Jury Alumni

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  Peter Bristol

  Director of Industrial Design, Oculus

  2017 Design Concept Jury Member

  Peter Bristol's work blends form with function in uniquely appropriate ways making products that are inherently recognizable. His designs have been recognized across multiple genres with a broad array of patents and awards. Peter is currently director of industrial design at virtual reality company Oculus. Parallel to Oculus, Peter partners with design focused companies to create furniture, lighting and other goods.

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  Dan Chen

  Engineer & Designer

  2018 Design Concept Jury Member

  Dan Chen is a designer and engineer. He communicates his ideas through working prototypes, investigating new ways of approaching user interactions.
  
  He has several degrees including a MAS from MIT, an MFA in digital media from RISD and a BFA in communication design from UConn. He has over 8 years of design experience and now works at Culture Robotics as senior engineer. Previous positions include MIT Lifelong Kindergarten as an industrial designer. Johnson & Johnson as Senior Interaction Designer. Senior Interaction Designer at IDEO.
  
  His personal work has been featured in CNET, The Huffington Post, the verge, Engadget, Mashable and Daily Mail. Dan was invited as a speaker at TEDx Vienna on the future of intimacy in 2016. His work was exhibited in Vitra Design Museum, MAK Wien, Design Museum Gent & Ars Electronica.
  
  Working in the realms of robotics, communication design, interaction design and product design, Dan explores the new ways of communication and human experience through working prototypes and storytelling, inviting a reflective evaluation and implication.

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  Max Fraser

  Design Commentator, London Design Guide

  2017 Design Concept Jury Member

  Max Fraser works as a design commentator across the media of books, magazines, exhibitions, video, and events to broaden the conversation around contemporary design. He delivers content and strategy for a variety of public and private bodies in the UK and abroad.
  
  He is the author of several design books including DESIGN UK and DESIGNERS ON DESIGN, which he co-wrote with Sir Terence Conran. He owns Spotlight Press, a publishing imprint, recent titles include LONDON DESIGN GUIDE and DEZEEN BOOK OF IDEAS. As a journalist, he writes for publications including Newsweek International, Financial Times, CNN Style and Blueprint. Previously, he worked as the Deputy Director of the London Design Festival from 2012-2015.

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  Benjamin Hubert

  Founder, Layer

  2017 Design Concept Jury Captain

  Benjamin Hubert is an award-winning British design entrepreneur, and founder of creative agency, LAYER. The new agency is the evolution of Benjamin Hubert Ltd. and is focused on experience-driven design for both the physical and digital worlds.
  
  Benjamin graduated from Industrial Design & Technology at Loughborough University in 2006, and began his career at DCA Design, the largest design consultancy in the UK. He moved to London in 2007 to work for internationally renowned design consultancy Seymour Powell as senior industrial designer on a variety of prestigious projects, including Eurostar interiors. He then joined Tangerine, the agency at which Jonathan Ive worked prior to Apple.
  
  In October 2010, at the age of 26, Benjamin founded Benjamin Hubert Ltd. with the aim of creating long-lasting products that would truly connect with people and become new heirlooms.
  
  Following five successful years of growth working with the world’s foremost interior product, luxury and consumer goods brands, Benjamin wanted to establish a platform to fully represent the studio’s multi-layered approach to design and its growing roster of creative partners.
  
  LAYER launched in September 2015, with a focus on creating meaningful experiences based on extensive research and human behaviours. The new holistic design practice incorporates a more diverse creative toolbox, including industrial design, mechanical and electrical engineering, user experience design, user interaction design, branding, and human-centred research.
  
  Benjamin has received a number of awards, including the RedDot Design Award, iF Design Award, and London Design Museum’s Designs of the Year.

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  Jakob Kristoffersen

  Design- and Concept Manager, Bang & Olufsen

  2017 Design Concept Jury Member

  Jakob Kristoffersen, by formal title; as Concept & Design Manager for B&O PLAY by Bang & Olufsen, doesn’t really say much. His craft is creative direction, but he sees the essence of his role in designing and nurturing EXPERIENCES, ideas – concepts. a Storyteller. Spending time understanding the unarticulated drivers of urban creative individuals. Curating design strategies and philosophies down to products answering those needs. Directing the creative process of concepts to realize these in luxuriously simple beautiful designs in tune with tones and styles in the time.
  Packs a background in start-ups in Silicon Valley, educated in Global Business Engineering and Innovation Management from Denmark, Business Administration and Design at Harvard Business School and Harvard University in Boston, business development in China, and a detour to management consulting. A fan of emotional- and rational passion. Speaks Chinese. Coat size 48.

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  Ani Liu

  Designer, Experimental Artist & Speculative Technologist

  2018 Design Concept Jury Captain

  Ani Liu is a designer, experimental artist and speculative technologist working at the intersection of art & science. A recent member of MIT Media Lab, she creates research-based art that explores the social, cultural & emotional implications of emerging technologies.
  
  Ani's work has been presented at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Asian Art Museum, MIT Museum, MIT Media Lab, Wiesner Gallery, Harvard University, and media channels such as VICE, Gizmodo, TED, FOX and WIRED.
  
  In 2014-15 she lead the research program in Sensory Mediation at the Harvard Center for Green Buildings and Cities, exploring how information visualization and augmented reality, can be harnessed to extend the human sensorium to redefine spatial experience. She taught as an Associate Instructor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where she co-taught an advanced-level architectural studio called Architecture of Cultural Prosthetics: Tools for Communication and Expression in the Public Space with Krzysztof Wodiczko. She has served on numerous design panels at esteemed institutions including Dartmouth College, MIT, University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University.
  
  Ani has a B.A. from Dartmouth College, a Masters of Architecture degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and a Master of Science from MIT Media Lab. She is on the committee of Art Scholars at MIT. Ani continually seeks to discover the unexpected, through playful experimentation, intuition, and speculative storytelling. Her studio is based in New York City.

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  Chris Woebken

  Co-founder, Extrapolation Factory

  2018 Design Concept Jury Member

  Chris Woebken is a designer, researcher and educator living and working in Brooklyn. Chris teaches at New York University’s Integrated Digital Media (IDM) program and he co-founded the Extrapolation Factory, a studio developing experimental methods for collaboratively prototyping, experiencing and impacting future scenarios. Chris's work was awarded the Core77 Design Award in the Speculative Design category, got nominated for the Design Museum’s Designs of the Year award and received the NYFA Fellowship in Digital/Electronic Arts. Chris's work has been exhibited at MoMA in New York, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and the Design Museum in London. Chris holds an MA in Design Interactions from the Royal College of Art in London.