Jury Alumni

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  Taamrat Amaize

  Chief Strategy Officer, Collins

  2024 Visual Communication Jury Captain

  I'm a strategist who doesn't believe in conned thinking.
  
  I like using provocative approaches and out-of-category parallels to arrive at solutions. I live for problem-solving and apply that kind of critical thinking to both business and brand challenges.
  
  My experience with established brand behemoths and scrappy start-ups— from technology to CPG, B2B and B2C—has given me an invaluable perspective.

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  Alero Dawn Akuya

  VP Global Brand Development, LEGO

  2024 Visual Communication Jury Member

  While at Nike for 13 years, Alero was responsible for some of the most pivotal brand transformations for the sport and culture giant. Most notably, Alero created Nike's Purpose Marketing division, leading Nike's role in sport and social impact alongside key athletes Colin Kaepernick, Serena Williams, Kobe Bryant and many more. She led Nike New York where she orchestrated the launch of Nike's collaboration with Virgil Abloh at New York Fashion Week-- a first for the brand, and one of Nike's most successful collaborations of all time.
  Alero now serves as the Vice President of Global Brand for The LEGO Group. She is responsible for transforming the impact of the 89-year-old Danish brand globally to become a proactive cultural leader through play advocacy, inclusion, and innovation. She has led integrated brand strategy and global initiatives, and campaigns such as Rebuild the World, 90 Years of Play, Play Unstoppable, and Everyone is Awesome. Alero is committed to inspiring a world play movement to ensure creative play remains a birth rite to all children.
  

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  Nu Goteh

  Principal, Room for Magic

  2024 Visual Communication Jury Member

  Nu Goteh is a multi-disciplinary creative & designer who works in audio, visual, and written mediums. He is the co-founder of the strategy and design studio, Room for Magic, and co-founder and creative director of partner publication, Deem Journal. Nu’s practice is informed by his love for counter/subculture(s), his background as a Liberian-born refugee, and a lifelong dedication to building platforms that enable communities to engage in shared experiences.

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  Nermin Moufti

  Design Director + Partner, Field of Practice

  2024 Visual Communication Jury Member

  Nermin is a brand alchemist, design director, and co-founder of Field of Practice, a women- and member- owned creative studio that designs for change.
  
  A whole-hearted champion for form, function and care, Nermin translates thoughtful strategies into holistic design systems. She’s reinvigorated hyper-local to global brands and led boundary-breaking campaigns for Karam Foundation, Planned Parenthood, Type Directors Club, Dentologie, and the Collaborative for Gender and Reproductive Equity. Her work has been recognized by the STA 100, Typewolf, Brand New, Communication Arts, and Fast Company Innovation by Design. She holds a BSc in Visual Communications from the American University of Sharjah (UAE), and an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts, Media and Design from OCAD University. She’s living and working from her Chicago home.

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  Su Mathews Hale

  CEO and Chief Creative Officer, Hale Design

  2023 Visual Communication Jury Captain

  For more than two decades, Su Mathews Hale has thrived at the intersection of design and brand strategy. Using the power of design to develop inspiring creations while solving business problems, Su has collaborated with a broad range of notable clients including Citibank, Disney, Chick-fil-A, eBay, Hawaiian Airlines, Hershey’s, Hyatt, IHG, Papa Johns, Sam’s Club, Samsung, Shutterstock, Taco Bell and Walmart.
  
  Currently as CEO and Chief Creative Officer of Hale Design, a branding agency she opened in 2019, Su recently led her creative team on Papa Johns refreshed brand identity – the visual reflection of the new tone set by the brand - a more modern, bold, fun, fresh and tasty experience. The friendly, streamlined logo reflects the pizza chain's momentum, introduces flexibility to scale digitally and positions Papa Johns for continued success and growth. Prior to Hale Design, she was a former associate partner at Pentagram, New York, and a senior partner and creative director in design at Lippincott, where Su led global projects spanning the full gamut of brand creation and identity development. While at Lippincott, she served as creative director on the famed Walmart rebranding – a massive brand repositioning and revitalization engagement that contemporized the global retail giant while retaining the values of its heritage.
  
  Su also serves as Chair of the Board of Trustees at ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, CA.

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  Nicholas Fulcher

  Art Director & Designer, Atlantic Records

  2023 Visual Communication Jury Member

  NickyChulo (Nicholas Fulcher) is an Art Director & Designer from Northern Virginia who currently resides in Los Angeles, California. Learning how to draw at an early age, Nicholas was drawn to graffiti, comic books, and video games. He continued to harness his combined love of art & design and attended numerous design classes in high school. Teachers quickly began to take notice and started to encourage his growth which helped cultivate his passion for visual communication. In 2010, Nicholas began freelancing in Washington D.C. and his primary focus was album art and apparel design. From 2013-2014 he attended Savannah College of Art & Design (Atlanta) studying towards his BFA in Graphic Design. After studying a few years, honing his craft, Nicholas made the move to New York City where he actualized his passion by becoming an Art Director at Atlantic records. He has carefully navigated his way through the industry and has grown into one of the most sought out visual artists.

