Ruud-Jan Kokke was born in 1956 in Velp, Holland. He graduated from the College of Social Studies, Academy of Arts. In 1986 he started his own design firm called Ruud-Jan Kokke project and design or just ‘Kokke’.
He has created many chairs for various companies such as Auping, Becker KG, Designum, Eromes, Harvink, Kembro, Klober and Mobach. He believes that products should be autonomous and should be able to be placed in different situations without immediately relating to the environment. In contrast, he believes that his interior and public designs should relate to the environment in which they are. However, his product, public and interior designs are all highly technical and visual with a sober and inventive, playful feature.
He has done interior design for Chabot Museum, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Bredeschool Oosterbeek Laag, and SSHW Wageningen, amongst others. The Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam has also bought many of their products such as the Stool TC, Kokke chair, Tray, Bench moment, and OT kids-chair.