Jury Alumni

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  Julianna Schneider

  Usability & Human Factors Engineer, Bausch + Lomb

  2024 Health & Wellness Jury Member

  Julianna Schneider is the lead Usability & Human Factors Engineer for the Bausch + Lomb Surgical product lines. She is an innovative engineer who is committed to developing intuitive, useful products for users. Having the ability to resonate with users, she prioritizes simplistic and meaningful designs. She leverages human centered design elements partnered with a risk based approach to ensure interfaces are optimized for users’ applications, and ultimately safe and effective for use. Harnessing her previous experience as a mechanical engineer, she frequently assesses design-related and use-related failures prior to product launch and creates solutions to mitigate these failures. Similarly, she understands the value input from multiple functionalities has and works cross functionally to ensure input is captured and incorporated into designs. She enjoys learning new things, meeting new people, and embracing challenges because they all bring growth - both personally and professionally.

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  Jayson Simeon

  VP, YETI Design, YETI

  2024 Sports & Outdoors Jury Member

  Jayson is a design leader turning design thinking into action. He leverages the experience from his diverse creative career for the benefit of every challenge he takes on, bringing focus to the fuzzy front end, embracing the difficult challenges, collaborating transparently, leading with integrity.
  
  Jayson has led some of the industry's best industrial design and user experience teams through complex programs to create successful product + brand solutions in nearly every industry imaginable.

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  Steve Starobinsky

  SVP Trends & New Markets, Gel Blaster

  2024 Toys & Play Jury Member

  A veteran of the toy industry of over 20 years. Selling retailers in all sectors in North America with a focus on trend writing a trend forecasting. My last two projects were launching MIND THE GAP, a game that was acquired by Spin Master and most recently Gel Blaster - one of the fastest growing toy companies in North America!

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  Ayako Takase

  co-founder / principal, Observatory

  2024 Furniture & Lighting Jury Member

  Ayako Takase (she/they) is the co-founder/principal of Observatory, an award-winning, multi-disciplinary design studio founded in 2001. Observatory balances innovation and simplicity to foster meaningful connections with people, culture, and audiences. With work spanning creative fields, Observatory relies foremost on an intuitive process that allows a natural interplay of form and function to take place in their designs. The studio has worked for leading companies such as Herman Miller, Google, and Procter & Gamble. Ayako is also an Associate Professor at the Rhode Island School of Design and a director of the graduate program in the Industrial Design Department. They teach hands-on studios focusing on audience-centric, emotive, and iterative design. Ayako lives in Cranston, Rhode Island, with her partner and too many creatures.

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  Jacqueline Tang

  Creative Director/ Studio Director, Entro Communications

  2024 Built Environment Jury Member

  As a Creative Director at Entro, Jacqueline brings over 12 years of multi-disciplinary design experience to the team. Her expertise spans a wide spectrum, including experiential graphics, exhibition design, identity, branding and interior design. Drawing inspiration from all aspects of life, Jacqueline strives to create dynamic, user-friendly environments of all types and sizes. Jacqueline’s education in Graphic Design, Architecture, and Fine Art History allows her to approach each project with a unique perspective. She is a valuable member of the senior design team with a skilled ability to work with international and specialized consultants, architects and fabricators to deliver highly tailored, award-winning solutions.

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  Tingbin Tang

  CEO, Jiusi Creativity

  2024 Consumer Technology Jury Member

  Tingbin has been a designer, educator, and serial entrepreneur. As a designer, his works have won many design awards, were reported by Time magazine, ABC Good Morning America program, BBC news, etc. And was permanently collected by the Chicago Athenaeum Museum. He has been teaching and managing at three institutions in three different countries. He was the Dean of the School of Design of Pearl Academy in India; an Interaction Design professor at San Jose State University in California, USA; and he was the founder and director of the Transportation Design program at CAFA Central Academy of Fine Arts in China. He founded Gopackup, which connects travelers with locals; he cofounded Trisenx, which brought the third sense, smell into the internet; he founded Nearal, a location-based professional networking platform; and he also founded and worked on MeiCAD, an AI-powered CAD tool.

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  Tingbin Tang

  CEO, Jiusi Creativity

  2024 A/V & Photography Equipment Jury Member

  Tingbin has been a designer, educator, and serial entrepreneur. As a designer, his works have won many design awards, were reported by Time magazine, ABC Good Morning America program, BBC news, etc. And was permanently collected by the Chicago Athenaeum Museum. He has been teaching and managing at three institutions in three different countries. He was the Dean of the School of Design of Pearl Academy in India; an Interaction Design professor at San Jose State University in California, USA; and he was the founder and director of the Transportation Design program at CAFA Central Academy of Fine Arts in China. He founded Gopackup, which connects travelers with locals; he cofounded Trisenx, which brought the third sense, smell into the internet; he founded Nearal, a location-based professional networking platform; and he also founded and worked on MeiCAD, an AI-powered CAD tool.

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  Sunshine Thacker

  Founder, Sunshine Thacker Studio

  2024 Furniture & Lighting Jury Member

  After studying Architecture and Land Development at Texas A&M University, Sunshine spent 15 years navigating lawyers, liars and leeches before returning to her first love - clay. Sunshine's background in architecture informs her always curious - artistic and design practice. Sunshine believes in taking risks, in pushing boundaries. She’s always asking, “why?” Or more often, “why not?” Her work has been featured in Architectural Digest, Dwell, Surface, Wallpaper and Elle Decor among others.

