Jury Alumni

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  Hector Silva

  Executive Director, Advanced Design

  2022 Home & Living Jury Member

  Hector Silva brings over 7 years of teaching experience at the University of Illinois at Chicago, the University of Notre Dame, the Academy of Art University, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Rochester Institute of Technology at their nationally-acclaimed industrial design programs. Recognized for his contributions in academia, Hector was awarded the Young Educator of the Year by the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA). An active professional in the field, Hector works as an industrial design contractor through his own studio, H Design, partnering with Crate & Barrel, DesignLab, Nickelodeon, LeapFrog, Foster Grant, Insight Product Development, Lund & Company Invention, as well as various entrepreneurs. Hector is also the founder of the design nonprofit, Advanced Design (AD), an organization awarded the Special Achievement Award by the IDSA for making design education more accessible and through disrupting the mediums through which design education has been traditionally offered. AD continues to grow today, connecting students and working professionals to foster a community of design excellence. Most recently, Hector founded Offsite, a 12 week pilot program catered towards furthering design education outside of traditional academia space. This program was developed to translate the needs of the industry into course content taught by design industry leaders. The goal is to help students develop the right skill set and mentorship to thrive on the job and support them along the way.

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  Joy Young

  Creative Director, Astro Studios

  2022 Home & Living Jury Member

  Joy is a Creative Director at Astro Studios, a brand and industrial design studio based in San Francisco. As a designer, she focuses on crafting compelling stories and experiences that are tailored for brands and people. She works with the team at Astro Studios to build products that bring meaningful and positive experiences to everyday life. Spending much of her upbringing in both Taiwan and New Zealand has given Joy a unique cultural background from which to draw inspiration. Joy has over 14 years of professional experience as an Industrial Designer working in agencies in Asia, Europe and North America. She has worked on a diverse range of categories ranging from homeware, furniture, consumer electronics, health & wellness and medical.

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  Bret Recor

  Founder, Box Clever

  2020 Home & Living Jury Captain

  Bret is an expert in creating physical experiences that delight consumers and help companies lead market categories. Bret leads his Box Clever team to take ideas from concept to market and is committed to executing a challenge to its most brilliant realization. To do this, he balances creative vision with real-world experience of industrial design, brand strategy, and business ventures. Bret has applied his expertise to the launches of several high-profile products and initiatives, including Away, Nebia, and most recently Caraway. Bret has also launched separate studio initiated ventures including Fadestudio, with a flagship product, the Fade task light.
  
  Prior to founding Box Clever, Bret was a design director at fuseproject, working with clients like, One Laptop Per Child, Herman Miller, Johnson & Johnson, Issey Miyake, Jawbone, and the New York City Department of Health.
  
  Bret’s work has earned several awards around the world including INDEX, Spark, IDEA, iF, Clio, D&AD, FX, Spark, and Red Dot. His work is part of the permanent collections of NY MoMA, SFMOMA, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Centre Pompidou.

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  Josh Morenstein

  Co-founder, Branch Creative

  2021 Home & Living Jury Captain

  Josh Morenstein is a co-founder, partner, and creative director at Branch, an industrial design and branding agency in San Francisco.
  
  Founded in 2013, Branch has been recognized for excellence and authority in a variety of projects in industrial design and brand consulting services to clients from Fortune 500s to start-ups. Branch’s work has been featured in publications including Fast Company, Vogue, Wired, Metropolis, Dezeen, and Wallpaper magazine. Fast Company Magazine has recognized Branch as one of the "30 Most Important Design Companies of the Year"
  
  With over 20 years of design experience, Josh has led award-winning design teams on some of the most diverse and innovative projects ranging from furniture to electronics, consumer goods to packaging. Prior to founding Branch, Josh was creative director and partner at fuseproject as well as the Design Director at NewDealDesign.
  
  Josh’s work for clients such as General Electric, Coca Cola, Johnson and Johnson, Prada, Issey Miyake, Swarovski, Samsung, Target, Puma,and L'Oréal established him at the forefront of marrying form with function, and of brand with product. Josh’s work has been exhibited in museums and competitions including the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Triennial, MOMA, and Chicago Art Institute, and has been recognized with over 50 international design awards from organizations such as IDSA, ID Magazine, iF, Fast Company, and Red Dot.