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  Bryony Gomez-Palacio

  Co-founder, UnderConsideration

  2023 Visual Communication Jury Member

  Born and raised in Mexico City, Bryony Gomez-Palacio is co-founder of UnderConsideration, a graphic design firm generating its own projects, initiatives, and content while taking on limited client work. Over the last two decades Bryony has managed the behind-the-scenes of various blogs and design sites co-created with her husband and partner Armin Vit, including Brand New which is devoted to opinions on corporate and brand identity work.
  
  In 2010 the Brand New Conference, a two-day event on corporate and brand identity with some of today’s most active and influential practitioners from around the world, was created. In 2018, they conceived First Round, a one-day showcase of original presentations made to clients showing initial design explorations for logo, identity, and branding projects.
  
  When not hand-making materials for the Brand New Conference, organizing events, or working on client work Bryony can be found heading out of town where she loves to meet new people while conducting workshops, judging competitions, lecturing on all things design, or coaching others on all aspects of life and work.
  

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  Dian Holton

  Sr. Deputy Art Director, AARP

  2023 Visual Communication Jury Member

  Dian Holton is a senior deputy art director at AARP where she oversees creative for TheGirlfriend.com, Sistersletter.com and The Ethel. She routinely contributes art direction and design to AARP The Magazine and specifically cover stories and entertainment related. Her background includes book design, branding, retail installation, styling and footwear design. Her passions include education, philanthropy, fashion and pop culture.

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  Jennifer Sterling

  Founder & Creative Director, Jennifer Sterling Design

  2023 Visual Communication Jury Member

  Founder of Sterling Design in 1996, Jennifer is a creative director, designer, animator typographer, illustrator, photographer, and educator. Her work is part the permanent collections of The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Library of Congress, Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Museum Fur Kunst Und Gewerbe, Hamburg and the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art hosted a three-month solo show entitled "Jennifer Sterling: Selections from the Permanent Collection of Architecture and Design". The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museums Triennial Exhibit showcased the creative work of 83 designers and companies including Jennifer Sterling, Apple, Nike, and Martha Stewart.
  Her work has been featured in over 180 magazine and book articles, Graphis Magazine named her "One of the Top Ten Designers in the World." GD:USA Magazine named her one of the "Twelve Designers to Change Design into the Millennium". Clients and projects include creating an interactive online design to promote the worldwide distribution of aids awareness and medical distribution to third world countries for Yahoo Inc. as well as creating the worldwide brand "Vital Voices" for Hillary Clinton and Madeleine Albright. In 2016 she created campaign collateral for Hillary Clinton's 2016 Presidential Campaign. Jennifer has served as an adjunct professor at CCA (the California College of the Arts / San Francisco), AAU (Academy of Art University / San Francisco) and SVA (School of Visual Arts / New York).
  

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  Dana Arnett

  CEO, VSA Partners

  2022 Visual Communication Jury Captain

  Dana is CEO of VSA Partners and a guiding force behind the firm's creation of brand programs, digital initiatives and design solutions for its diverse roster of world-class clients. His career has been steeped in design leadership, policymaking, business and brand consulting, and a long record of public service. He has been recognized internationally by multiple organizations for his contributions to design, including the Smithsonian Institute. Dana is past President of AIGA, a recipient of the AIGA Medal, an ID 40 recipient, DIFFA Unsung Hero recipient, a member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale, a former board member of the Architecture & Design Society at the Art Institute of Chicago, and founding board member of Project &. In 2016, Arnett worked with the Obama Administration to brand and launch Spark, the first-ever government led global entrepreneurship initiative. In the spring of 2022, Dana and Kevin Bethune are pleased to be featured as season 11 co-hosts of the acclaimed podcast, The Design of Business, The Business of Design.

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  Lisa Babb

  Professor, School of Industrial Design, Georgia Tech University

  2022 Visual Communication Jury Member

  Lisa Babb comes from a rich history of activism and social justice through engaging citizens. She has worked in the Graphic Design field and has taught Graphic Design at the collegiate level for more than twenty years. Lisa came from Brooklyn (before it became the brand that it is now) and has lived in Atlanta for more than fifteen. She has a Master’s from Pratt Institute and a Bachelor’s from Baruch College. The same year she finished Pratt, she became a graphic design professor after September 11 changed the world for everybody.
  
  She started at a Corporate Design firm specializing in award-winning Annual reports. Some stops along the way include a commercial catalog company, a marketing group for Seagrams, two sizeable pharmaceutical advertising agencies, a commercial magazine in advertising, museums, and museums. She has designed things as small as a button, as vast as a congressional campaign, and as big as a billboard. She has also designed things as unconventional as a float for the Bud Billiken parade and as functional as a point of purchase display.
  