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  Dario Volpe

  Creative Director, Lettera7

  2024 Packaging Jury Member

  Dario Volpe is a designer with more than 20 years of experience in brand design, passionate about illustration, type design, and contemporary art. By experimenting with eclectic languages, he crosses multiple and diverse stylistic barriers, encouraging a deeper understanding and interpretation of the project's core message.

  
  In 2010, after several important international experiences as a designer (at Landor, Interbrand, Cb’a), he established Lettera7, a brand design studio based in Vietri sul Mare - Amalfi Coast, where he is both the founder and creative director.
  His ability to work across multiple disciplines has led Lettera7 to handle a variety of projects in different industries over the years, continuously improving their approach to meet a wide range of challenges: "There's no preferred industry for Lettera7; we're designers and any visionary idea well-structured can be turned into a virtuous project, no matter the industry tag it goes into"
  In his experimentation with visual languages, he has successfully led cultural initiatives including international festivals in cinema, music, and theatre, developed complex wayfinding systems in diverse locations, and enhanced brand design for Italian firms to spotlight their true market value. Especially in the food sector, his unconventional approach has blended artistic visuals with business needs, rapidly earning multiple projects international recognition.

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  Barry Waddilove

  Head of Circular Economy & Partnerships, Electrolux Group

  2024 Sustainability Jury Member

  Barry Waddilove joined Electrolux Group in 2017. He first led the company’s North American design team and joined the global sustainability leadership team in early 2022 to oversee partnerships and collaborations. In early 2023, he became Head of Circular Economy and Partnerships. In this expanded role, Barry remains responsible for supporting partnerships while leading new work to develop Electrolux Group’s Circular Economy approach and priorities.
  
  Barry has over 30 years experience in design and sustainability, working with brands and organizations across 25 countries. During various roles across global corporates, he has developed deep knowledge of innovation processes and business model development. His academic research for the Ellen MacArthur Foundation explored the role of system thinking in circular design.
  He holds an MDes in Design and Innovation for Sustainability from Cranfield University and is also a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
  
  Barry is British and lives with his family just north of London, UK.

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  Dayn Wilberding

  Director of Design, Exploration, Sonos

  2024 A/V & Photography Equipment Jury Member

  Dual-decade champion of design innovation culture for multi-sensory scenery and visceral joy. Product leader from the explorer teams that built iconic physical product experiences like Jawbone hearables, Jawbone Jambox, Sonos Trueplay auto-tuning, Sonos Move, multimodal UI, ambient interaction, generative moodscapes, and over 50 patents for tomorrow's experiences.

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  Dayn Wilberding

  Director of Design, Exploration, Sonos

  2024 Consumer Technology Jury Member

  Dual-decade champion of design innovation culture for multi-sensory scenery and visceral joy. Product leader from the explorer teams that built iconic physical product experiences like Jawbone hearables, Jawbone Jambox, Sonos Trueplay auto-tuning, Sonos Move, multimodal UI, ambient interaction, generative moodscapes, and over 50 patents for tomorrow's experiences.

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  Kevin Williams

  Founder & CEO, OgoSport

  2024 Toys & Play Jury Captain

  Kevin Williams, a product developer based in coastal South Carolina, graduated with a Masters in Industrial Design from Pratt Institute in 1995. He has since founded several design-focused companies including MAKE, CAKE, Everest Columbarium, Ogosport, and Plan C. In 2006, alongside Rick Goodwin, he started Ogosport, a toy and game company. Ogosport's innovative products are distributed in over 40 countries and have earned multiple nominations and awards, including the TOTY (Toy of the Year) from the Toy Industry Association. Kevin is deeply passionate about design, emphasizing user experience and play value in his work.

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  Joo Young Lim

  Industrial Designer, Vanderbilt Home

  2024 Home & Living Jury Member

  Joo Young Lim is an Industrial Designer at Vanderbilt Home, a lifestyle product manufacturing firm based in New York City. As a designer, Joo Young specializes in studying people’s shifting lifestyles and using the findings to create useful designs for their various aspects of living, especially in cooking and entertaining. Joo Young draws inspiration from his experiences of multi-national upbringing and a deep interest in the history of home entertaining. He has over a decade of experience working in various categories, including food prep, tabletop, decor, organization, and pets.
  Joo Young earned a BFA in Industrial Design from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in 2010. Since then, he has held design director roles at Martha Stewart Living and Barkbox and a co-founder role at Gruppo Atelier Home.

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  Joey Zeledón

  Designer, Joey Zeledón Studio

  2024 Furniture & Lighting Jury Captain

  Joey Zeledón (they/she) is a designer who helps objects find their purpose in life. They do this by creating aspirational narrative identities – sticky stories that drive meaning – for object archetypes. Is it just a printer? or could it be furniture that prints? Is it just a coffee maker? or could it be a barista in your kitchen? Is it just a clothes hanger? Or could it be a closet you can sit on? In 2022, they founded a design studio based on this approach, creating purposeful objects for people and market differentiation for clients. Prior to starting their own studio, Joey brought dozens of products to market from shoes and furniture to housewares, consumer electronics and consumer packaged goods during their 15-year career working for Clarks, Continuum, Smart Design, Steelcase and HP. Their designs have won 40+ awards and have been featured in leading publications. Joey is a proud RIT alum.