It is with much gratitude and admiration that we celebrate the jury alumni members of the Core77 Design Awards.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
Boss One of @NormallyStudio. Founder of live|work, Service Design Pioneer.
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.
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.