Jury Alumni

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  Kate Cox

  Director of Human Factors Engineering, Ensera Design

  2026 Medical & Healthcare Jury Member

  Kate Cox is the Director of Human Factors Engineering at Ensera Design, based in Morristown, NJ, USA. Kate has been with the company since 2012 and during this time, she has quickly become a key player of the Human Factors team, specializing in applying human factors to the design and development of innovative medical devices for start-up and Fortune 500 companies.
  
  Kate is experienced in all aspects of the product development process, beginning with initial contextual inquiry research to defining requirements, analyzing risk, conducting formative and HF Validation usability testing. She has worked on numerous devices over the years, from surgical devices, drug-device combination products, consumer medical products, and laboratory devices. Kate enjoys immersing into the product’s use environments to understand current behaviors and workflows in order to uncover unmet needs and influence the design direction.
  
  Kate graduated from Stevens Institute of Technology with a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in Biomedical Engineering. Kate is also a member of the AAMI Human Factors Engineering committee, which provides input into international usability standards for medical devices such as HE75 and IEC 62366.

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  Julia de Bono

  CEO and Studio Director, Designworks LA - a BMW Group company

  2026 Transportation & Mobility Jury Captain

  Julia de Bono is CEO of Designworks, BMW Group’s global creative consultancy. She has led the design of visionary concept vehicles including the BMW Vision Next 100, Mille Miglia Concept, and 3.0 CSL Hommage. Formerly the head of BMW’s Concept Car Team and Global Design Strategy, she now drives cross-industry innovation—advancing AI-augmented creativity, circular product ecosystems, and future mobility experiences for BMW, MINI, Rolls-Royce, and external partners across technology and transportation.

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  Piyakan Devakul Na Ayudhya

  Creative Director, Leo Bangkok

  2026 Packaging Jury Member

  Piyakan is a Creative Director with over 15 years of experience in visual communication, working across brand strategy, design, and integrated creative systems. She holds a Master’s degree in Visual Communication from Birmingham City University (UK) and has led creative work for global and regional brands from strategic concept through to final execution. Her work has been recognized at major international award shows, including being a D&AD Awards finalist in the Product Design category, where she was involved as the Creative Director.

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  Curtis Flanagan

  Creative Director, Seed Studio at Google, Google

  2026 Sports & Outdoors Jury Member

  Based in Los Angeles, Curtis is a Creative Director at Seed Studio at Google, an innovation group within Google Hardware Design operating at the intersection of design strategy, advanced concepts, and creative services.
  
  With over 15 years of experience in branding and creative direction, he helps express the design intent and stories behind Google’s products. Curtis specializes in bringing these narratives to life through imagery, animation, and film, ensuring the hardware is represented with the same level of craft and thoughtfulness with which it was built.

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  Joachim Froment

  Designer / Creative Director, Futurewave

  2026 Sports & Outdoors Jury Captain

  Joachim Froment is an award-winning Belgian designer based in Brussels and Copenhagen (IF award, Rado Star Award, Bolia award, CES innovation award). He graduated with a Master's degree from the Royal College of Art in London.
  
  Founder and Creative Director of Futurewave, he leads a team of 25 creatives and technologists to help companies bring forward-thinking products to the market (Bespoke Flos, Engelbrechts, Adidas, Duvel, 100% light, Decathlon, Cohabs, etc.).
  
  Joachim Froment is a product designer and artist whose creations aim to ally poetry and industry.

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  Roman Gebhard

  Managing Partner, FLUID Design GmbH

  2026 Consumer Technology Jury Captain

  Roman Gebhard is managing partner and co-founder of FLUID Design (formerly LUNAR Europe), a Munich-based design and innovation consultancy founded in 2006. FLUID helps organizations humanize technology through strategic, human-centered design.
  
  With experience across LUNAR Design in San Francisco, frog in New York, and Siemens Design / Designafairs in Munich, Roman brings a rare blend of industrial-, UX, and interface-design expertise - paired with strategy and insights that turn complex challenges into elegant, people-first solutions.
  
  He earned a B.Sc. (Hons) in Industrial Design from Art Center College of Design and has led workshops at the Design University in Lund, Sweden.
  
  Roman leads multidisciplinary teams to create user-centric products, services, and experiences for clients in health, consumer tech, and critical industries. His approach combines the agility of a boutique studio with the rigor and scale of enterprise programs, ensuring innovation remains grounded in real human needs.
  
  His work has been featured in major professional publications and recognized with numerous international design awards. Being active in the global design community, Roman has served as a juror for the iF Design Award, IDSA Design Awards, and the Spark Design Award. As a leader and evaluator, he champions thoughtful, impact-driven design that improves everyday life.

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  Irene Guerrieri

  Architect and designer for kids, Irene Guerrieri

  2026 Toys & Play Jury Captain

  Born and educated in Rome, Irene Guerrieri is an architect who has dedicated her research and professional practice to the study of design, with a particular focus on children’s design and educational toys. Collaborating with leading companies in Italy and abroad, she has created numerous products distributed worldwide. She teaches toy design and regularly holds seminars and workshops at universities and specialized schools.
  
  Her preferred languages of expression are painting and illustration. She has designed and illustrated many books for children, and is also the author of titles for adults, including: Toy Design (Springer, 2025); Designing Educational Toys & Spaces (FrancoAngeli, 2024); Shapes and Colors in Fairy Tales (Erickson, 2022); The Toy and Its Design (FrancoAngeli, 2021). The first two have been included among the recommended readings by the World Design Organization (WDO).

