Thomas O'Connor is an awarded Industrial Design consultant who thrives at the intersection of business, technology and user-centered design. He began consulting for PDT in 2010 where he's led multi-disciplinary teams ranging from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies. PDT is a Chicago based product development consultancy specializing in fast moving, regulated and complex industries ranging from medical devices, aerospace, consumer electronics, laboratory equipment and tactical communication devices.

Thomas has consulted for clients including AbbVie, Hospira, Smiths Medical, Harris, Thermofisher, Siemens, Bosch, 3M, Weber, McDonalds and Intel.

Most recently Thomas spent 4 months working in Shanghai as a consultant for Sinowell. Thomas led research and product development to help bring innovation to the commercial horticulture and hydroponics industry. Sinowell is a manufacturer and wholesaler of horticulture and hydroponics equipment.

Thomas is active in the Chicago start-up community, serves as a judge in Chicago's Tech Week Launch Competition and is an Industrial Design mentor at University of Illinois at Chicago.

Thomas grew up in the Motor City and received his BFA in Industrial Design from the College for Creative Studies in Detroit.

Aimee Franco is an independent design consultant based in Brooklyn, NY. She studied industrial design at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, Michigan and currently works on projects that span the physical and digital product realms.

Passionate about designing for impact, Aimee has spent most of her career working in the healthcare space. Early on, she worked with Fortune 500 medical technology companies as an industrial designer at​ ​Tekna​. Later, she collaborated with​ ​iDE Cambodia​ on healthcare-focused international development projects, and she began designing digital experiences. More recently, as Product Design Lead at Caremerge, she worked on designing a care coordination platform for older adults, and has since become an independent consultant.

Aimee has also taught as an adjunct instructor for Startup Institute’s web design program.

Brian Case is a Vice President of Research and Development for Fresenius Kabi's Medical Device Division. Brian has over twenty years of experience in developing products from conceptualization to market launch. He has spent the last ten years focusing on the development of apheresis technology. The latest example is Fresenius Kabi’s AmiCORE® Advanced Platelet Apheresis System. Prior to joining Fresenius Kabi, Brian led the advanced research team at Cook Medical focusing on the development of stents and tissue engineered valves. Brian helped Cook launch their first self-expanding stent Zilver®. In addition, Brian has extensive experience in user interface design and usability evaluations. Brian is a prolific inventor and has over 70 patents.

Brian has a master's degree in Engineering Management from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and a bachelor's degree in Engineering Mechanics from the University of Illinois. He is a licensed Professional Mechanical Engineer and a certified Project Management Professional.

Mesve Vardar is the Director of Industrial Design at Humanscale. With a decade of Humanscale experience behind her, Mesve Vardar has been a key contributor to a number of celebrated Humanscale products, including the Red Dot award-winning T7 Mobile Technology Cart. She joined the company in 2006 as a designer after earning a Master of Arts in Industrial Design from Pratt Institute. Before accepting the role of Design Director, Vardar worked as a Senior Industrial Designer and Researcher. In this capacity she worked on product development and research across categories, including seating, monitor arms, healthcare and lighting. Having conducted dedicated research into the future workplace, she is motivated by front-end thinking and the broad impact Humanscale can have on the changing office.

Ian Ferguson (born USA 1977) studied Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he received a B.Science in Architectural Design in 2000. In 2007, he received his MA Design Products at the Royal College of Art.

Along with Martin Postler, he is a founder and director of PostlerFerguson, an industrial design office creating products for a meaningful future. PostlerFerguson works with clients to design and develop products combining bold creative vision with refined technical solutions.

In 2011, he also co-founded PostlerFerguson’s sister company in Hong Kong, Papafoxtrot, a lifestyle and wood toy company. They produce a range of wood toys based on modern industrial marvels and the Staeckler shoe display systems. Their products have received accolades and awards including nominations for the Designs of the Year by London’s Design Museum, and Space.com’s Space Age Award.

He has worked extensively as an architect, for firms including Testa + Weiser (Los Angeles), Hideto Horiike + Urtopia (Tokyo), and Ove Arup (London). He has taught architecture and design at the Southern California Institute of Architects, University of California Los Angeles, Aarhus University and the Istituto Europeo di Design, and co-directed the first year architecture course at London Metropolitan University, and ran Platform 17 in the Royal College of Arts Design Products department from 2011 - 2015.

Martin Postler (born Germany 1977) studied Industrial Design at the Muthesius Academy of Fine Arts and Design, graduating with a Diplom (MA aequivalent) in 2004. He received his MA Design Products in 2007 from the Royal College of Art and Kyoto University of Arts.

Martin worked for diverse design agencies in Hamburg, Hong Kong and London for clients including Boeing, Lufthansa, Airbus, Nokia and Deutsche Telekom and received numerous awards including the Raymond Loewy Foundation Award, Red Dot, IF Design, DAAD and Invent Scholarship from the German Ministry of Education. From 2011 - 2015 he taught at the Royal College of Art Design Products Departement.

Along with Ian Ferguson, he is a founder and director of PostlerFerguson, an industrial design office creating products for a meaningful future. PostlerFerguson works with clients to design and develop products combining bold creative vision with refined technical solutions. With offices in London and Hamburg, they have an international roster of clients including LG Electronics, Nike, Acoustic Research, Nudeaudio, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Victoria and Albert Museum.

