Jury Alumni

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  Charles Erdman

  Head of Product Design, Small Planet

  2021 Strategy & Research Jury Member

  Charley is a creative executive building value at the intersection of human behavior and technology. He sees his job as helping energize digital teams to imagine strategically; think laterally; and create efficiently. Charley has led cross-functional teams building digital products and communications for Fortune 500 clients such as Adobe, Microsoft, Charles Schwab, Comcast, Disney, Lucas Film, and Intuit. He learned his craft at world-class agencies like Ogilvy, Razorfish, the Amp Agency, CP+B, and now Brooklyn-based, Small Planet.

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  Victor Ermoli

  Dean of the School of Design, Savannah College of Art and Design

  2020 Built Environment Jury Captain

  Victor Ermoli is currently the Executive Director of eLearning and Dean for the School of Design at the Savannah College of Art and Design, a member of the Industrial Design Society of America and the Design Futures Council. He is currently responsible for the Industrial Design, Design Management, Service Design, Design for Sustainability, Interaction Design, Marine Design, User Experience (UX) Design, and Creative Business Leadership programs at SCAD. He has created with his team more than ten academic programs, including Service Design (Only one in the United States), Industrial Design, Design Management, Design for Sustainability, User Experience (UX) Design, Accessory Design, and Luxury Fashion Management; just to mention few. In addition, he is responsible for the management and direction of the eLearning Department for the whole University. This department develops and administers all the online courses and degrees offered by SCAD

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  Ryan Essmaker

  Editorial and Creative Director, The Great Discontent

  2016 Visual Communication Jury Member

  Ryan Essmaker is an NYC-based creative director, designer, and photographer. He is a partner at the creative studio, Wayward Wild, and cofounder of The Great Discontent, a print and online magazine featuring timeless conversations with today’s artists, makers, and risk-takers. Launched as a digital-only magazine in 2011, TGD has grown to include film projects, events, and print. Prior to TGD, Ryan served as Creative Director and Head of Product at Crush & Lovely in NYC, and ran his own design and development studio in Michigan.

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  Darrell Etherington

  Writer, Techcrunch

  2015 Open Design Jury Member

  Darrell Etherington is a writer at Techcrunch.

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  Nina Etnier

  Co-founder, Float Studio

  2021 Built Environment Jury Member

  Nina Etnier is the co-founder of Float Studio, a design firm focusing on workplaces since 2013. She studied graphic design, marketing, and psychology at American University, then moved to London and shifted her focus towards interiors, completing her graduate degree in Interior Spatial Design at Chelsea College of Art and Design in 2009. Along with her business partner, she was named Contract Magazine’s 2019 Designer of the Year, and her history managing large scale projects and developing specific architectural details and custom furniture allows her to create spaces that are faithful extensions of brands.

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  Cormac Eubanks

  Product Development Consultant, APX Product Design

  2019 Commerical & Industrial Equipment Jury Captain

  As a Product Development Consultant Cormac has worked with numerous high profile growth startup clients in Silicon Valley including Postmates on the development of the Serve sidewalk delivery robot.
  
  Cormac Eubanks was Vice President of Product Design at Skycatch - a drone company that uses flying robots to create data for customers in the construction industry. Previously, Cormac was the Product Development Director at frog where he worked for almost 10 years. frog is a global innovation firm that Creates and markets products, services and experiences for industries like consumer electronics and computers. Before that Cormac was a Mechanical Design Engineer at Rockwell Collins where he was responsible for mechanical design and analysis of Helmet Mounted Display System for F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and prototyping multiple external visor designs for flight-certified use.
  
  Earlier Cormac was the Lead Mechanical Designer at CVI Laser Corporation from 1999 to 2002. He was responsible for designing precision optical mounts for catalog and custom OEM applications. He holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering with a Minor in Engineering Design from Carnegie Mellon University.

