Jury Alumni

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  José Bernabé

  Designer - Letterer - Illustrator, Jose Bernabe Studio

  2019 Packaging Jury Member

  José Bernabé is a Designer & Illustrator based in the city of Amsterdam focus on custom typography, lettering and illustration.
  
  He uses a mix of typography, lettering and illustration, into digital and traditional techniques, achieving vibrant visual solutions and flexible in styles depending of the communication to deliver.
  
  Since he moved to Amsterdam He has worked for some remarkable agencies like JWT Amsterdam and Havas Worldwide making artwork for main brands like ING, BMW, Unilever...
  
  Now running his own studio, José has made work for brands like Nike, Adobe, Nickelodeon, Amazon, FWA, Old Spice, Adidas, KLM, XXL, SteelSeries, Gategroup, Hither & Yon, Citroën, Nutricia, Dalí Speakers, MediaMonks among others.

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  Shujan Bertrand

  Founder, CEO, Aplat LLC

  2015 Consumer Product Jury Member

  Shujan (Shu) Bertrand is a spirited, forward-thinking industrial designer and business consultant driven by sustainability. She uses geometry, nature, sensory intelligence, and human-centered design concepts to create sustainable products and sustainable business approaches that embrace the simplicity of nature and inspire positive change.
  
  Her passion for zero-waste, food, and community led her to found Aplat, a culinary design company that uses 100% organic cotton and zero-waste production practices in San Francisco, CA. Inspired by the French Art de Vivre, Aplat creates sustainably made culinary and garden totes that uplift the daily practice of sharing the good things we cook, eat, drink, and gift.
  
  Shu is an award-winning industrial designer with 20+ years of experience. With a stellar background in soft good design, advanced concept design, product development, design research and strategy, she has influenced brands around the globe, translating her product design experience, product development, strategy, research, and insights into new product and business opportunities.
  
  Shu Bertrand has worked internationally in Paris, Milan, and Seoul. She has led design teams and projects for studios such as Astro Studios to IDEO, and for brands such as Incase, Steelcase, Nike, Samsung, LG Electronics and Procter & Gamble. She has served on the design jury team for the 2019 IDEA Awards and the Cannes Lion Innovation Awards in France.
  
  Today, Shu brings the foundational concepts of her circular design and manufacturing business to work for the marketplace. By paying homage to the bigger meaning of human experience and folding together the powers of collaboration and intuition, Shu helps environmentally-minded entrepreneurs and businesses create sustainable products and practices that nourish, spark, shape the future.

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  Kevin Bethune

  Founder and Chief Creative Officer, dreams • design + life

  2021 Consumer Technology Jury Captain

  Kevin Bethune is the Founder & Chief Creative Officer of dreams • design + life, a "think tank" that delivers design & innovation services using a human-centered approach. Kevin's background spans engineering, business and design in equal proportion over his 25+ year career, positioning him to help brands deliver meaningful innovations to enrich people's lives.
  
  His work represents creative problem-solving that brings multidisciplinary teams together to see the future through an open aperture, and a deep industrial design approach to inform and influence desirable, feasible and business-viable design outcomes.
  
  Kevin began his career as a mechanical engineer in the nuclear power industry. This chapter gave him deep product experience working with high performing teams across 14 nuclear reactor upgrade campaigns. After his MBA, Kevin joined Nike, Inc. in a business capacity, but quickly navigated to the Global Footwear product engine to drive advanced digital product creation capabilities, discovering the world of design in the process. After solidifying his creative foundation through further studies at ArtCenter College of Design, Kevin co-founded distinct design & innovation capabilities at two Tier 1 management consulting firms in Booz & Co. and the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). As Vice President of Strategic Design at BCG Digital Ventures, he led a large cohort of designers that would influence and shape every corporate venture spun out from the incubator. Kevin left BCG Digital Ventures to carve his own path under the banner of dreams • design + life, focusing on unlocking human potential through strategic design, industrial design and the building of new ecologies.
  
  Kevin also serves as a Board Trustee for ArtCenter College of Design and a Board Director for the Design Management Institute (DMI).