In 2011, he also co-founded PostlerFerguson’s sister company in Hong Kong, Papafoxtrot, a lifestyle and wood toy company. They produce a range of wood toys based on modern industrial marvels and the Staeckler shoe display systems. Their products have received accolades and awards including nominations for the Designs of the Year by London’s Design Museum, and Space.com’s Space Age Award.

He is currently a Professor of product systems and production processes at the Muthesius Academy of Fine Arts and Design.

As SVP of Design and User Experience at HTC, Scott led the team that launched several acclaimed phones including the Evo, Incredible, and HTC One M7 and M8. Before that Scott was a principal at One + Co, an award-winning lifestyle design firm, which was acquired by HTC in 2008.

Benjamin Hubert is an award-winning British design entrepreneur, and founder of creative agency, LAYER. The new agency is the evolution of Benjamin Hubert Ltd. and is focused on experience-driven design for both the physical and digital worlds.

Benjamin graduated from Industrial Design & Technology at Loughborough University in 2006, and began his career at DCA Design, the largest design consultancy in the UK. He moved to London in 2007 to work for internationally renowned design consultancy Seymour Powell as senior industrial designer on a variety of prestigious projects, including Eurostar interiors. He then joined Tangerine, the agency at which Jonathan Ive worked prior to Apple.

In October 2010, at the age of 26, Benjamin founded Benjamin Hubert Ltd. with the aim of creating long-lasting products that would truly connect with people and become new heirlooms.

Following five successful years of growth working with the world’s foremost interior product, luxury and consumer goods brands, Benjamin wanted to establish a platform to fully represent the studio’s multi-layered approach to design and its growing roster of creative partners.

LAYER launched in September 2015, with a focus on creating meaningful experiences based on extensive research and human behaviours. The new holistic design practice incorporates a more diverse creative toolbox, including industrial design, mechanical and electrical engineering, user experience design, user interaction design, branding, and human-centred research.

Benjamin has received a number of awards, including the RedDot Design Award, iF Design Award, and London Design Museum’s Designs of the Year.

Jakob Kristoffersen, by formal title; as Concept & Design Manager for B&O PLAY by Bang & Olufsen, doesn’t really say much. His craft is creative direction, but he sees the essence of his role in designing and nurturing EXPERIENCES, ideas – concepts. a Storyteller. Spending time understanding the unarticulated drivers of urban creative individuals. Curating design strategies and philosophies down to products answering those needs. Directing the creative process of concepts to realize these in luxuriously simple beautiful designs in tune with tones and styles in the time.
Packs a background in start-ups in Silicon Valley, educated in Global Business Engineering and Innovation Management from Denmark, Business Administration and Design at Harvard Business School and Harvard University in Boston, business development in China, and a detour to management consulting. A fan of emotional- and rational passion. Speaks Chinese. Coat size 48.

Max Fraser works as a design commentator across the media of books, magazines, exhibitions, video, and events to broaden the conversation around contemporary design. He delivers content and strategy for a variety of public and private bodies in the UK and abroad.

He is the author of several design books including DESIGN UK and DESIGNERS ON DESIGN, which he co-wrote with Sir Terence Conran. He owns Spotlight Press, a publishing imprint, recent titles include LONDON DESIGN GUIDE and DEZEEN BOOK OF IDEAS. As a journalist, he writes for publications including Newsweek International, Financial Times, CNN Style and Blueprint. Previously, he worked as the Deputy Director of the London Design Festival from 2012-2015.

Peter Bristol's work blends form with function in uniquely appropriate ways making products that are inherently recognizable. His designs have been recognized across multiple genres with a broad array of patents and awards. Peter is currently director of industrial design at virtual reality company Oculus. Parallel to Oculus, Peter partners with design focused companies to create furniture, lighting and other goods.

Petrula Vrontikis is a leading influence in graphic design. Her current work includes research, writing, consulting, creating brand communication strategies, training, and coaching. She received an AIGA Fellows Award honoring her as an essential voice raising the understanding of design within the industry and among the business and cultural communities. She served as a national advisory board member of the AIGA and is frequently asked to serve on numerous local, national, and international design juries.

She is creative director and owner of Vrontikis Design Office (@vrontikis and 35k.com) and a professor at Art Center College of Design, teaching graphic design, career development, and professional practice courses.

Her professional practice gives her role as a teacher an important authenticity. She encourages students to explore their potential as designers and as a catalyst for change in the larger creative community.

Petrula is an avid traveler and visual translator. It’s not unusual to find her scuba diving with giant manta rays, climbing a steep and rocky slope, or twisting her body like a pretzel in a yoga class.

Jeremy Mende is a visual artist and designer from San Francisco, California. In 2000 he founded MendeDesign, a creative practice that balances commercial projects with strategic design work for socially oriented non-profits. The studio has been recognized internationally for its work and currently has pieces in several collections including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Jeremy is a professor of design at California College of the Arts.

Phil Hamlett is the Director of the School of Graphic Design at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, the largest private art and design school in the country. In this setting, he teaches classes, develops curriculum, recruits and manages instructors, advises students, manages the graduate thesis development process, conducts outreach and establishes the strategic agenda for the School. His students emerge as advanced design practitioners and go on to acquire positions at leading firms around the world. Phil joined the Academy in 2004 and served for thirteen years as the Graduate Director for the School of Graphic Design, building the nascent MFA program from scratch.

