It is with much gratitude and admiration that we celebrate the jury alumni members of the Core77 Design Awards.
Award Categories
Sort by Category
Jury Alumni
Kareem Collie
Director of Design and Creativity, The Rick and Susan Sontag Center for Collaborative Creativity, The Hive (at the Claremont Colleges)
2018 Design Education Initiative Jury Member
Kareem Collie is a designer, systems thinker and educator. Currently, he is the Director of Design and Creativity at the Rick and Susan Sontag Center for Collaborative Creativity at the Claremont Colleges and Clinical Professor of Visual Communication at Harvey Mudd College. He is a former Teaching Fellow at Stanford University's Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (a.k.a the d.school) where he developed workshops and courses in human-centered design. His research focus is the intersection of design, visual communication, and critical thinking. He spent the first half of his career in branding and creative strategy. He received his MA in Media and Cultural Studies from NYU in 2016 and his BFA in Communication Design from Pratt Institute in 2001.
Juliette LaMontagne
Founder & CEO, Breaker / Chief Learning Architect, Bionic Solutions
2018 Design Education Initiative Jury Member
Tom Maiorana
Assistant Professor, University of California, Davis
2018 Design Education Initiative Jury Member
Tom Maiorana is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Design at UC Davis where he focuses on product design, design thinking, and prototyping. Tom’s research focuses on how low-resolution prototypes can help designers explore the human experience of interacting with complex systems. He is a Fellow at the John Muir Institute for the Environment where he uses design thinking methods to inform the strategy and development of the OneClimate initiative. Tom is also the founder of Red Cover Studios, which specializes in product development and innovation strategy and uses prototyping as a central practice in work ranging from interaction design to fashion to organizational change. Red Cover Studios helped to conceptualize and launch the Hive at the Claremont Colleges and Denison University’s forthcoming Design Lab. Tom regularly teaches at Stanford University’s d.school.
Tom has an MFA in Design from Stanford University and a Bachelor of the Arts from Vassar College.
Jennifer Rittner
Principal, Content Matters
2018 Design for Social Impact Jury Captain
Jennifer is a writer, educator and communications strategist. Her consulting firm, Content Matters, helps creative businesses thrive by defining their voice and learning how to communicate effectively with diverse audiences. Prior to consulting, Jennifer worked for Pentagram, Columbia CNMTL and the AIGA. She has been published in The New York Times, Core77, Against the Grain, as well as a variety of trade publications. As an educator Jennifer led Art Access II, an initiative designed to increase museum attendance among under-served communities through education and community outreach. She has taught at Parsons and FIT, and is currently on faculty in the SVA Products of Design program where she teaches design and social impact.
George Aye
Co-founder, Greater Good Studio
2018 Design for Social Impact Jury Member
George co-founded Greater Good Studio to use design to heal, to be just, to be restorative, Previously, he spent seven years at a global innovation firm before being hired as the first human-centered designer at the Chicago Transit Authority. Since founding Greater Good he guides clients and teams through complex projects that honor reality, create ownership, and build power. He speaks frequently across the US and internationally. George holds the position of Full Professor (Adj) at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Sabiha Basrai
Co-Owner, Design Action Collective
2018 Design for Social Impact Jury Member
Sabiha Basrai is a co-owner of Design Action Collective — a worker-owned cooperative dedicated to serving social justice movements with art, graphic design, and web development. She is co-coordinator of the Alliance of South Asians Taking Action, where she works with racial justice organizers on international solidarity campaigns. Sabiha is also part of the Center for Political Education advisory board, an affiliate trainer with Race Forward, and a faculty member in the University of San Francisco's Department of Art and Architecture.
Marc Dones
Associate Director, Equity Initiatives, Center for Social Innovation
2018 Design for Social Impact Jury Member
Marc Dones has worked in program and policy development for their entire career. Currently their work focuses on the development and integration of equity oriented policies and program procedures across a number of projects. In this role Marc also leads the SPARC (Supporting Partnerships for Anti-Racist Communities) Initiative. SPARC is currently focused on reframing homelessness response systems through an anti-racist lens. Additionally, Dones worked with a small team of C4 staff to build a training institute for over 300 provider agencies funded to work with individuals living with substance use disorders. Prior to joining C4, Dones served as a Program Manager in the MA Executive Office of Health and Human services where they assisted in the development and implementation of Governor Deval Patrick’s youth violence reduction program, the Safe and Successful Youth Initiative. Additionally, Marc served as the policy manager for the Massachusetts Special Commission on Unaccompanied Homeless Youth.
John and Wonhee Arndt
Partners, Studio Gorm
2018 Furniture & Lighting Jury Captain
Studio Gorm was founded in 2007 by John Arndt and Wonhee Jeong Arndt.
As professors in the Product Design department at the University of Oregon, they apply their insightful academic research on culture, history and technology to refocus modern design through the prism of time, exploring the transformation of objects and ideas as they evolve to fit the demands and expectations of modern life.
As designers of functional objects, they draw from their background in sculpture and craft to create works that balance function and aesthetics. Their methods are deeply rooted in the act of physical making where an object’s true form evolves out of an experimental constructive approach to design.
Thom Fougere
Founder, Thom Fougere Studio
2018 Furniture & Lighting Jury Member
Thom Fougere Studio was founded in the fall of 2015 in Winnipeg, Canada. The studio works within various fields of art and design, but with a focus on furniture and products for the home. All projects are characterized by careful research into materiality, history, aesthetics, and functionality. The studio offers full creative direction, furniture and interior design services.