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  Bill Evans

  Principal and Founder, Bridge Design

  2015 Commerical & Industrial Equipment Jury Member

  Bill Evans founded and leads Bridge Design which has focused for more than two decades on designing medical and life sciences products from handheld to the purely virtual. His broad and deep industry perspective has resulted in powerful cross-pollination of ideas that often anticipate consumer and medical trends. He is a sought-after speaker on design and innovation at conferences and has written extensively for industry media. He has also been a guest lecturer and student mentor at UC Berkeley's and Stanford University's industrial and product design programs. Bill has served on a number of boards, including the Venture Advisory Board for Kimberly-Clark, and the Editorial Advisory Board of industry leading publication Medical Device & Diagnostic Industry (MD&DI). He has also been named among the '100 Notable People' in the medical device industry by that same organization. Bill owns multiple patents and holds two masters level degrees, awarded jointly: an MDes in Industrial Design Engineering from the UK's Royal College of Art, and a DIC in Engineering from its sister, Imperial College.

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  Hugh Evans

  CEO and Co-Founder, FromHereOn

  2015 Strategy & Research Jury Member

  Hugh Evans is an entrepreneur and business designer with a focus on large scale enterprise transformation and using design practice in a business context. Since his first venture in 2002 he has founded and led the development of a business portfolio that has guided major transformation investments for organizations across 5 continents, generating more than US$100M in service revenues. Currently Hugh leads FromHereOn (www.fromhereon.com), which is an Enterprise Design firm focused on customer-led strategy, service transformation and redesigning how businesses operate. FromHereOn works with multinational organizations from offices in London and New York.

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  Angie Fang

  Co-founder, STUDIO NOWHERE

  2017 Furniture & Lighting Jury Member

  Angie Fang is a digital artist/designer and a co-founder of Studio NOWHERE. She works with diverse media and cross-discipline approaches to express her world through different art forms including sculpture, audiovisual and interactive installations.
  
  She received her MFA degree from Goldsmiths, University of London, where her research focused on the tension between sound, space and visual elements, and also the subtle experience between the technology synthesised and the reality. Most of her works attempt to represent pseudo-natural, material sensory environment, yet with characteristics of the computational and digital at its heart. Her works has been exhibited 2015 London design week at Victoria & Albert Museum, UK.

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  Sarah Fathallah

  Social Designer and Researcher

  2021 Health & Wellness Jury Member

  Sarah Fathallah is an independent designer, researcher, and educator, who specializes in applying participatory research and design to the social sector, with impact-driven clients like the International Domestic Workers Federation, the International Rescue Committee, and Open Society Foundations, to name a few. Sarah co-founded Design Gigs for Good, a free community-driven resource to help more people use the tools of design to create positive social change. Sarah is a graduate of Sciences Po Paris, where she studied International Business and Middle Eastern and Mediterranean Affairs. She also studied design innovation at the Paris Est d.school, User Experience design at General Assembly, and participatory design at MIT.

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  Karen Feder

  Head, MFA, Design for Play, Design School Kolding

  2023 Toys & Play Jury Member

  Karen Feder is the head of the world’s first international Design for Play Master’s Program at Design School Kolding, educating the next generation of play designers. The program recognizes the understanding of play as a prerequisite for designing high quality toy design. The curriculum is based on research within play and toy design qualified through dialogue with institutions around the world and in collaboration with experienced toy design companies.
  
  Karen is an assistant professor, in the LAB for Play & Design, where she does research in child-centered design for play and how to teach designers to design opportunities for play from a child-centered perspective. Her current research focusses on how taking the starting point in the children and their everyday lives, can lead to more relevant and meaningful design for children.
  

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  Ian Ferguson

  Founder, PostlerFerguson

  2017 Consumer Product Jury Captain

  Ian Ferguson (born USA 1977) studied Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he received a B.Science in Architectural Design in 2000. In 2007, he received his MA Design Products at the Royal College of Art.
  
  Along with Martin Postler, he is a founder and director of PostlerFerguson, an industrial design office creating products for a meaningful future. PostlerFerguson works with clients to design and develop products combining bold creative vision with refined technical solutions.
  
