Jury Alumni

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  Amelia Black

  Director of Packaging, Blue Apron

  2020 Packaging Jury Member

  Amelia Black is a designer based in New York. She favors a human-centered approach that she applies to both physical products and digital experiences, bringing user insights into the design process as another material she can use to make ideas tangible.
  
  Amelia is currently the Director of Packaging at Blue Apron, where she leads new product innovation and design development for the brand. She is a passionate advocate for sustainable packaging and leads efforts to reduce waste and improve the company’s overall environmental impact. Prior to joining Blue Apron, she worked as a designer, researcher, and strategist at IDEO.org, Machine, and Arup.
  
  She is the co-founder of Studio Ana, a community-based ceramics studio in Williamsburg, Brooklyn where she still gets her hands dirty while also providing emerging potters with access to resources and equipment to build their own practices.

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  Bliss Buter-Thompson

  Sr. Structural Packaging Design Manager, Logitech

  2020 Packaging Jury Member

  As Senior Structural Packaging Design Manager at Logitech, Bliss balances consumer, business, and sustainable packaging needs across their 7 brands.
  
  Bliss earned a Bachelor's in Illustration from Massachusetts College of Art and Design and a Master's in Product Design and Development Management from Northwestern University. Her 15 combined years of agency, in-house, and supplier-side packaging experience have contributed to Bliss’s unique design perspective and a keen eye for function, form, and feasibility.

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  Heather Bybee

  Packaging Design Consultant

  2020 Packaging Jury Member

  Heather has been working in packaging design since the beginning of her industrial design career. Her packaging experience has spanned from helping startup brands launch their first consumer product to advising corporations on how smart packaging design can solve business and consumer challenges. She has worked for in-house teams and design agencies. Some brands Heather has worked for or with include OtterBox, Beats by Dre, Square, Lyft, Polaroid, and Microsoft. She holds a Master’s in Design Strategy and Innovation from Brunel University in London, England and a Bachelor’s in Industrial Design from Auburn University. Currently Heather works as a packaging design consultant.

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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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  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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  Hamish Thain

  VP Packaging, Ammunition

  2020 Packaging Jury Captain

  Founding member of the packaging design practice at Ammunition, based in Brooklyn NY.
  
  Hamish trained as an industrial designer, approaching packaging design from that perspective. Designing functional and delightful packaging experiences for consumer products.