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  Daniela Macías

  Global Industrial Design Manager, Colgate-Palmolive

  2024 Home & Living Jury Captain

  A proud native and longtime resident of Mexico City, Daniela Macías is an NYC-based global industrial design manager with 15 years of experience, leading the creation of global household and consumer products for Colgate-Palmolive. In her current role as an Industrial Design Manager, she is responsible for the design leadership of expert cross-functional teams working on packaging structures and brand experiences for Personal Care, Pet Nutrition, and Home Care brands that hundreds of millions of people around the world love and use daily.
  Throughout her career, she has overseen the design process of bottles, caps, bar soaps, dispensers, soluble pods, and new experiences across a variety of users, categories, brands, packaging formats, scopes, and markets. Her professional journey—starting at one of Colgate’s manufacturing facilities, moving up to regional corporate offices in Mexico City, and elevated to a cross-category industrial design development role at Colgate-Palmolive’s global headquarters in NYC—has forged her as a resilient industrial designer with deep empathy for both the business side and the people she designs for.

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  Nicola Ralston

  VP, Global Innovation Studios, Dell Technologies

  2022 Home & Living Jury Member

  Nicola is an accomplished Designer and Design leader with extensive experience building and leading design & innovation teams for global brands. Having had a Design Career in Automotive design working for brands such as Ford, Hyundai, and Kia she then moved on to Nokia inspired by their global reach and their way of connecting people. For Microsoft Windows and Devices group Nicola built and led a multi-disciplinary, human centered, design team across Design and Human Factors that worked to articulate disruptions, product, and experience opportunities with a focus on edge devices, and looking to ambient futures. Most recently, Nicola has joined Dell Technologies as VP, Global Innovation Studios, responsible for leading the Experience Innovation Studio teams that envision, define, and build differentiated customer experiences and proof of concepts, driving innovation and disruption across Dell’s business units and product portfolios. Nicola has worked and lived as a designer in the UK, Italy, Germany, Finland, and the US.

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  Michel Alvarez

  Global Design Manager, Drinkfinity

  2019 Home & Living Jury Member

  Michel is the Global Design Manager at Drinkfinity and has worked as a designer since 2003. He has worked at various agencies and companies all over the country, from Cleveland to Boston, from San Francisco to Miami.

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  Colin Owen

  Design Director, Elroy Air

  2020 Home & Living Jury Member

  Colin is an industrial designer and leads design at Elroy Air, a Bay Area startup developing autonomous cargo aircraft. He joined in 2016 and has led the design effort from conception through first flights. Colin is also tenured faculty at California College of the Arts in the Industrial Design program. Previously, Colin founded, Sparse, a component manufacturer focused on the urban cycle commute. He has also served a diverse set of clients including Autodesk, Nike, NASA, Terrazign, Intel, and Nokia. Colin was raised in the deep south on a steady diet of trails, mischief, and tinkering. He was made (mostly) civil at Rice University (B.A. in Arch, B. of Arch.) and Art Center College of Design (M.S.I.D.).

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  Felicia Ferrone

  Founder, f f e r r o n e design

  2023 Home & Living Jury Member

  Felicia Ferrone is an architect, designer, academic, and entrepreneur. Her international namesake design brand f f e r r o n e- based in Chicago and Milan- is known for delivering the unexpected through a seemingly simple gesture. Born in Chicago, Felicia graduated with a degree in architecture from Miami University, Ohio after which she moved to Italy. Ferrone’s expansive reach is informed by her early experience as an architect in Milan, where she was first taught to “blur boundaries” in design.
  
  Ferrone's award-winning designs have been widely exhibited, published internationally, and featured in numerous films and TV series. Several of her works are included in the Art Institute of Chicago’s Permanent Collection. In 2022 she was named Intellectual Property Law Association of Chicago’s Creator of the Year for her contribution to the field through her design and utility patents. Felicia was also included in Woman Made: Great Women Designs, published by Phaidon, recognized as 1 of 200 women who have shaped the history of design.
  
  In addition to producing and distributing her own designs under her brand, Felicia is the director of Undergraduate Studies in Industrial Design and a Clinical Associate Professor atthe University of Illinois Chicago (UIC). Previously she was the Director of Graduate Studies from 2015-2022 and a lecturer at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) for many years at the beginning of her academic career.

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  Rebecca Goesling

  Design Director, Goesling Group

  2023 Home & Living Jury Member

  Rebecca is the Director of Design for Goesling Group. She works at the intersection of forecasting, branding, and color material finish design to create visions for independent startups to Fortune 500 companies. Her experience spans from home appliances to activewear and decor to consumer electronics. In addition to her applied practice, she produces illustrations for culinary, fashion, and furnishing clients. She holds a BFA in Industrial Design from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign where she cultivated skills in research, artistic development, and technical application.

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  Alexis Brunkow

  Architecture & Design Manager, Knoll

  2022 Home & Living Jury Member

  For more than 17 years, Alexis has held a multitude of roles within the design and architecture industry, spanning editorial writing for a home and garden publication, marketing, consulting and client relations. Currently, Alexis serves as Senior Manager at the Diversity in Design (DID) Collaborative, which was initiated in 2021 to foster systemic change by increasing diversity and improving conditions for Black creatives across the design industry. DID is a group of companies united by a common belief in the critical role that diversity plays in creating strong, impactful businesses and innovations in the design world and beyond. Alexis lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two dogs, and is passionate about sustainability, supporting local businesses, and empowering youth.