Thom Fougere (1987) studied architecture at the University of Manitoba before working in furniture and product design. In 2011, after his studies in Architecture, he was appointed Creative Director of Canadian furniture design house EQ3 at the age of 24. There he initiated a rebranding of the company including a transformation of the product line, graphic design, photography, interiors and the architectural design of stores. Thom Fougere continues to investigate how we live and interact with objects in our homes, creating pieces that are both subtle and archetypal in form. His works have been shown internationally at the design fairs in Milan, Stockholm, New York, and Toronto.
Chris Liljenberg Halstrøm
Founder, Chris L. Halstrom
2018 Furniture & Lighting Jury Member
Chris Liljenberg Halstrøm was born 1977 and lives and works in Copenhagen, Denmark. Halstrøm mainly works with furniture and smaller objects for the home always taking a starting point in everyday situations. She finds it interesting to work with familiarity and neutrality as topics in order to create new expressions and purposes for objects. This applies whether working with companies such as Skagerak, Frama and +Halle or with objects for exhibitions. In 2017 she received the Three Year Work grant from The Danish Arts forundation / Statens Kunstfond.
She established her own studio in 2007 after graduating from The Royal Danish Academy in Copenhagen with prior studies in Stockholm, Sweden and Berlin, Germany.
In addition to running her own studio, Halstrøm is part of the duo INCLUDED MIDDLE with textile designer Margrethe Odgaard. Together, they design furniture and objects from the two simple questions; what if colour and pattern are seen as something suggesting form and what if form is seen as something suggesting pattern.
Christopher Specce
Independent Designer & Professor, Rhode Island School of Design
2018 Furniture & Lighting Jury Member
Christopher Specce is a designer and teacher working in Providence, Rhode Island. His practice spans from commercially oriented product design to creating experimental, one a kind of objects. In addition to serving as associate professor in the Department of Furniture Design at Rhode Island School of Design, his professional experiences include projects across the furniture and consumer product industries. Prior to joining the full-time faculty at RISD, he was lead designer at the consultancy Observatory, where he contributed to projects for clients including Herman Miller and P&G.
With a belief that designed objects make an important contribution to culture, he explores the various ways that designers can embed objects with meaning. His studio practice features extensive use of digital design and fabrication tools alongside hands-on work with materials to create works that are at once mundane, delightful, modest, and forthright.
Jamie Wolfond
Founder, Good Thing
2018 Furniture & Lighting Jury Member
Jamie Wolfond is a Canadian designer based in Toronto and New York. Jamie's work explores the ways in which manufacturing can influence the design process. Often centered around one material or production method, the objects Jamie designs expose new applications for pre-existing manufacturing techniques.
In 2014, Jamie Wolfond founded Good Thing, the New York and Toronto based manufacturer of furniture, lighting and everyday objects.
Joana Kelly
COO, Small Planet
2018 Interaction Jury Captain
Joana Kelly is the COO at Small Planet, where she helps teams create award-winning mobile products for clients like Disney, NPD Group, and Planned Parenthood.
Her work has earned the Communication Arts Magazine Award of Excellence and the Fast Company Innovation By Design Award, been featured on the App Store and Google Play, and been downloaded millions of times.
Joana has guest lectured at the School of Visual Arts and taught at Parsons The New School for Design. She received her undergraduate degree from New York University and holds an MFA in Design and Technology from Parsons The New School for Design.
Leslie Dann
Associate Partner, C&G Partners
2018 Interaction Jury Member
At the digital forefront for 25 years, Leslie started in information architecture at Nicholson NY, collaborating on award-winning CD-ROMs, museum kiosks, and early websites. Later, living in Madrid, she was a UX consultant for European technology giant Indra, on e-commerce and e-government projects.
As a former Assistant Director of User Experience at digital agency MRY, Leslie developed experience strategies and designed numerous user-centered interfaces for large websites and mobile platforms. Clients included Mass General Hospital, National Grid, Penguin, Google, Nestlé, MasterCard, Moleskine, and Johnson & Johnson.
Leslie is currently an Associate Partner at C&G Partners, leading experience design and media production for interactives, exhibits, and websites for museums, educational institutions, and non-profits. Her focus on user-centered design, human-interest stories, history, and culture motivate both her professions as a UX specialist and video producer, giving her the variety she loves in life. Leslie holds a bachelor's degree in graphic design, summa cum laude, from the University of Cincinnati.
Yumi Endo
Lead Designer, Humanitarian Data Exchange (HDX), United Nations OCHA
2018 Interaction Jury Member
Yumi Endo is a Japanese native, New York-based designer with a passion for art, design and technology.
She has previously worked as a design consultant at frog design in NYC, where she created meaningful product experiences for many internationally acclaimed clients including GE, Comcast, Nokia, Microsoft, Bloomberg, United Nations OCHA(Office for the coordination of humanitarian aids) and Rockefeller Foundation.
She currently works for United Nations OCHA’s humanitarian data sharing platform as a lead designer.
She is also an owner/creator of a jewelry brand, Cut by Yumi Endo which has been showcased in international art/design conventions including Maison et Objet in Paris, International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) in NYC and Tokyo Design Week in Japan.
Yumi often likes to integrate three-dimensional effects in her 2D designs, creating unique visual and tangible experience.
Yumi holds a Master of Fine Arts in Design + Technology from Parsons the New School for Design and earned a Bachelor of Design with an honors degree in Product and Graphic Design from University of New South Wales, Australia.
Brian Kelly
Director of Experience Design, Verizon
2018 Interaction Jury Member
I'm a digital product designer specializing in high-touch mobile applications.