.

DDI has accepted 2 incredibly talented

young entrepreneurs as is first class of

“Designers-In-Residence”…stay tuned for their progress!

Jeanne Connolly

Jeanne Connolly is the Indie Furniture Re-designer for Vintage Renewal.  Vintagerenewal.com is green furniture boutique specializing in blending both classic and modern pieces to create one-of-a-kind usable art for your home, studio or office. Three and a half years ago, Jeanne began her journey as an Independent Furniture Re-designer for her own company called Vintage Renewal.  Within the first year and half of opening her business, she was featured in over a dozen online Indie design blogs and various media, including: Apartment Therapy, Design Sponge, The Westword, Shelterific, Vintage Indie, Funky Finds, Anything Indie and more.  By the second year of her business, she had been written up in The Denver Post, The Bergen Record and claimed the prize of the winner of The Fashion Group International’s Rising Star award in Interior Design.  She finished up year three getting featured in ReadyMade Magazine twice in print and twice online, was featured in 303 magazine’s Design issue, Denver Magazine and in Natural Home Magazine as a resource for Green Design ideas.  At half way through year four, she began this year with a national Houzz.com tour of her Artist Loft and Studio, along with her very first debut in print as a featured business in Denver’s Urban Manifesto Book for female owned businesses called Crave Denver. Jeanne has a wonderful knack for redesigning vintage furniture into fresh bohemian usable works of art for your home.  Her creations are inspired by past decades, fashion styles, different cultures, antique furniture and vintage craft books.  Vintage furniture and vintage fabric are the key ingredients to Jeanne’s green furniture boutique. The frames covered are found or existing objects that are given a new lease on life. The redesigns are commonly covered in vintage fabrics and upcycled fabrics. Vintage Renewal is a green boutique and practices green furniture redesign. They sell fully redesigned vintage furniture online, in boutiques and in art galleries around the country.  They are now accepting special orders for the first-time ever! Exciting new ventures include the launch of her very first eco-fashion line where she will bring the same concept of sustainability and green design into the fashion realm by taking vintage and second-hand pieces, deconstruct them and  restyle them into fresh modern one-of-a-kind fashions.  She will also launch the debut of her traveling Pop+Up Eco-Boutique, that will transport interesting Indie Designs with a focus on sustainability into unusual spaces throughout the country.  You can follow the traveling Pop+Up Eco-Boutique through her facebook fanpage at:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Vintage-Renewal/120960116150

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Kristen LittleJohn

At the start, I had made my way through a life of knowing that I always wanted to become a clothing designer and like most individuals who start out with just a dream, was not quite sure how to make that happen.  I remember the first time I realized the amazing program Colorado State University had to offer for an apparel design hopeful and the eagerness I had to make my dream turn into reality. From there I began the demanding 4 years that took me from being at an introductory level student to a refined designer and learned to recognize that the hard work behind the creativity was all worthwhile. At the end of my junior year in college, I was offered my first internship with Diane von Furstenberg.  This opportunity allowed me to carve much needed skills into my design palette and polish my aesthetic towards a more contemporary feel.  After having spent a fabulous New York summer working under the esteemed DVF, I could not image following in an idol’s footsteps any other way than to continue to evolve the fashion world through my own designs.  I proceeded to work my way through local creative outlets during the past few years with companies like Kidrobot in Boulder and Biyazzi in Fort Collins.  These positions allowed me to transform my abilities and show my dexterity through apparel development and social media management. Together these experiences have lead me into developing a good foundation for beginning my work with the Denver Design Incubator.  Initially, DDI was introduced to me through an amazing mentor, Carol Engel-Enright.  Seeing her passion, I quickly began to realize the value this program had to offer an aspiring apparel designer like myself.  I am lucky to be one of the fortunate few who get to grow their abilities with some of Denver’s finest entrepreneurs.  I know we are all looking forward to the development and innovation DDI will bring to Colorado’s art scene and I am honored to be a part of the Designer-In Residence program.