Kiel Mead

Kiel Mead trained as a furniture designer at Brooklyn’s Pratt Institute but he’s best known for a nostalgia-tinged jewelry line that re-imagines the totems of teenagerdom as wearable objects: rings made from old car keys, charms cast from retainers, chewing gum, and landline jacks, and — most famously — his Forget-Me-Knot ring, a cast-metal string bow that appeared in Lucky magazine early on and shot the designer to cult status. In addition to his Brooklyn-based practice, Mead runs the American Design Club, a New York–based group that promotes the work of young designers nationwide.