It is with much gratitude and admiration that we celebrate the jury alumni members of the Core77 Design Awards.
Ishmael strives to create products and experiences that are empathic and fueled by observation, intuition, and collaboration. He has been a pivotal part of the entire process, from research, concept development, production, and manufacturing liaison. Ishmael has accumulated many skills and experience over his extensive career. He has worked with some of the most renowned companies and various industries, from sporting goods to consumer tech, and collaborated with inspiring and dynamic startups. Ishmael focuses on bringing new and unexpected solutions to products and experiences and is passionate about creating holistic design solutions for all. Since joining Microsoft Windows and Devices team, over a year ago, Ishmael has led projects across a variety of categories and new horizons. Prior to joining Microsoft, Ishmael was design lead at MNML based in Chicago, where he led projects for Bang & Olufsen, Logitech, Adidas, Samsung, and many more startups.
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.
Business Insider's 23 most powerful Queer / LGBTQIA+ intersectional people in tech, Ana is a craftswomxn with 25 years of experience. Ana has shown creative leadership in product management, product design, and creative direction across new technology surfaces for consumer electronics, lifestyle experiences, UX/UI systems, and ethics & AI. Her talents have been recognized by iF Design Awards, Good Design Awards, EISA Awards, and Cool Hunting. Formerly with Facebook, Samsung, Monohm, Sony & PlayStation, Theranos and Apple, Ana is currently a General Manager & Partner leading product design, human research, design engineering for AI + Research, Search & Ads across Microsoft.
Her values are grounded in principles that every experience crafted should be - Human. Simple. Authentic.
For more than 17 years, Alexis has held a multitude of roles within the design and architecture industry, spanning editorial writing for a home and garden publication, marketing, consulting and client relations. Currently, Alexis serves as Senior Manager at the Diversity in Design (DID) Collaborative, which was initiated in 2021 to foster systemic change by increasing diversity and improving conditions for Black creatives across the design industry. DID is a group of companies united by a common belief in the critical role that diversity plays in creating strong, impactful businesses and innovations in the design world and beyond. Alexis lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two dogs, and is passionate about sustainability, supporting local businesses, and empowering youth.
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.
Divya Chaurasia is an award-winning industrial designer, with a background in engineering. An expert in user-centered research, sustainable practices and design for manufacturing, she has a Masters in Industrial Design from Pratt Institute, New York and Bachelor’s in Technology from Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India.
Currently, Divya works as a senior industrial designer and user experience lead at Spitfire Industry, a design consultancy based in Brooklyn, New York. She designs products and experiences for brands like Clorox, All Clad, Tefal, Bausch & Lomb, Cook’s Direct, Hunter Douglas, GoTrax, and Nectar. Divya’s work is inspired by the everyday pursuits of people. She is fascinated by the connection between humans, objects and environments, and captures this relationship in delightfully functional products. Her work has been exhibited at NYCxDesign and NYC Media Lab Annual Summit and received recognition by Chicago Athenaeum Good Design Award and International Design Awards.
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.
Felicia Ferrone is an architect, designer, academic, and entrepreneur. Her international namesake design brand f f e r r o n e- based in Chicago and Milan- is known for delivering the unexpected through a seemingly simple gesture. Born in Chicago, Felicia graduated with a degree in architecture from Miami University, Ohio after which she moved to Italy. Ferrone’s expansive reach is informed by her early experience as an architect in Milan, where she was first taught to “blur boundaries” in design.
Ferrone's award-winning designs have been widely exhibited, published internationally, and featured in numerous films and TV series. Several of her works are included in the Art Institute of Chicago’s Permanent Collection. In 2022 she was named Intellectual Property Law Association of Chicago’s Creator of the Year for her contribution to the field through her design and utility patents. Felicia was also included in Woman Made: Great Women Designs, published by Phaidon, recognized as 1 of 200 women who have shaped the history of design.
In addition to producing and distributing her own designs under her brand, Felicia is the director of Undergraduate Studies in Industrial Design and a Clinical Associate Professor atthe University of Illinois Chicago (UIC). Previously she was the Director of Graduate Studies from 2015-2022 and a lecturer at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) for many years at the beginning of her academic career.
Rebecca is the Director of Design for Goesling Group. She works at the intersection of forecasting, branding, and color material finish design to create visions for independent startups to Fortune 500 companies. Her experience spans from home appliances to activewear and decor to consumer electronics. In addition to her applied practice, she produces illustrations for culinary, fashion, and furnishing clients. She holds a BFA in Industrial Design from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign where she cultivated skills in research, artistic development, and technical application.