Prior to becoming a design educator, Phil led design studios on both coasts, creating award-winning work for clients large and small. His extensive professional experience provides him with the perspective necessary to prepare students for the challenges of the real world. Capable of playing a wide variety of design, communication and managerial roles, he is adept at identifying creative challenges, distilling core objectives, formulating a plan of attack, and managing the team that will then fix everything.

Phil recently completed his term as president of the AIGA San Francisco chapter, for which he continues to serve ex officio. He is also a former AIGA national board member, founder of Compostmodern and co-author of the Living Principles for Design — the means by which he guides the development of sustainable business practice within the design community As a charter member of the Winterhouse Institute Founder’s Circle, he helps articulate the value of design education for social impact.

In his off time, he can usually be found chasing around his two adorable children (photos available upon request).

Roshi Givechi is a Partner and Executive Design Director at IDEO, a global design consulting firm. Having called many of IDEO's US and Asia offices home, Roshi channels her global exposure to amplify creativity and culture – cultivating opportunities for designers, clients, and an extended creative network to inspire and challenge each other in service of making a difference in the world. This exposure also means she spots patterns and edges across region as well as industry, enabling her to help shape good design. As a designer inspired by choreography, Roshi loves dissecting the many parts that come together to make a greater whole—whether designing for cities, products, services, or shaping stories themselves. Her years at IDEO have given her an intimate view of the changing nature of design’s role, and what it means to envision and define products and systems that bring disproportionate impact to the world. Roshi’s clients include Anheuser-Busch InBev, Bank of America, the Kaufman Foundation, Medtronic, NASA, Nokia, Ritz-Carlton, Steelcase, Timberland, and YouTube.


In her role at IDEO, Roshi regularly teaches design thinking through facilitated innovation workshops within organizations. She has also taught cross-disciplinary design at the California College of Arts and, most recently, Human Values in Design at Stanford In New York. She is a frequent collaborator of the Sundance Institute Theater Program, helping to host public conversations on topics that inform our daily lives through a forum coined Creative Tensions (creativetensions.com). Roshi holds an MFA from Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, a BS from University of California, Davis, and in January 2009, was profiled in I.D Magazine’s “I.D. 40” list as one of 40 leading design innovators. She’s keen to figure out what to show for it in 2049...

Joe Speicher is the Executive Director of the Autodesk Foundation. Under his leadership, the Foundation supports the people and organizations designing and engineering high-impact solutions to the world’s most pressing social and environmental challenges. Prior to joining Autodesk, Speicher was on the founding team of Living Goods, where he spent six years leading operations for the global health organization. He began his career in the banking and finance sector, working with Deutsche Bank and Cambridge Associates. He then spent three years in the Peace Corps in the Philippines and has worked as a consultant for the Economist Intelligence Unit, the World Bank and Google.org. He earned a Masters degree in Development Economics from Columbia University and holds a Bachelors of Science degree from Washington and Lee University.

Deanna is the co-founder of Designing Justice Designing Spaces, a nonprofit harnessing the power of design and development to transform people and communities. After starting her first company in 2011 she became a national leader in formulating and advocating for restorative justice centers, a radical transformation of justice architecture. Her passion for exploring the intersection of design and culture has been fueled by her work as a design lead on urban design, institutional and education projects in the bay area, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Recent projects with DJDS include the Syracuse Peacemaking Center in New York and Restore, a multi-use hub for restorative justice and work force development in east Oakland. Deanna is currently conducting the first design studios with incarcerated students, and is a recent awardee of the Rauschenberg Artist as Activist grant to develop a prototype mobile resource village. Deanna received her BS in Architecture from the University of Virginia, M. Arch from Columbia University and is an alumnus of the Loeb Fellowship at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design.

Fabio Sergio is Vice President of Design at frog, the global design and innovation firm.

He works across a wide spectrum of industries and sectors, with global leaders such as Vodafone, GE, HP, LGE, BBC, J&J, Swisscom, Novartis, Merck, UNICEF, The Red Cross and the World Economic Forum. Fabio is part of frog's global Design Leadership team, the head of frog's Social Impact Design practice, one of the firm's healthcare experts and one of its User Experience Strategy leads. He helps to advance frog's capabilities, processes and methodologies.

Fabio is passionate about exploring areas at the intersection of design, technology and human aspirations, wrapping business scenarios around people's desires and dreams.

He often speaks at worldwide events, including The Economist Technology Frontiers, The Guardian Mobile Summit, The Aspen Design Summit, SXSW, The Unicef Innovation Summit, Stanford Mobile Health, NEXT Berlin, LIFT Geneva. He is a professor at Politecnico di Milano, and a guest lecturer at Domus Academy, Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design and SUPSI's Master of Advanced Studies in Interaction Design.

Heather Fleming is the CEO and co-founder of Catapult Design, a product and service design firm with an expertise in human-centered design for marginalized communities. Catapult partners with organizations to develop sustainable solutions that address technology and social issues such as: rural electrification, water purification and transport, food security, and improved health. Before starting Catapult, Heather was a product design consultant in Silicon Valley, designing products for a diverse range of corporate clients and an Adjunct Lecturer at Stanford University and California Academy of the Arts. In 2005, she co-founded and led a volunteer group, the Appropriate Technology Design Team (ATDT), focused on social impact design work through a professional chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) in San Francisco. Heather was named a Pop!Tech Social Innovation Fellow and World Economic Forum Young Global Leader for her work with EWB and Catapult Design. She is also a Board member for the Navajo Chamber of Commerce and serves on ASME’s Engineering and Global Development committee, chairing an initiative to create standardized evaluation metrics and design guidelines for products distributed in impoverished communities.

