It is with much gratitude and admiration that we celebrate the jury alumni members of the Core77 Design Awards.
Susan L. Sokolowski, PhD is the Founding Director and Professor of the Sports Product Design Graduate Program, at the University of Oregon. She has over 25 years of performance footwear, apparel, and equipment design experience; working at Nike, Burton Snowboards, Fila, the US Department of Defense, and tech start-ups prior to coming back to academia in 2016. Her work is holistic in nature, where consideration of the user’s body shape/dimensions, performance, sport, materials, and styling are addressed to develop innovative solutions. She is specifically focused on issues surrounding design of products for underserved populations, including women and adaptive athletes. Susan has been recognized internationally for her achievements in design and innovation, including 40+ utility and design patents, awards from the United States Olympic Committee, Nike and Volvo, and featured product at the Design Museum London.
As Principal: Design Ambassador, John is the face and voice of design for footwear, apparel, and innovation at Under Armour (UA), focusing on recruitment, internal engagement, and cultivation of design culture. In his work, John is defining the next ten years of UA’s creative class; establishing a diverse and inclusive community that empowers individuals to reach their highest potential. As a Creative Director: Innovation, John provides strategic oversight in design, strategy, and development of footwear technologies & apparel innovation at UA with a focus on domestic manufacturing, digital experiences, automation, and wearable technology - working in categories such as running, cross-training, basketball, boxing, and space travel. John is a graduate Roger Williams University, where he received a Bachelor of Architecture.
Yuki Aihara has over 20 years of innovation, performance apparel and equipment experience, delivering innovation for Formula One drivers and track & field athletes competing on the world stage to sustainable solutions for future products. He is a critical thinker and meticulous in nature, holistically viewing each solution and value proposition through the persona, user moments, design, product creation, development, manufacturing, and scalability to deliver performance benefits and new experiences. Yuki has held roles with brands such as Alpinestars, Nike, IKEA, and PVH. Currently he is the Sr. Director of Advanced Concepts at Lululemon Athletica helping to inspire and push the boundaries of performance apparel.
Carly Mick specializes in manufacturing innovation for soft-goods including on-demand manufacturing. Currently she is leading the fabric development team as the Director of Manufacturing innovation at Skyscrape, a company that created the first of its kind thermally adaptive insulation. Also, a textile addict who spends her free time dyeing yarn and weaving rugs.
Christel is currently a Senior Sports Apparel Designer at Pas Normal Studios in Copenhagen. responsible for the womenswear line. She received her MS in Sports Product Design from University of Oregon (2019), and previously came from a fashion background with a MA in Fashion Design from Designskolen Kolding (2009) and trained at the French fashion houses Chloé and Christian Dior Couture in Paris. She has worked in various creative fields from Apparel Designer, Costume Designer and Product Designer. She is passionate about women's sports apparel and strives to innovate within the space. She is also a ceramist, and her work has received recognition throughout Scandinavia and been published in lifestyle magazines: RUM International, ELLE Decoration, Space Magazine, Politiken, and Cover Magazine. Her work has also been profiled by Vitra and the Centre George Pompidou at Interieur Design Competition and repeatedly funded by the Danish Arts Foundation.
Katie Becker is the VP Creative at Arc’teryx, a global design company specializing in technical high-performance apparel and equipment. With over 25 years of design experience in the athletic and outdoor apparel industry, Katie is responsible for advanced apparel innovation and leads the global design team at Arc’teryx focused on pushing product into new territories. Prior to joining Arc’teryx, Katie served as Senior Design Director for adidas, where she helped build and grow the brand’s global design strategy. Katie has a strong background creating progressive and technical designs, having contributed to award-winning concepts for brands such as Merrell and Helly Hansen. Outside of the design center, Katie can be found skiing, hiking, exploring backroads with her family, paddle boarding, traveling, toting kids to sporting events and trying to train a puppy.
I'm a creative director and strategist in the global brand space. I have over 20 years of experience, passion, and knowledge of consumer culture and a proven track record of growing iconic brands.
Max is the Global Design Director for Equipment and Accessories at The North Face with whom he recently transitioned from the San Francisco Bay Area to Denver, Colorado. Prior to his move to the United States, Max led his industrial design consultancy in Brussels, Belgium. When he’s not exploring the outdoors, he is seeking strategic design solutions that combine the functional world of industrial design with the emotional world of contemporary aesthetics.
Nadine Clemens is the co-founder and president of Design Friends, a cultural, non-profit association promoting the work of designers through talks and exhibitions. Since its creation in 2009, the Luxembourg-based association has also set up multiple collaborative and educational projects, screening nights and portfolio shows. The Design Friends’ catalogue of publications contains over 50 designer monographs and a series of DEE magazines, all self-published.
With a background in art history, Nadine Clemens has been working for over fifteen years in contemporary art institutions as a director of art publications, corporate communication and media relations.
Julien is a Stockholm based designer with a broad experience in strategy, brand and graphic design. He is currently running DesignPractice™, a design consultancy with a focus on brand identity, SearchSystem™, an ever-growing collection of references and TypeFoundry™, a collection of typefaces and collaterals. He has been working for small and large enterprises both nationally and internationally including: Askul, Duvel, Escuyer, IKEA, Lexus, NIO, Polestar. His work has been awarded and exhibited at the Design Museum of London, Bozar Center for Fine Arts in Brussels and MAD Center for Fashion and Design in Brussels.
Jordan Nollman is a Boston-born, award-winning designer who is inspired by the entrepreneurial spirit of design. In his current capacity, Jordan is CEO/Principal of Sprout Studios, Chief Creative Officer at Pawscout, and Entrepreneurs Longevity Club, as well as Founder of the newSprout Foundation – a non-profit that creates mobile apps for charity.
Jordan has designed products and experiences for many of the world’s top brands and design consultancies, including Alienware, Altec Lansing, Altitude, Astro Studios, Burton Snowboards, Coors Light, CVS, Disney, Dell, Dwell Studio, Eleven, Fisher Price, Herman Miller, HP, Honda, IDEO, Jarden Consumer Products, Microsoft, Manta PD, New Balance, Nike, Pogoplug, Puma, P&G, Razorfish, Rebecca Minkoff, Samsung, Staples, Target, and Ziba Design.
Jordan holds a BFA in Industrial Design from Rochester Institute of Technology and his work can be found in numerous publications, ranging from Wall Street Journal to Popular Science.
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.
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.
As the industrial design lead at X, Matt works with project teams to translate moonshot ideas into hardware solutions. Working at the intersection of prototypes and products, Matt has helped bring some of X’s best known moonshots into the world — from smart contact lenses, to drone delivery packages, to high speed connectivity solutions. Prior to joining X, Matt’s career had taken him to a variety of dynamic design environments including the pop culture deluged gaming hanger of Astro Studios, the strategic lead and high-design focused studio of Fuseproject, and overseas to the culturally rich and fast-paced settings of HaA Design in Seoul, South Korea. Clients included: Alessi, Alienware, Boxee, Burton, British Telecom, Hewlett Packard, HTC, iRiver, Korea Telecom, Litl, Microsoft, Migo, Nike, Ooma, Pogoplug, Purple, Samsung, Targus, among others.