Kaan a.k.a Kaanco Unver

A child of Istanbul, he was born in 1991. A Horse & Capricorn—a union of the east and west. He grew up on the streets of Kagıthane, Istanbul. Learned to be quick witted and tough! Even though he might have not been aware he was trained from an early age by his father in business, production, and design. As an independent soul on the search he started his journey. First, in Istanbul then to England for a summer and then further across the great Atlantic to the USA.

           He spent a good portion of his formative years in the United States. First, to a high-school in the middle of somewhere in ‘nowhere’. Here he formed new friendships and started to explore a new world. It might have been a slow beginning but as he ventured off to college and university he gained momentum. He evolved and grew. From New England to Washington then ‘home’ to Philly. Along this route he found a very loyal companion “Pash” —his ever faithful Rottweiler. 

   In the Philadelphia he started to further discover and nurture his artistic soul. He went to Philadelphia University, studying Design Engineering and Commerce. Some summers he would go back to visit his family, working with his father, growing in the womb of Creative Design Factory.  Getting hands-on experience in the field, learning about interior and stage design, learning the process of how a creative idea forms into something tangible. The different aspects of production, presentation, and how to interact and communicate with the client.

          Back at school he would garner the different theories and design aspects. How to express his thoughts into a visual design. As a final thesis he would discover that he loved to give a new life to discarded objects—Project Recrafted. Even after graduation he continued to learn and took a class in architecture while interning at Bill Curran’s design studio doing metal work. At Bill Curran’s studio he mostly did metal work. It was during this time somewhere in Fishtown at his friend’s mechanic he put together his first sculpture out of some scrap pieces of metal. An abstract man—maybe a reflection of his own life and education—an amalgamation of different objects forming a cohesive whole. 

         A new chapter in Kaanco’s life was about to open. He went back to Istanbul, to his roots. Here he started to implement his skills and artistic imagination but still kept learning and evolving. He understood that this life was only a journey of self discovering, from the outside in and the inside out.