In his previous role at Nike, Jason oversaw the design and execution of all conceptual products, data driven innovations and inline lifestyle and performance product for Jordan Brand, as the Senior Global Design Director. During his 13+ year career at Nike, Mayden led and contributed to the creation of innovative sport performances products for athletes and cultural icons such as Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul, Russell Westbrook, Derek Jeter, and Michael Jordan.

In 2011, Mayden successfully received his Master’s in General Management and Social Innovation from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business and shortly there after he returned to Nike as the Global Director of Innovation for Nike Digital Sport where he was responsible for the strategic investigation of
new technologies and services, such as the Nike Fuel Band.

He is now at Accel assisting with the continuous development of Accel’s brand position amongst the global community of entrepreneurs while working with portfolio companies on deepening and extending their knowledge and ability to create cultures of curiosity. Moreover, he is also an advisor of Slyce, a company created by fellow Nike alum Bryant Barr and NBA Superstar Stephen Curry, a platform focused on creating a new paradigm at the intersection of campaign workflow planning and brand-to-influencer content management. Lastly, is the CEO and Co-Founder of Super Heroic a business focused on provided quality play-performance footwear, apparel and technology for elementary school aged children.

Zhang graduated from Central Saint Martins Art & Design College in London, and is a member of the Architectural Association School of Architecture. He established Zhoujie Zhang Digital Lab in 2010. He is a pioneer in the realm of digital creativity.

His work is known for being independent, experimental and futuristic. Zhang believes that objects in the digital world can grow and morph much like things found in nature, and he is dedicated to discovering and exploring the methods within these transformations. His work mainly focuses on the simplicity of logic, variety and unpredictability, which is based on his understanding of nature.

His collections have been exhibited widely around the world and selected by museums as well as individual collectors. His work has appeared in mainstream media such as Wallpaper*, the New York Times, and Vogue.

Angie Fang is a digital artist/designer and a co-founder of Studio NOWHERE. She works with diverse media and cross-discipline approaches to express her world through different art forms including sculpture, audiovisual and interactive installations.

She received her MFA degree from Goldsmiths, University of London, where her research focused on the tension between sound, space and visual elements, and also the subtle experience between the technology synthesised and the reality. Most of her works attempt to represent pseudo-natural, material sensory environment, yet with characteristics of the computational and digital at its heart. Her works has been exhibited 2015 London design week at Victoria & Albert Museum, UK.

Ben Hughes is a designer, educator and author who has worked for consultancies in UK, Australia and Taiwan. From 1999 to 2011 he was the Director of Postgraduate Industrial Design at Central Saint Martins. In 2011 he relocated to Beijing where was Professor of Industrial Design at the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) until 2016. In 2019 he was appointed Director of the International Design Centre at Beijing Institute of Technology. He continues to run his own design studio, A4, in CaoChangDi, Beijing.

Danny Kuo is a Dutch designer currently based in Shanghai.
As a designer he wants to address the issue of our changing reality as a result of technological progress. This is why flexibility and adaptability are the keywords with regard to both his work and his life. By creating effective products he wants to improve our lives and offer something we can enjoy.
When Danny Kuo designs his objects, he is not only concerned about playful flexibility but also about enhanced usability.

As Creative Director for the SapientRazorfish Emerging Experiences group, Eric manages and inspires global teams that create groundbreaking, interactive experiences that live on screens, in physical spaces and among virtual worlds. Working with clients like Mercedes-Benz, Adobe, and T-Mobile, Eric's work focuses on compelling storytelling moments that create memorable and dynamic experiences.

Prior to SapientRazorfish, Eric was Director of Brand Experience for Hot Studio in San Francisco before moving to New York to open its SoHo office. Eventually acquired by Facebook, Hot's user-centered design approach created a multitude of collaborative relationships with clients like Google, Gilt Groupe, eBay and Ancestry.com.

Eric's work has earned him two ADDYs and Webby Honorees, and has appeared in Communication Arts, AIGA's annual Year in Design, PRINT Magazine and HOW Magazine. Before design, he studied public policy and worked in various levels of government and for several campaigns and political organizations.

Kelsey Snook is Creative Director at Second Story experiential design studios. For over 15 years Kelsey has been creating participatory environments where people can connect. She has worked internationally, creating projects that span product, furniture, exhibition and large scale public interactive environments - as artistic pieces and for clients in cultural, commercial and public sectors. Kelsey holds an MA with distinction in Creative Practice for Narrative Environments from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London, and a BA in Industrial Design from the Rhode Island School of Design.

Peder Sandqvist is Creative Technologist and Head of VR & AR at DigitasLBi Nordics.

As the founder of the DigitasLBi VR Lab (www.dlbivrlab.com), he works together with a diverse team of experts in different areas of technology, visual- and immersive communication to challenge conventions, invent new ways to communicate and create value for both the agency’s clients and end users.

Growing up, he spent those famous tens of thousands of hours drawing and building worlds with Lego. Finding out that the skill set he gained could be used to create some truly amazing 3D content he spent fifteen years as a 3D artist producing state of the art visual effects. As it turns out experience in 3D creation and visual communication is essential in the creation of quality virtual- and augmented reality content.

