Jury Alumni

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  Eddie Opara

  Partner-in-Charge, Creative Director, Pentagram

  2020 Visual Communication Jury Captain

  Eddie Opara was born in London in 1972. He studied graphic design at the London College of Printing and Yale University. He began his career at ATG and Imaginary Forces and worked as senior designer-art director at 2×4 before establishing his own studio, The Map Office. He joined Pentagram’s New York office as partner in 2010. His projects have included the design of brand identity, publications, packaging, environments, exhibitions, interactive installations, websites, user interfaces and software, with many of his projects ranging across multiple media and clients including; lululemon, Samsung, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, Nike, Grace Farms, the Menil Foundation, the Corcoran Group, Morgan Stanley, New York University, SHoP Architects, buroOS, Skidmore Owings & Merrill (SOM), David Adjaye Associates and Princeton Architectural Press. His work is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art and has appeared in publications such as Wired, Fast Company, Creative Review, Archis, Surface and Graphis. Opara is also a senior critic at the Yale University School of Art and has recently authored a book, Color Works, published by Rockport. He was named one of Adweek Creative 100 in 2018, one of Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People in Business in 2012 and 2014, and was featured in Ebony Magazine’s Power 100 list.

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  Philippe Ostiguy

  Brand & Creative Strategist, Exposure

  2020 Strategy & Research Jury Member

  Philippe Ostiguy is a brand and creative strategist at Exposure and, previously, at 2x4. Current and past clients include Prada, Uniqlo, MAC Cosmetics, Converse and Second Stage Theater. He is interested in culture-making; in fandom; in the music, movies, art, and design that expand our imagination. Now based in New York City, he holds a Masters in Branding from the School of Visual Arts.

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  Colin Owen

  Design Director, Elroy Air

  2020 Home & Living Jury Member

  Colin is an industrial designer and leads design at Elroy Air, a Bay Area startup developing autonomous cargo aircraft. He joined in 2016 and has led the design effort from conception through first flights. Colin is also tenured faculty at California College of the Arts in the Industrial Design program. Previously, Colin founded, Sparse, a component manufacturer focused on the urban cycle commute. He has also served a diverse set of clients including Autodesk, Nike, NASA, Terrazign, Intel, and Nokia. Colin was raised in the deep south on a steady diet of trails, mischief, and tinkering. He was made (mostly) civil at Rice University (B.A. in Arch, B. of Arch.) and Art Center College of Design (M.S.I.D.).

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  Jennifer Passas

  Brand Strategy Lead, Gensler

  2020 Strategy & Research Jury Captain

  Jennifer Passas is a brand and experience strategist from Vancouver who currently lives in New York City. She has a BA in Art History from the University of Victoria and a Masters in Branding from the School of Visual Arts. Currently a Brand Strategy Lead at Gensler, Jennifer spends her days thinking of ways brands can come to life through analog and digital experiences in the built environment. She has expertise in naming, trend reporting and is a writer for PSFK.

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  Michael Place

  Founder, Studio.Build

  2020 Packaging Jury Member

  A professional designer for almost 30 years, Michael co-founded Studio.Build in 2001. Beginning his career in 1990, he gained experience at various influential design studios in London, before joining the maverick graphics studio The Designers Republic in Sheffield, producing many works that have since earned a place in cultural history. Michael founded Studio.Build on one simple idea to do great work with great people- and that is at the core of the studios philosophy today. With a lifelong interest in typographic design, Michael is fascinated by the powerful part it can play at the heart of graphic communication, which is evident in the work of the studio. Michael has been on the judging panel of design awards worldwide, and has given talks and offered opinion on design at conferences across the globe. The studio has won several awards including from the prestigious D&AD global design awards.

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  Sunita Ram

  Design Lead, Idean

  2020 Service Design Jury Member

  As a Design Lead at Idean (part of Capgemini Invent), Sunita has led hybrid design teams on projects across industries including healthcare, e-commerce, education, transportation, and technology. She thrives in bringing clarity to ambiguous problems. She has created and led initiatives like Design Thinking Academies for Executives and Kids, Design Jams for designers, and Culture Workshops for her organization.
  
  Sunita holds a Bachelors degree in Architecture and a Masters in Interactive Telecommunications from ITP, NYU.
  
  For the last decade, Sunita has also served as a design coach for Stanford d.school’s Extreme course. Here, she mentors graduate students who design low-cost, sustainable products and services for developing countries in partnership with non-profit organizations.
  

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  Bret Recor

  Founder, Box Clever

  2020 Home & Living Jury Captain

  Bret is an expert in creating physical experiences that delight consumers and help companies lead market categories. Bret leads his Box Clever team to take ideas from concept to market and is committed to executing a challenge to its most brilliant realization. To do this, he balances creative vision with real-world experience of industrial design, brand strategy, and business ventures. Bret has applied his expertise to the launches of several high-profile products and initiatives, including Away, Nebia, and most recently Caraway. Bret has also launched separate studio initiated ventures including Fadestudio, with a flagship product, the Fade task light.
  