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  Nichole Rouillac

  Founder + Creative Director, level

  2022 Home & Living Jury Captain

  Nichole is Founder and Creative Director of level, a West Coast, women-led industrial design shop based in San Francisco. The level studio is on a mission to create a global positive and progressive influence through smart, thoughtful design.
  
  Nichole’s work at level has helped create new industry categories and propelled products into the global spotlight. The studio’s portfolio encompasses the likes of Microsoft, Google, Logitech, FitBit, North, HTC, AliveCor, Tempo and Nex.
  
  level’s work has garnered wide recognition, including design awards such as FastCo., IDEA, Red Dot, iF and Spark. Notably, level was recognized as #03 in FastCompany’s Most Innovative Design Companies of 2021.
  
  Nichole remains committed to creating a diverse, inclusive industry. She has dedicated her career to balancing motherhood and empowering the next generation of female designers through mentorship, having served as chair of IDSA’s Women in Design from 2017-2021. level are active members of the Diversity in Design (DID) Collaborative, initiated in June 2021 to foster systemic change by increasing diversity and improving conditions for Black creatives across the design industry.

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  Matt Pugmire

  Principal Industrial Designer, Logitech

  2021 Home & Living Jury Member

  As a Principal Industrial Designer at Logitech, Matt’s focused on crafting iconic new hardware designs and experiences with a diverse group of problem solvers that make up the gaming design team. Prior to Logitech Matt was an Industrial Design lead at NewDealDesign in San Francisco where he built creative partnerships and developed ambitious new product visions for tech startups and industry leaders such as Microsoft, Comcast, Herman Miller and more.
  
  When not working, Matt can be found appreciating the great outdoors with his three daughters in tow.

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  Monique Chatterjee

  Principal Industrial Designer, Xbox, Microsoft

  2019 Home & Living Jury Member

  Monique Chatterjee is a Principal Industrial Designer at Xbox, focusing on limited edition consoles and controllers. Close collaboration with a variety of game studios has allowed her to bring a broad portfolio of expressions and stories to the Xbox product line. She finds never ending inspiration from the microcultures that exist within the gaming universe, and was able to bring true personalization to Xbox fans through the launch of Xbox Design Labs online customization system in 2016. As a graduate of Rochester Institute of Technology in 1997, Monique began her Industrial Design career with 7 years in consulting. She worked with a range of clients including HP, Dell, Microsoft, Unilever, Motorola, Symbol Technologies, Black and Decker, and Fisher-Price. In 2002, Monique joined Microsoft’s PC Hardware group to focus on mice and keyboards with emphasis on ergonomics and performance. She eventually led the PC input product line, and grew it to include lifestyle inspired products like the Arc and Arc Touch mouse and the Arc keyboard. When not working, Monique can be found in the woods, on the beach, or in the ocean with her 2 little boys.

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  Ishmael Adams

  Principle Designer, Microsoft

  2023 Home & Living Jury Member

  Ishmael strives to create products and experiences that are empathic and fueled by observation, intuition, and collaboration. He has been a pivotal part of the entire process, from research, concept development, production, and manufacturing liaison. Ishmael has accumulated many skills and experience over his extensive career. He has worked with some of the most renowned companies and various industries, from sporting goods to consumer tech, and collaborated with inspiring and dynamic startups. Ishmael focuses on bringing new and unexpected solutions to products and experiences and is passionate about creating holistic design solutions for all. Since joining Microsoft Windows and Devices team, over a year ago, Ishmael has led projects across a variety of categories and new horizons. Prior to joining Microsoft, Ishmael was design lead at MNML based in Chicago, where he led projects for Bang & Olufsen, Logitech, Adidas, Samsung, and many more startups.

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  Zeeshan Hakkim

  Senior Industrial Designer, Minimal

  2023 Home & Living Jury Member

  Zeeshan Hakkim is an Industrial designer born and raised in India based in Chicago, Illinois at MNML. He completed his master’s degree in Product Design Management at ISD Rubika. His passion for design stems from an obsession towards creative problem solving by using, learning and adapting new tools into an ever-evolving design process. He believes that good design resides at the intersection of empathy and craft. Over the last 6 years he has had the opportunity to collaborate with small startups as well as fortune 500 companies to bring to life products from lifestyle brands, medical products, consumer electronics and furniture to name a few. Zeeshan’s skill sets span across multiple disciplines that include industrial design, product development, mechanical engineering, graphic design, packaging design, and branding.