The past four years he has been exploring and challenging the world of VR & AR, with a singular focus on creating spotless magic moments that have a lasting impact.

His work includes the multi award winning VR experience for the global launch campaign for Volvo XC90, Husqvarna Limberjack on SteamVR and ‘The Loop’ for OnePlus.

If Woojin Lee were not a designer she would be a private detective.

She currently works as a Senior Art Director at SapientRazorfish, in New York. She has worked on some great projects, Mercedes-Benz, Ford, Dove, JPMorgan, Credit Suisse and other fast pace pitches, that have utilized new technological trends such as apps, responsive platforms, touch screen, and social media. The sophisticated nature of these experiences along with her previous experience founding her own design boutique in Seoul have drawn her toward projects that focus on an entire and integrated brand experience.

She has been named as the recipient The Red dot award, The Creativity Media & Interactive Awards, and The Creativity International Awards. Also her first responsive design project for Mercedes-Benz was selected as a 2015 Webby Awards Honoree in the Websites Best Practice category.

She was a foreign correspondent the Korean design and culture publication, G colon. Her first book, 2587 days: A Record of Creative Encounters in New York, was published in 2014 in Korea and describes her experiences living, studying, and working in New York. Woojin has also taught as an adjunct faculty for FIT (Fashion Institute of Technology).

Woojin received her BFA degree in Crafts from Kookmin University (Seoul) and her MS in Communications Design from Pratt Institute (New York).

Dan Chen is a designer and engineer. He communicates his ideas through working prototypes, investigating new ways of approaching user interactions.

He has several degrees including a MAS from MIT, an MFA in digital media from RISD and a BFA in communication design from UConn. He has over 8 years of design experience and now works at Culture Robotics as senior engineer. Previous positions include MIT Lifelong Kindergarten as an industrial designer. Johnson & Johnson as Senior Interaction Designer. Senior Interaction Designer at IDEO.

His personal work has been featured in CNET, The Huffington Post, the verge, Engadget, Mashable and Daily Mail. Dan was invited as a speaker at TEDx Vienna on the future of intimacy in 2016. His work was exhibited in Vitra Design Museum, MAK Wien, Design Museum Gent & Ars Electronica.

Working in the realms of robotics, communication design, interaction design and product design, Dan explores the new ways of communication and human experience through working prototypes and storytelling, inviting a reflective evaluation and implication.

Brian Kane was born in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1965 and currently lives and works in Cambridge, MA. He received a BFA in Painting from RISD in 1987, where he also teaches. His sculpture, interactive, and video work has shown in many museum and gallery exhibitions, and Kane’s pioneering real time video sampling techniques was influential to a generation of media artists. He was a founding member of the video art group EBN, and a primary collaborator with RadioValve.com and Amorphic Robot Works.

Recent exhibitions and festivals include Nuit Blanche (Toronto), MACBA (Barcelona), HDADD+ (MFA Boston), #11.Art (Museo Nacional do Complexo Cultural da Republica, Brazil), Memery (MASS MoCA), People in Space (Shanghai World Expo), Late at Tate (Tate Britain), Big Chill (U.K.), MediaLive (Boulder MoCA), and a 2010 solo show at Murphy and Dine, New York, NY. His latest work "Healing Tool" is a disappearing billboard, and can be see here: http://thecreatorsproject.vice.com/blog/exclusive-photos-billboards-make-interstates-into-art-galleries

James Coleman currently acts as a Research and Development Engineer at A. Zahner Company. He is involved in projects as a digital design and manufacturing specialist. James holds master’s degrees in architecture and mechanical engineering from The Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He couples his architectural and mechanical engineering education with an expertise in parametric design-to-fabrication methodologies.

James has presented and taught widely at events including the NYC AIA Center for Architecture’s Technology Lecture Series, OReilly Solid: Software/ Hardware/ Everywhere, ACM SIGGRAPH 2015, as an MIT Teaching and Research Fellow, Singapore University of Technology and Design studio instructor,FAB11 Boston workshop lead and more. It is up for debate whether he holds the record at MIT for acting as Teaching Assistant for the most classes over a 4-year period (14). He is also a long time contributor to the infamous MIT course How to Make Almost Anything and Fab Academy taught by Neil Gershenfeld.

He has worked internationally as design engineer for architectural projects of a variety of scales and also as a Product Development Engineer at the Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, Michigan. James deploys a diverse set of fabrication equipment, industrial robots, and custom made machinery with which he makes things, breaks things, and invents things with varying levels of success and sophistication.

Jifei Ou (欧冀飞) is a designer, researcher and PhD candidate at the MIT Media Lab, where he focuses on designing and fabricating transformable materials across scales (from μm to m). Physical materials are usually considered as static, passive, and permanent. Jifei is interested in finding ways to redesign physical materials with the characteristics of digital information, such as the ability to change shape and and to be programmable. Such new materials could be used to construct a responsive living environment, accelerate the process of design and manufacturing, and enhance our existing interaction with products. As much as his work is informed by digital technology, he is inspired in equal measure by the natural world around him. He has been leading projects that study bio-mimicry and bio-derived materials to design shape-changing packaging, garments and furniture.

Jifei holds an MS from the MIT Media Lab and a Diplom in Design from the Offenbach University of Art and Design in Germany.