Pinar Guvenc is a partner of SOUR, an international, award-winning hybrid design studio with the mission to address social and urban problems through sustainable, adaptive, and inclusive methodologies. They are doing so by active end-user involvement and co-creation sessions throughout the design process. In addition to managing the business operations, Pinar also leads strategic planning, design research, and partnerships of the studio.
Pinar is also part-time faculty at Parsons School of Design, School of Design Strategies, and serves on the Board of Directors of Open Style Lab, a nonprofit organization initiated at MIT, with the purpose of making style accessible to people of all abilities. She created and teaches a strategic collaborations workshop series for the Pratt Center for Community Development and the Made in NYC initiative. She is also the author and instructor of the Inclusive Design class for the School of Visual Arts MFA Interaction Design, which is the first multidisciplinary inclusive design graduate course in the United States.
Pinar is a frequent public speaker and a guest lecturer and hosts the panels and podcasts of What's Wrong With, a series of discussions and podcasts with progress makers and experts to diagnose real problems, ideate solutions, and raise awareness to the general public.
Pinar has a BSc in Industrial Engineering and MSc in Economics & Finance.
Zeeshan Hakkim is an Industrial designer born and raised in India based in Chicago, Illinois at MNML. He completed his master’s degree in Product Design Management at ISD Rubika. His passion for design stems from an obsession towards creative problem solving by using, learning and adapting new tools into an ever-evolving design process. He believes that good design resides at the intersection of empathy and craft. Over the last 6 years he has had the opportunity to collaborate with small startups as well as fortune 500 companies to bring to life products from lifestyle brands, medical products, consumer electronics and furniture to name a few. Zeeshan’s skill sets span across multiple disciplines that include industrial design, product development, mechanical engineering, graphic design, packaging design, and branding.
Dickon Isaacs is the Founder + Creative Director of Clarity, www.wedesignclarity.com. Specializing in making sense of the complex, Dickon brings clarity to the abstract and unknown through innovative and commercially successful designs. He is an accomplished creative leader, combining his global corporate and consultancy experiences from Intuit, Motorola, and IDEO. Through deep experience, empathy and a fresh perspective, Clarity collaborates with speed to deliver design strategies, industrial design, and intuitive digital experiences. Current clients span a range of industries including FinTech, Home Automation, Sports + Leisure, and Precision Imaging.
A proud native and longtime resident of Mexico City, Daniela Macías is an NYC-based global industrial design manager with 15 years of experience, leading the creation of global household and consumer products for Colgate-Palmolive. In her current role as an Industrial Design Manager, she is responsible for the design leadership of expert cross-functional teams working on packaging structures and brand experiences for Personal Care, Pet Nutrition, and Home Care brands that hundreds of millions of people around the world love and use daily.
Throughout her career, she has overseen the design process of bottles, caps, bar soaps, dispensers, soluble pods, and new experiences across a variety of users, categories, brands, packaging formats, scopes, and markets. Her professional journey—starting at one of Colgate’s manufacturing facilities, moving up to regional corporate offices in Mexico City, and elevated to a cross-category industrial design development role at Colgate-Palmolive’s global headquarters in NYC—has forged her as a resilient industrial designer with deep empathy for both the business side and the people she designs for.
Josh Morenstein is a co-founder, partner, and creative director at Branch, an industrial design and branding agency in San Francisco.
Founded in 2013, Branch has been recognized for excellence and authority in a variety of projects in industrial design and brand consulting services to clients from Fortune 500s to start-ups. Branch’s work has been featured in publications including Fast Company, Vogue, Wired, Metropolis, Dezeen, and Wallpaper magazine. Fast Company Magazine has recognized Branch as one of the "30 Most Important Design Companies of the Year"
With over 20 years of design experience, Josh has led award-winning design teams on some of the most diverse and innovative projects ranging from furniture to electronics, consumer goods to packaging. Prior to founding Branch, Josh was creative director and partner at fuseproject as well as the Design Director at NewDealDesign.
Josh’s work for clients such as General Electric, Coca Cola, Johnson and Johnson, Prada, Issey Miyake, Swarovski, Samsung, Target, Puma,and L'Oréal established him at the forefront of marrying form with function, and of brand with product. Josh’s work has been exhibited in museums and competitions including the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Triennial, MOMA, and Chicago Art Institute, and has been recognized with over 50 international design awards from organizations such as IDSA, ID Magazine, iF, Fast Company, and Red Dot.
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.
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.).