The Furniture Designer Extraordinaire: Dakota Jackson

Dakota Jackson is an American furniture designer best known for his Dakota Jackson furniture line. He was a magician’s son, and by the time he was six, he had become a professional magician. He performed in public until his early 20s.

The furniture that surrounds us must be beautiful, provocative, and meaningful. They are instruments of our pleasures and the symbols of our period. Dakota Jackson

Biography

Jackson began his career as a consultant to stage magicians and rock bands who wanted to incorporate illusion into their performances. He transitioned from magic to furniture, building boxes where assistants were placed to be sawn in half or levitated.

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Celebrity Designer

In the early 1970s, he created his first furniture design (commissioned by Yoko Ono for John Lennon). Yoko asked her to make a desk for her husband. She envisioned a writing table resembling a Chinese puzzle with hidden compartments. He had never made real furniture, so completing the desk took some time. He soon received commissions from other celebrities due to word of mouth.

He created a bar for actor Pete Allen, a desk for a television producer, and a vampish bed for socialite fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg. The bed, dubbed the eclipse, depicts the sun and moon in the sky simultaneously. Behind the headboard were lights that turned on automatically at sunset, grew brighter throughout the evening, and then turned off at 2:30 a.m.

Furniture Design and Launch of Vikter Line

He designed and built his furniture. 1991, he launched his Vikter furniture line, introducing the Stacking Chair. His creations are known for their innovative use of new materials and often come with unique and hard-to-pronounce names. A standout piece in his collection is the Library Chair, created for architect James Ingo Freed’s San Francisco Public Library. Today, this chair is found in libraries nationwide, including those at Harvard, NYU, Stanford, and the Minneapolis Public Library, designed by Cesar Pelli.

Steinway Collaboration and TriCentennial Piano

In 2000, Steinway collaborated with Jackson to create the TriCentennial Piano, a special batch of 300 pianos marking the 300th anniversary of the piano’s creation. Later, in 2013, Jackson and Steinway unveiled the Arabesque Limited Edition Grand Concert Piano to celebrate Steinway & Sons’ 160th anniversary.

Achievement and Recognition

The Arabesque was recognized with the 2014 Red Dot Award for outstanding product design. This was a landmark achievement for both Jackson and Steinway, as it marked the first time a Steinway piano had won this prestigious award.

Tribute to Lang Lang: The Black Diamond Grand Piano

Jackson’s latest creation, The Black Diamond Grand Concert Piano, is a tribute to the renowned classical pianist Lang Lang. This limited edition piano produced together with Steinway, was launched in 2019 and earned global attention after being showcased in notable venues like the Philharmonie de Paris and The Peninsula in Shanghai and Beijing.

Sources

Byars, M., & Riley, T. (2004). The design encyclopedia. Laurence King Publishing.

Luxury Custom Furniture Design | Dakota Jackson Inc. (n.d.). Dakota Jackson. Retrieved May 5, 2024, from https://www.dakotajackson.com/

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