Nadya Peek is a postdoctoral associate at the MIT Center for Bits and Atoms, a group at the intersection of the physical and the digital. Nadya Peek works on unconventional digital fabrication tools, small scale automation, networked control systems, and advanced manufacturing, and is currently teaching the MIT class How to make something that makes (almost) anything. Nadya Peek is an active member of the global fablab community, working on making digital fabrication more accessible with better CAD/CAM tools and developing open source (hardware) machines and control systems. Previously, Nadya Peek was an editor at Mediamatic in Amsterdam.

Since founding Chase Design Group in 1986, Margo’s vision has provided the fuel for Chase Design Group’s growth and achievement. Recognized worldwide for her skill with custom typography and identity development, Margo is dedicated to creating client success through high-quality, intelligent creative.

Over the past 30 years, Chase’s landmark identity design has gained international recognition. Building on early successes in the music business designing packaging for artists Madonna, Cher, Prince, Bonnie Raitt and others, Chase Design Group is now a bi-coastal creative agency with offices in Los Angeles and New York. Their award winning branding, packaging and design strategy has earned them a long roster of prestigious clients including Sun America, Belkin, The CW Network, Bolthouse Farms, Califia Farms, CVS/pharmacy, Discovery Communications, Mattel, Nestlé, Nike, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, Quaker, Starbucks, Stila Cosmetics and Target.

Margo was a 2009 recipient of the AIGA Fellows Award for her contributions to the field of Design. In a recent Graphic Design USA reader’s poll, Margo was one of only two designers to make the top ten in both “Most Influential Graphic Designers of the Era” and “Most Influential Graphic Designers Today”. Chase Design Group also was voted in the top ten “Most Influential Design Firms of the Era”. Among numerous other awards, Chase was selected as one of I.D. Magazine’s “I.D. Forty”. She was recently featured in the celebrated show “Women Designers in the USA, 1900-2000: Diversity and Difference” on exhibition in New York City. She has taught the highest level typography classes at Art Center College of Design and California Institute of the Arts.

Outside of the office, you will find her flying upside down. She competes nationally in aerobatics and is the 2014 western regional champion in the advanced division.

Kim Baer, principal of Los Angeles-based design studio KBDA is a strong believer in the power of design as a strategic tool. Her firm has created research-driven work for for-profit clients as diverse as Hyatt, and Nike, as well as nonprofits such as The Getty, the Hammer Museum, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles, and the LA Phil.

KBDA specializes in helping organizations hone their positioning. Once that messaging has been crafted, KBDA is well known for its focus on audience experience, whether it’s experienced online, in print or in an environment.

Consistently honored by every major design organization in the country, KBDA has produced work that has been featured in the Library of Congress and regularly published in design anthologies. Premiere design magazines such as Communication Arts and HOW have regularly showcased the firm’s work and methodology.

Kim Baer served on the national board of the AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts) and received the Fellows Award from the Los Angeles chapter of AIGA in honor of lifetime achievement. She is the author of Information Design Workbook from Rockport Publishers, an in-depth look at best practices in information design from around the world. She is also on the Advisory Board for Art Center’s MFA Graduate Graphic Design program.

Lawrence Azerrad is a Los Angeles based Graphic Designer and Creative Director. Azerrad founded LADdesign, a graphic design studio dedicated to elevating our cultural experience through design excellence. Since 2001 LADdesign has created graphic design and comprehensive visual identity systems for clients such as Sting, Universal Music Group, UC San Diego, The Silversun Pickups, Esperanza Spalding, The Skirball Cultural Center, The Beach Boys, UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, Red Bull Sound Select, and over an Eighteen-year client relationship, spanning seven album packages for award-winning American alternative rock band, Wilco. Azerrad is the author of a Supersonic: Design and Lifestyle of Concorde, a design history of the aircraft to be published 2017. Azerrad is the chair for AIGA’s Design+Music program, a national initiative to explore how design thinking can can make a positive impact on the music industry and American culture at large through innovation and creative excellence.

Prior to opening LADdesign, Lawrence was an art director at Warner Bros Records, creating packaging and artwork for artists such as Miles Davis, and The Red Hot Chili Peppers. He has taught Graphic Design at Art Center College of Design, He currently serves as an Advisory Board Member for the Los Angeles chapter of the AIGA.

Maria is the Executive Creative Director and Partner at Creable, a strategic brand design agency with offices in Culver City, Bogota and Cincinnati. Originally from Bogotá, Colombia, Maria’s career started in advertising as she worked at Procesos Creativos / Euro RSCG, Bogota where she led the design department for many years. After gaining recognition by winning first place on the Premios Nacionales de Cultura 1996, she decided to follow her design career abroad and attend the prestigious Art Center College of Design where she graduated with Honors. Maria is also the mother of two awesome boys and splits her time between Los Angeles and Bogota.

Sarah is the Co-founder and managing Director of Snook, an award winning design consultancy working at the forefront of civic, public sector and democratic innovation. Sarah focuses on making social change happen by re-thinking public services from a human perspective.

Sarah co-founded Snook alongside Lauren Currie in 2009 and in her 7 years experience has worked with a vast array of public, private and third sector clients predominately across health, mental health and social care, education, civic and local authority and education to design services that work for people.

Aside from design she loves Cycling and DJs part time.

