About

A graduate of Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design, Jim Contois began his career designing architectural building products at Armstrong World Industries.  Soon after, his focus turned to contract furniture where he was a designer for KI before moving on to manage Industrial Design at Allsteel.  Since 2008 he has managed his own studio and has developed products for a range of markets including office, education, health care, retail, scientific and residential. His clients include Arcadia, Indiana Furniture, SurfaceWorks, HON, Ghent, Trendway, Valley Design, Allsteel, ArtcoBell, Jofco and CCN.

Jim believes that his role is to balance the interests of the manufacturer, the designer/specifier and the end user in ways that create desirable products in the marketplace.  In his work he emphasizes simplicity, scale, and proportion while elevating the end users’ experience.

In addition to product development, Jim has worked with clients on product planning, market development, marketing materials and showroom design.