Carlos Bobonis Colorado, is the President and Co-Founder of Design in Puerto Rico. He is an industrial designer, artist, educator and design consultant with over 10 year’s professional working experience. Based in San Juan, Puerto Rico Carlos has dedicated his career to design and build new and exciting products fabricated with the latest manufacturing techniques.
He has worked as a professor and educator for Turabo university, the New School in New York City and currently in Escuela de Artes Plasticas of San Juan.
After his graduate studies in Industrial Design in Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), Carlos comes back to Puerto Rico and is recruited to develop and administer the Ponce Architecture School PUCPR, Fabrication Laboratory (FAB LAB). A first in its kind design laboratory that opened its doors in 2009 to new students, faculty members, engineers and inventors who visited the lab to fabricate working prototypes and develop new ideas. During his time as acting director, Carlos worked directly with over 400 students and faculty members, guiding them through the capacities of the lab, teaching them the basic safety measures and helping them troubleshoot design projects.
In 2013 Carlos and his wife Erika Medina moved to New York City and Co-founded Design in Puerto Rico, a collective of Puretorrican designers who presented for the first time in New York’s Design Week. The exhibition marked the first time that a large collective of diverse Puertorrican talent (over 32 Puertorrican designers) presented their products in an international design venue. The event was recognized by the international press and opened the door for multiple invitations to international design fairs. The exhibition had a second appearance in New York Design Week 2014.
Understanding that there was an opportunity to promote Puertorrican design in international markets, Design in Puerto Rico Llc. Was registered in 2014, as a design consultancy and promotion company.
Living in New York City, Carlos, worked with multiple design firms, gathering experience and honing his design and management skills. Focusing on broadening his personal network of design firms, vendors, manufacturers, design promoters, galleries, retail stores and points of distribution creating a web of resources that are necessary to position Puertorrican design throughout the Americas and Europe.
In 2015 he was recruited as part of the Store Design team of the fashion brand Michael Kors, taking the role of Project manager for the Global Fixtures and Product Enhancer Development. During his two year stay at MK Carlos worked in over 50+ projects developing multiple furniture pieces and accessories for the fashion Brand new concept stores worldwide.
In 2017 Carlos moves back to Puerto Rico to work full time on “Design in Puerto Rico”, developing a local product design consultancy focused on new product development and fabrication consulting.