She speaks regularly about design, innovation (aka making things better) and entrepreneurialism (aka taking risks on making things happen).

Steve has the mind of an engineer, the eyes and hands of an artist, and a heart for people.
Since the dawn of internet economy companies, he’s lovingly crafted products and services, that people actually use and enjoy on a daily basis, some have become verbs in global society.
Steve (or Buzz, it’s a long story!) is a Design Leader and knows what it takes to create products and brands with soul. He’s had the fortune of working with some of the best designers and engineers around, and together they’ve been instrumental in designing some of the most loved products on the planet.
Buzz is now leading the wonderful design team at Skyscanner, where he’s scaling the design team to take the product and brand to becoming a household name globally.
Always wanting to share stories and learnings, Buzz teaches at many of the leading design schools in the UK and Europe, and is a regular public speaker.

Boss One of @NormallyStudio. Founder of live|work, Service Design Pioneer.

Louse is Head of Design for the UK government, based at GDS where she leads a 600 strong team of designers working across government to transform services.

Louise joined GDS in 2014 as the first service designer in government and has established the discipline since then. She is now programme director for the new Services authority at GDS.

With a background in Art, Linguistics and Economics Louise started her career as a writer and producer at Tate, where she lead on digital audience development before working as a consultant in the re-design of large, recently privatised utilities like health, telecommunications, energy and finance.

She’s a passionate believer in using design to solve complex problems and is a prominent protagonist in the design industry - redefining the practice of service design to be a practical, technically embedded profession.

Nicolas leads projects at the intersection of innovation, branding and transformation, with deep expertise in both design and business strategy. Over the past 15 years, he has designed a wide range of products, services, and environments. At SYPartners, he’s helped IBM, AARP and Johnson & Johnson bring to life new visions for their businesses and brands; imagined customer experiences for Old Navy, Blue Shield, and Target; and designed exhibits for Nike and IBM. Nicolas served as creative director on IBM’s award-winning THINK exhibit, an immersive multimedia experience that commemorated the company’s centennial. The exhibit is now a permanent installation at Epcot.


Prior to joining SYPartners, Nicolas was a product designer in France, where he worked on innovation projects with Alstom, Coca-Cola, France Telecom, and Umae, a fair-trade company specializing in handicraft products. Nicolas holds an MFA in industrial design from ENSCI, and an MBA from ESSEC Business School.

Since 2013 Emanuela Frattini Magnusson is Global Head of Design of Bloomberg LP, a global data and news company headquartered in New York, where she is responsible for the design strategy of the company’s real estate portfolio consisting of more than 180 locations. Prior to joining Bloomberg she founded and led EFM Design, an international award-winning multidisciplinary practice that spans architecture, interiors, product design, brand development, and graphics.

In addition, she is founder and principal designer of Articolo, a collection of high-quality European-produced furniture, distributed exclusively through the company’s website and creative director of Spinneybeck Leather, producer of accessories and architectural products. Her Propeller Collection of tables for Knoll has been a bestseller since its introduction in 1994 and has won numerous awards, including the ,IDEA Award in Business Week and her collection of accessories is licensed exclusively to the Museum of Modern Art for sale and distribution in the United States.

She has served as a visiting faculty member at Parsons School of Design and Yale University School of Architecture. She began her professional career in Milan collaborating with her father, world-renowned architect Gianfranco Frattini. Her architectural and design work has been widely published, including articles inThe NewYorkTimes, Metropolis, ID Magazine, and Metropolitan Home and numerous books. She holds an MA in architecture from the Milan Polytechnic and an MBA from New York University’s Stern School of Business. A Registered Architect in the American Institute of Architects as well as the Ordine degli Architetti di Milano in Italy, she is a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Accredited Professional.

For more than a decade, Eric has worked at the intersection of change management, brand strategy and marketing activation. Guided by the belief that individuals and institutions do their best work when aligned around ethical stories, Eric is committed to building brands and organizations that genuinely serve people. Among his most prominent clients are IBM, Alibaba, NVIDIA, Chanel, Cole Haan, BP and Target. Eric recently founded and leads the Designing Change practice at VSA Partners, where he and a team of business strategists, creatives and facilitators help transformation leaders in Fortune 1000 companies to design their futures.

Prior to his current role, Eric launched and led the Strategy Practice at VSA. To tackle the multifaceted challenges faced by multinational brands today, he built a team of strategists with expertise in branding, design thinking, technology, market and user research, and advertising. During this time, Eric also worked closely with his partners at VSA to transform the company’s New York office from a regional, boutique design firm into a full service branding and technology shop.

With a BA in Comparative Literature and Philosophy from NYU and an MA from the University of Chicago, Eric’s background in philosophy and literature form the foundation of his approach to problem solving and opportunity creation. An Entrepreneurship Coach at NYU’s Leslie eLab, Eric is also a guest lecturer in Design Thinking at NYU’s Stern School of Business.

Richard is a principal strategy director at frog with a focus on data, systems intelligence, innovation, and organizational change. In his role, he helps leaders explore the frontiers of human-centered approaches to intelligent systems. Richard has a long consulting background with innovation leaders like Doblin, Monitor, and SYPartners where he as worked on large scale foresight, innovation, and transformation programs across industries including healthcare, information technology, consumer products, urban systems, humanitarian affairs, international development, and national security. Richard in on the faculty at School of Visual Arts Products of Design Master’s program and has conducted projects throughout the world in Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, and the Middle East. Select clients include: BNY Mellon, IBM, Google, Microsoft, SK Telecom, The United Nations, and the US Department of Defense.