  Prior to founding Box Clever, Bret was a design director at fuseproject, working with clients like, One Laptop Per Child, Herman Miller, Johnson & Johnson, Issey Miyake, Jawbone, and the New York City Department of Health.
  
  Bret’s work has earned several awards around the world including INDEX, Spark, IDEA, iF, Clio, D&AD, FX, Spark, and Red Dot. His work is part of the permanent collections of NY MoMA, SFMOMA, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Centre Pompidou.

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  Gina Reimann

  Wearables Industrial Design Manager, Google

  2020 Health & Wellness Jury Member

  As Wearables Industrial Design Manager at Google, Gina leads a team making radically helpful products, bringing together the best of Google AI, software and hardware. Notable launches include Google’s headphone family and watch bands.
  
  Prior to Google, Gina has worked at the New York based innovation agency Redscout, Industrial Design agency Smart Design and Philips Design in The Netherlands.
  
  She’s designed for some of her favourite brands, including Nike, OXO, and Microsoft, and for which she has some fancy awards that decorate a shelf in her Santa Cruz Mountain home, where she lives with her wife and two cats.

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  Tobias Revell

  Artist & Designer, University of London

  2020 Speculative Design Jury Member

  Tobias Revell is an artist and designer. Spanning different disciplines and media his work addresses the urgent need for critical engagement with material reality through design, art and technology. Recent work has looked at the idea of technology as a territory, expectations of the future, rendering software and the occult and supernatural in pop culture discussions of technology.
  
  He holds a BA Hons. (1st) in Design for Interaction and Moving Image from the London College of Communication and an MA in Design Interactions at the Royal College of Art from which he graduated in July 2012.
  
  As well as being an internationally exhibiting artist, Programme Director of Graphic Design Communication at the London College of Communication, a founder of Supra Systems Studio and a founding member of research consultancy Strange Telemetry. He is one half of Haunted Machines, a research and curatorial project curating Impakt festival 2017 in Utrecht, NL. He is undertaking a PhD in the Design Department at Goldsmiths, University of London.

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  Jennifer Rittner

  Principal, Content Matters

  2020 Design Education Initiative 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.

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  Gillian Rode

  Managing Director, Ueno

  2020 Tools & Work Jury Captain

  Gillian is a strategic leader focused on designing amazing customer experiences across the full journey of online and offline touch-points. She’s worked with dozens of different businesses from start-ups in South Asia to global Fortune 100 companies, giving her great insight into what it takes to innovate and find product/market fit. Currently Managing Director at the creative digital agency Ueno she is helping drive the next generation of digital experiences for clients like Google, Facebook, Venmo, and Walmart. Prior to Ueno, Gillian was leading teams at Fuseproject, MNML, and Cirque du Soleil.

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  Melissa Ruhl

  Emerging Mobility Researcher, Ford

  2020 Transportation Jury Captain

  Melissa Ruhl is an Emerging Mobility Researcher with Ford’s Research and Advanced Engineering division in Palo Alto. Her research focuses on new and emerging transportation trends, such as micromobility, microtransit, and autonomous vehicles initiatives. Previously, Melissa was a senior planner for Arup in San Francisco where she managed projects on transportation innovation. She regularly speaks in California and nationally on autonomous vehicles and the future of cities. She has published a number of articles on future mobility and most recently co-authored a chapter on mobility as a service in the recently published Disruptive Transport: Driverless Cars, Transport Innovation and the Sustainable City of Tomorrow. In 2019, Melissa was recognized on the "40 under 40" Mass Transit Magazine list.

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  Shady Shahid

  Principal, MAST

  2020 Consumer Technology Jury Member

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  Maria Silva

  Brand Strategist & Senior Designer, Mucca Design

  2020 Strategy & Research Jury Member

  Maria Silva's passion is discovering the compelling kernel of truth at the root of each brand and using it to create a unique story. In addition to being a brand strategist at Mucca Design, she is an award-winning designer, with recognition from CommArts, TDC, LAD, and BID, and a master’s degree in brand strategy from the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Some of her recent clients include Union Square Hospitality, WeWork, 7Fresh, Fairway, and Ficosota.

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  Zack Simons

  Senior Design Manager, Invision

  2020 Packaging Jury Member

  Zack is a professional athlete turned designer based in Park City, Utah. He leads by example with a rigorous, hands-on approach to brand, product, and UX design.
  
  Zack is currently leading a team of UX and product designers as a Sr. Design Manager at InVision. In years past, he worked alongside some of the best in the business at WeWork, Logitech and Ammunition.

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  Max Steffen

  Global Design Director, Equipment and Accessories, The North Face

  2020 Sports & Recreation Jury Captain

  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.