  In 2011, he also co-founded PostlerFerguson’s sister company in Hong Kong, Papafoxtrot, a lifestyle and wood toy company. They produce a range of wood toys based on modern industrial marvels and the Staeckler shoe display systems. Their products have received accolades and awards including nominations for the Designs of the Year by London’s Design Museum, and Space.com’s Space Age Award.
  
  He has worked extensively as an architect, for firms including Testa + Weiser (Los Angeles), Hideto Horiike + Urtopia (Tokyo), and Ove Arup (London). He has taught architecture and design at the Southern California Institute of Architects, University of California Los Angeles, Aarhus University and the Istituto Europeo di Design, and co-directed the first year architecture course at London Metropolitan University, and ran Platform 17 in the Royal College of Arts Design Products department from 2011 - 2015.

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  Felicia Ferrone

  Founder, f f e r r o n e design

  2023 Home & Living Jury Member

  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.

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  Louise Fili

  Director, Louise Fili Ltd.

  2018 Visual Communication Jury Member

  Louise Fili is director of Louise Fili Ltd, specializing in brand development for food packaging and restaurants. Formerly senior designer for Herb Lubalin, Louise Fili was art director of Pantheon Books from 1978 to 1989, where she designed close to 2,000 book jackets. She is co-author, with Steven Heller, of Italian Art Deco, British Modern, Dutch Moderne, Streamline, French Modern, Deco España, German Modern, Design Connoisseur, Typology, Stylepedia, Euro Deco, Scripts, Shadow Type, Stencil Type, and Slab Serif Type. Fili has also written and designed Elegantissima, Grafica della Strada, Graphique de la Rue, Gràfica de les Rambles, The Cognoscenti's Guide to Florence, and Italianissimo. A member of the Art Directors Hall of Fame, she has received the medal for Lifetime Achievement from the AIGA and the Type Directors Club.

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  Torgny Fjeldskaar

  Design Director, BMC Switzerland

  2015 Transportation & Mobility Jury Member

  Torgny initially studied mechanical engineering and earned a master's degree at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim. Later on he studied Transport Vehicle Design at Elisava Design School in Barcelona.After graduating he started working for Mazda at their European design center in Frankfurt, then moved to Cannondale Bicycles, where he was heading up the industrial design team. Five years later he went back to automotive design at BMW in Munich, and last year he returned to bicycles again and is now Design Director at BMC Switzerland. Torgny was awarded ôYoung Designer of the Yearö by the Norwegian Design Council in 2009, along with numerous IF Awards for his work at Cannondale.As a side-project Torgny has co-founded laisr.com, a small manufacturer of high-tech furniture. As a designer and design teacher he is interested in all sorts of transport vehicles and how urban design influences our habits and needs with respect to transportation.Torgny can be found on Twitter at @torgnyf.

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  Heather Fleming

  Founder and CEO, Catapult Design

  2017 Design for Social Impact Jury Member

  Heather Fleming is the CEO and co-founder of Catapult Design, a product and service design firm with an expertise in human-centered design for marginalized communities. Catapult partners with organizations to develop sustainable solutions that address technology and social issues such as: rural electrification, water purification and transport, food security, and improved health. Before starting Catapult, Heather was a product design consultant in Silicon Valley, designing products for a diverse range of corporate clients and an Adjunct Lecturer at Stanford University and California Academy of the Arts. In 2005, she co-founded and led a volunteer group, the Appropriate Technology Design Team (ATDT), focused on social impact design work through a professional chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) in San Francisco. Heather was named a Pop!Tech Social Innovation Fellow and World Economic Forum Young Global Leader for her work with EWB and Catapult Design. She is also a Board member for the Navajo Chamber of Commerce and serves on ASME’s Engineering and Global Development committee, chairing an initiative to create standardized evaluation metrics and design guidelines for products distributed in impoverished communities.