Jackie Chang is a Project Lead Designer at the Silicon Valley office of Nissan Design America (NDA), part of the global design organization of Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. (NML). He is responsible for leading cross-functional research and design activities to connect consumer experiences with future HMI/GUI design for Nissan and Infiniti products with a user-centered approach to lead and shape new mobility experience in the era of autonomous drive. The activities are already yielding positive results in the upstream design development process.

Since joining Nissan Design America, San Diego, California, in 2001 as an automotive interior designer, Jackie participated and contributed in the design development of many key Nissan products, including the 2012 Nissan NV2500 commercial van, 2014 NV200 NYC Taxi and 2016 Nissan Maxima 4-door sports car. He also led the GUI design development of the 2015 Nissan IDS concept (debuted Tokyo Motor Show) and supported the GUI design of 2017 Nissan Vmotion 2.0 concept (North American International Auto Show).

All Nissan and Infiniti products and concept cars are designed and developed in global collaboration under the leadership of Shiro Nakamura, Senior Vice President and Chief Creative Officer of NML.

Born in Taiwan and growing up in Argentina and Spain, Jackie moved to the United Stated in 1998 after being accepted by the Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, California. He graduated in 2001 with BS in Transportation Design.

Ken Mak is co-founder of daCompany, an upcoming start-up delivering insights for cannabis patients into their consumption to disrupt the medicinal distribution model. He is concurrently developing With Eaze, a housewares company emphasizing clean solutions for the home. His work has spanned across industrial design, software development, product management and product marketing.

In addition to these ventures, Ken is principal of Orenga Design, a product consultancy in San Francisco helping technology companies deliver innovative user experiences. He is currently leading industrial design for Cisco's Unified Computing System’s division, responsible for a $4B portfolio. Prior to this group, he was Senior Creative Lead for Cisco's flagship Telepresence system, garnering a Red Dot Best of the Best Award.

Over the past 15 years, he has released 75+ products in the electronics and hard goods space for the likes of HP, Sony, Google, Disney, Black & Decker and a multitude of startups, earning iF Design, R&D 100, and CES Innovations Awards.

Ken holds a Bachelor of Science from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena and has been a senior lecturer at the California College of Arts in San Francisco.

Norio Fujikawa is an award winning industrial designer currently working as a Creative Director at Astro Studios in San Francisco, where he has designed products for many of the world’s leading companies. Microsoft, Intel, HP, P&G, Samsung, Disney, Nike, and Nissan have all benefitted from Norio’s keen eye for innovative design. He has worked across a wide range of businesses and industries that include consumer electronics, home goods, appliances, toys, equipment, and automotive. Norio has also mentored start-ups with his 20 years plus of knowledge in developing products, brands, and experiences.


Born and raised in Chicago, Norio studied at the Institute of Design. At the heart of it all, Norio is an artist. When he isn’t designing, he is either professionally illustrating or hanging his paintings in better art galleries around San Francisco. Norio has also been a semi-professional tumbler, and is a fully-professional fish monger.

Selen Selviler Ozuekren is the co-founder and creative director of Karbon Design Studio. She graduated as an architect from Istanbul Technical University in 1999. She was admitted to Istanbul Bilgi University Visual Communication Design graduate program. She worked at the same department as a teaching assistant. After receiving her MA degree in VCD, she was admitted to Pratt Institute Communication Design graduate program. She worked as an instructor at Istanbul Bilgi University, VCD between 2003-2009.

Selen co-founded Karbon in 2005. Since then she's been working at Karbon as a designer and consultant. Karbon is a multi-disciplinary design studio providing creative solutions and consultancy in concept design, branding, communication design & strategy, architectural design and interior design. Karbon team is a hybrid combination of graphic designers, communication designers and architects. The company established a reputation through their work specifically in overall concept designs for café&restaurants, packaging design and branding. She is a member of GMK, Turkish Graphic Designers Association since 2006.

Designer, brand strategist, writer and learner based in Vienna. Helping brands to shape their vision and personality. Designing identities, digital products and services for small businesses, social enterprises and purpose-driven companies. Sharing thoughts on brand strategy from a design perspective in papers and talks.

Fascinated about holistic branding, social entrepreneurship, sustainable living and world politics. Enthusiastic about mountain hiking, travelling, wonderful beaches and Mexican food. Summer lover, Cuba Libre aficionado, fairness advocate and blood donor.

www.ejochum.com

Mariano Fiore is an Argentinian Graphic Designer based in Barcelona specializing in corporate identity, editorial design and packaging.

He believes in a conceptual work and a simple and direct visual language. In 2009 Mariano got his degree in Graphic Design from the ESD of Murcia. He has 6 years of graphic design experience working in studios from Bolzano (Italy), Murcia and Barcelona (Spain).

In the last years Marino has worked developing projects for national and international clients.

He is currently working at Atipus Barcelona as a senior graphic designer.

Perniclas Bedow is the founder and creative director of Stockholm based design studio Bedow. The studio mainly works with branding, packaging and book design and for the last decade their work has been widely acknowledged around the world through books, lectures and exhibitions. Perniclas’ work has been awarded by Art Directors Club, Cannes Lions, D&AD and Epica Awards, to mention a few.