  Within design education specifically, she has created a Graphic Design department from the ground up. This design leader has made a point of teaching in places that encourage diversity in demographics, ideologies, and models. She started teaching Design at schools in New York City, the last one being PACE University in the Master’s program, before coming to Atlanta and teaching at SCAD and now Georgia Tech. She lives by the mantra “if you want a better world, make one” and truly believes that design and especially design education is one of the few things that can change lives. It is hard even to blink once you have graphic literacy and finally see.

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  Antonio García

  Head of Design, TXI

  2022 Visual Communication Jury Member

  Antonio García is Head of Design at TXI, and also the founder of Dadwell & Co. He serves as a Board Advisor to AIGA Chicago.
  
  In addition to design leadership, Antonio is a mentor, educator, and lecturer.
  
  If he’s not hard at work, Antonio is most likely DJing, drawing, or training for his next marathon.

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  Su Mathews Hale

  CEO and Chief Creative Officer, Hale Design

  2022 Visual Communication Jury Member

  For more than two decades, Su Mathews Hale has thrived at the intersection of design and brand strategy. Using the power of design to develop inspiring creations while solving business problems, Su has collaborated with a broad range of notable clients including Citibank, Disney, Chick-fil-A, eBay, Hawaiian Airlines, Hershey’s, Hyatt, IHG, Papa Johns, Sam’s Club, Samsung, Shutterstock, Taco Bell and Walmart.
  
  Currently as CEO and Chief Creative Officer of Hale Design, a branding agency she opened in 2019, Su recently led her creative team on Papa Johns refreshed brand identity – the visual reflection of the new tone set by the brand - a more modern, bold, fun, fresh and tasty experience. The friendly, streamlined logo reflects the pizza chain's momentum, introduces flexibility to scale digitally and positions Papa Johns for continued success and growth. Prior to Hale Design, she was a former associate partner at Pentagram, New York, and a senior partner and creative director in design at Lippincott, where Su led global projects spanning the full gamut of brand creation and identity development. While at Lippincott, she served as creative director on the famed Walmart rebranding – a massive brand repositioning and revitalization engagement that contemporized the global retail giant while retaining the values of its heritage.
  
  Su also serves as Chair of the Board of Trustees at ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, CA.

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  Silas Munro

  Partner, Polymode

  2022 Visual Communication Jury Member

  Silas Munro is a Partner of Polymode, a studio that leads the edge of contemporary graphic design for clients in the cultural sphere. Collaborations include the City of LA Mayor’s Office, Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, Getty Museum, David Kordansky Gallery, Mark Bradford at the Venice Biennale, MoMA, and MOCA. Munro’s writing appears in the book, W. E. B. Du Bois’s Data Portraits: Visualizing Black America featured in Smithsonian Magazine, The New Yorker, and Black Perspectives. Munro expanded this research as a co-author of the first BIPOC centered Design History course: Black Design in America: African Americans and the African Diaspora in Graphic Design, which will be published in book form in 2023. Munro holds an MFA from CalArts and a BFA from RISD. Munro is Founding Faculty and Co-Chair for the MFA in Graphic Design at Vermont College of Fine Arts.

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  Nessim Higson

  Executive Creative Director, WeTransfer

  2021 Visual Communication Jury Captain

  Nessim Higson is the Executive Creative Director at WeTransfer, where he is in charge of the creative brand, identity, and visual language of the company. He was previously the Web Design Director for Squarespace helping oversee the continuing development of the platform and brand, and how it can be a leading force in championing creativity globally. He helped lead the charge on innovation within SQSP through helping establish their web concepts team and oversaw the rebrand of the company in 2019.
  
  Prior to joining Squarespace, Nessim lived and worked in Amsterdam for 6 years and has continued to run his independent studio IAAH / iamalwayshungry working with a range of clients such as Adidas, The Criterion Collection, DC Comics, TED, Google, and a wide range of global advertising and design agencies.
  
  Nessim is a firm believer that great communication can not only shift the economic marketplace but has a responsibility to contribute to the social fabric of society.

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  Diana Alcausin

  Associate Creative Director, WeTransfer Advertising Studio

  2021 Visual Communication Jury Member

  D Alcausin is the Associate Creative Director of the WeTransfer Advertising Studio.
  
  She leads a team of talented creatives who design award winning immersive, interactive digital ads viewed by a global audience of 60 million users a month. Collaborating with the world's leading brands, Diana oversees the advertising platform's evolution into a unique digital space at the forefront of creative innovation.
  
  With a grounding in commercial strategy, Diana bridges the gap between business and design with an approach that balances strategic creative execution with business goals.