It is with much gratitude and admiration that we celebrate the jury alumni members of the Core77 Design Awards.
Lawrence Azerrad is a Los Angeles based Graphic Designer and Creative Director. Azerrad founded LADdesign, a graphic design studio dedicated to elevating our cultural experience through design excellence. Since 2001 LADdesign has created graphic design and comprehensive visual identity systems for clients such as Sting, Universal Music Group, UC San Diego, The Silversun Pickups, Esperanza Spalding, The Skirball Cultural Center, The Beach Boys, UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, Red Bull Sound Select, and over an Eighteen-year client relationship, spanning seven album packages for award-winning American alternative rock band, Wilco. Azerrad is the author of a Supersonic: Design and Lifestyle of Concorde, a design history of the aircraft to be published 2017. Azerrad is the chair for AIGA’s Design+Music program, a national initiative to explore how design thinking can can make a positive impact on the music industry and American culture at large through innovation and creative excellence.
Prior to opening LADdesign, Lawrence was an art director at Warner Bros Records, creating packaging and artwork for artists such as Miles Davis, and The Red Hot Chili Peppers. He has taught Graphic Design at Art Center College of Design, He currently serves as an Advisory Board Member for the Los Angeles chapter of the AIGA.
Kim Baer, principal of Los Angeles-based design studio KBDA is a strong believer in the power of design as a strategic tool. Her firm has created research-driven work for for-profit clients as diverse as Hyatt, and Nike, as well as nonprofits such as The Getty, the Hammer Museum, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles, and the LA Phil.
KBDA specializes in helping organizations hone their positioning. Once that messaging has been crafted, KBDA is well known for its focus on audience experience, whether it’s experienced online, in print or in an environment.
Consistently honored by every major design organization in the country, KBDA has produced work that has been featured in the Library of Congress and regularly published in design anthologies. Premiere design magazines such as Communication Arts and HOW have regularly showcased the firm’s work and methodology.
Kim Baer served on the national board of the AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts) and received the Fellows Award from the Los Angeles chapter of AIGA in honor of lifetime achievement. She is the author of Information Design Workbook from Rockport Publishers, an in-depth look at best practices in information design from around the world. She is also on the Advisory Board for Art Center’s MFA Graduate Graphic Design program.
Since founding Chase Design Group in 1986, Margo’s vision has provided the fuel for Chase Design Group’s growth and achievement. Recognized worldwide for her skill with custom typography and identity development, Margo is dedicated to creating client success through high-quality, intelligent creative.
Over the past 30 years, Chase’s landmark identity design has gained international recognition. Building on early successes in the music business designing packaging for artists Madonna, Cher, Prince, Bonnie Raitt and others, Chase Design Group is now a bi-coastal creative agency with offices in Los Angeles and New York. Their award winning branding, packaging and design strategy has earned them a long roster of prestigious clients including Sun America, Belkin, The CW Network, Bolthouse Farms, Califia Farms, CVS/pharmacy, Discovery Communications, Mattel, Nestlé, Nike, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, Quaker, Starbucks, Stila Cosmetics and Target.
Margo was a 2009 recipient of the AIGA Fellows Award for her contributions to the field of Design. In a recent Graphic Design USA reader’s poll, Margo was one of only two designers to make the top ten in both “Most Influential Graphic Designers of the Era” and “Most Influential Graphic Designers Today”. Chase Design Group also was voted in the top ten “Most Influential Design Firms of the Era”. Among numerous other awards, Chase was selected as one of I.D. Magazine’s “I.D. Forty”. She was recently featured in the celebrated show “Women Designers in the USA, 1900-2000: Diversity and Difference” on exhibition in New York City. She has taught the highest level typography classes at Art Center College of Design and California Institute of the Arts.
Outside of the office, you will find her flying upside down. She competes nationally in aerobatics and is the 2014 western regional champion in the advanced division.
Maria is the Executive Creative Director and Partner at Creable, a strategic brand design agency with offices in Culver City, Bogota and Cincinnati. Originally from Bogotá, Colombia, Maria’s career started in advertising as she worked at Procesos Creativos / Euro RSCG, Bogota where she led the design department for many years. After gaining recognition by winning first place on the Premios Nacionales de Cultura 1996, she decided to follow her design career abroad and attend the prestigious Art Center College of Design where she graduated with Honors. Maria is also the mother of two awesome boys and splits her time between Los Angeles and Bogota.