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  Zhaoxiong Han

  Architectural Designer, Gensler

  2026 Built Environment Jury Captain

  Zhaoxiong Han is an architectural designer at Gensler’s Los Angeles office. His work spans core and shell office buildings, workplace, education, and adaptive reuse projects, with a particular interest in how architecture can renew existing contexts while forming meaningful cultural and spatial relationships.
  
  In addition to practice, Zhaoxiong contributes to the broader architectural community as a juror for international competitions such as TerraViva and Archiol, where he brings a critical perspective to evaluating emerging design ideas. His ongoing engagement in design discourse allows him to remain attentive to evolving cultural and environmental questions and to participate in shaping the conversations that define contemporary architectural practice.

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  Annika Hansteen-Izora

  Creative Director, School of Softness

  2026 Branding & Identity Jury Member, 2026 Visual Communication Jury Member

  Annika Hansteen-Izora is a queer Black designer, artist, and writer. Through their practice Softness Studios, they create digital and irl worlds rooted in softness and play. Their multimodal career has led them across a wide span of brand, product, and writing projects, from leading design at experimentive social startups, to publishing writing on digital gardens, to designing work with companies from MTV to HP. They have spoken on their design practice’s intersection with inclusivity, care, and connection at Princeton, MIT, Carnegie Mellon University, The Brooklyn Museum, and others. Their work has been featured by It’s Nice That, AIGA Eye on Design, and ICON Magazine.

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  Scot Herbst

  Creative Director, Partner, Herbst Produkt

  2026 Lifestyle Accessories Jury Captain, 2026 Tools Jury Captain

  Scot is the Creative Director and Partner at Herbst Produkt, a design consultancy created with his father, American design pioneer Walter Herbst. The studio features a dynamic mix of work across consumer technology, healthcare and lifesciences, consumer packaged goods, furniture, and autonomous vehicles. From nimble startups to established Fortune 100 global brands their work coalesces a multidisciplinary team that includes ID, HF, UX, digital, brand, packaging, engineering and CGI,
  
  Over the years the team at Herbst has won numerous global design awards and been featured in design and business publications including The Wall St Journal, Business Week, Wired, Inc. and Fast Company and their designs have been showcased in MoMA and numerous design exhibitions. Today their diverse client/partner roster includes Google, Logitech, Brita, Crate & Barrel, Burts Bees, Dolby, the Home Depot, Clorox and others.
  
  In addition to his role at Herbst, Scot is also the Chief Product Officer at Slice Inc., an innovative brand of ceramic bladed hardware that Scot helped build and grow and was recently acquired.

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  walter herbst

  President, Herbst Produkt

  2026 Tools Jury Member

  Walter is a formative figure in American product design, having been named one of the “Founding fathers of industrial design in the US” by Business Week Magazine. His over 60 years of experience in industrial design has helped shape innovation consulting, with roles including:
  Partner / Co-founder, Herbst Produkt.
  Founder and Chairman, Herbst LaZar Bell Inc.
  Director / Founder – Master of Product Design and Development Executive Education Program, Northwestern University.
  Fellow, National Academy of Inventors.
  Advisory Board, Material Science Department, Arizona State University
  Advisory Board, University of Illinois – School of Art and Design
  Advisory Board, Kellogg McCormick MMM program, Northwestern University.
  
  Walter speaks and writes extensively on professional design, including his recent series No-Excuses Innovation and Mastering Product Innovation from Stanford Business Press.
  
  Walter has a design degree from the University of Illinois, an MBA from Kellogg, Northwestern University, and a Ph.D. from Coventry University, Coventry England.

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  Walter Herbst

  President, Herbst Produkt

  2026 Lifestyle Accessories Jury Member

  Walter is a formative figure in American product design, having been named one of the “Founding fathers of industrial design in the US” by Business Week Magazine. His over 60 years of experience in industrial design has helped shape innovation consulting, with roles including:
  Partner / Co-founder, Herbst Produkt.
  Founder and Chairman, Herbst LaZar Bell Inc.
  Director / Founder – Master of Product Design and Development Executive Education Program, Northwestern University.
  Fellow, National Academy of Inventors.
  Advisory Board, Material Science Department, Arizona State University
  Advisory Board, University of Illinois – School of Art and Design
  Advisory Board, Kellogg McCormick MMM program, Northwestern University.
  
  Walter speaks and writes extensively on professional design, including his recent series No-Excuses Innovation and Mastering Product Innovation from Stanford Business Press.
  
  Walter has a design degree from the University of Illinois, an MBA from Kellogg, Northwestern University, and a Ph.D. from Coventry University, Coventry England.

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  Will Hunter

  Design Director, Woof

  2026 Tools Jury Member, 2026 Lifestyle Accessories Jury Member

  Will Hunter is a design leader who enjoys building thoughtful products at the intersection of function and craft. He is currently Design Director at Woof, where he helps shape the company’s physical and consumable products, and a co-founder of canu canteen, an outdoor-inspired brand focused on simple, durable solutions. With a background in industrial design and experience as both a practitioner and educator, Will brings a hands-on, human-centered perspective to evaluating design. As a Core77 Design Awards judge, he values clarity, usefulness, and ideas that improve everyday life.