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  Nadia Beyzaei

  Sessional Faculty & Health Design Lab Staff, Emily Carr University of Art + Design

  2022 Health & Wellness Jury Member

  Nadia Beyzaei (MRes, BSc) is a designer and researcher working in the spaces of health and community engagement. Nadia is the Coordinator of the Health Design Lab at Emily Carr University and an instructor in the Faculty of Design + Dynamic Media. Through her role at the Health Design Lab, Nadia has been a communication designer and design researcher on Indigenous health, aging, and complex care projects, while supporting the dissemination of research both locally and internationally.
  
  Nadia holds a Master of Research in Healthcare + Design degree from the Royal College of Art, with her thesis work focusing on how design can enhance engagement in evidence-based medicine.
  
  Through her 7 years at BC Children's Hospital Research Institute, Nadia has worked on a range of behavioural health research projects, including UX/UI projects which aim to improve access to care, and service design projects across clinics at BC Children's Hospital. Her practice focuses on making complex topics accessible and approachable through visual and strategic design.

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  Zoé Bezpalko

  Sustainability Strategy Manager - Design & Manufacturing, Autodesk

  2024 Sustainability Jury Member

  Zoé Bezpalko is an environmental engineer, and designer who strongly believes in the strategic use of technology and design as keys for solving global issues like climate change. At Autodesk she leads the sustainability strategy for the Design & Manufacturing industries where she develops innovative technology to help customers reduce the environmental footprint of their design and make processes, and reach their sustainability goals.

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  Alisha Bhagat

  Futures Lead, Forum for the Future

  2022 Speculative Design Jury Captain

  Alisha Bhagat is a futurist and strategist whose work focuses on the creative use of futures tools such as strategic foresight and scenarios planning to impact long term positive change, particularly around social justice. She is based at Forum for the Future, a non-profit, and is a part-time faculty member at Parsons School of Design. Alisha is passionate about changing the narrative around who the future is for - and convenes the Diaspora Futures Collective, a group of POC working on decolonizing, reframing, and taking action for the future. When she isn't thinking about the future, Alisha is an avid gamer and science fiction nerd. She holds degrees from Carnegie Mellon University and Georgetown University.

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  Niti Bhan

  Designer, Emerging Futures Lab (consulting) and Ymmärrys ry (non-profit)

  2022 Consumer Technology Jury Member

  After 30 odd years in the global design industry opening doors to new markets through exploratory user research, concept design, and innovation strategies, Niti is pursuing a part time PhD in Product Development at Aalto University, Finland. Her research explores the contribution of collaborative design practices to foster agency and capacity for innovation as a resilience strategy to shocks for micro-enterprises. Her design approach is a transdisciplinary one where participants generate the actionable knowledge for designing their own innovation and transformation roadmaps

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  Nootan Bharani

  Associate Director, Design & University Partnerships, Arts + Public Life

  2023 Built Environment Jury Member

  Nootan Bharani is a fierce champion of the continuum of communities and a thoughtful leader of processes to shape places where people want to be. An architect with a deep background in environmental sustainability, Nootan has a propensity toward existing buildings and in-between spaces, and has spent most of her career in non-traditional practice, working directly with neighborhood partners on projects at a wide variety of scales. Nootan is currently the Associate Director of Design and University Partnerships at Arts + Public Life, and a lecturer in the Humanities Division, at the University of Chicago. Previously, Nootan was Lead Design Manager for Place Lab at the University of Chicago where she was thought and practice leader for building projects. Prior to coming to the University of Chicago, she was Managing Director for CB&I Sustainable Design Solutions of Illinois. Nootan is also a volunteer in Chicago Public Schools where her children attend, co-leading initiatives for caregivers of students with disabilities.

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  John Bielenberg

  Partner, Future Partners

  2016 Design for Social Impact Jury Member

  John Bielenberg is a designer, entrepreneur, and imaginative advocate for creating a better world through the application of creativity and ingenuity. John co-founded Future Partners, a Silicon Valley Innovation firm, in 2012 to teach Rapid Ingenuity Practices to individuals, teams, and organizations around the world. In 2001, John co-founded C2 Group, a brand strategy firm, to help leaders from technology start ups, Fortune 500 companies, and the world’s top business management consulting firms develop, build and protect their brands. In his career, John has won more than 250 design awards, including the AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts) Gold Medal for lifetime achievement.

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  Monika Bielskyte

  Futures Researcher/Futurist Designer, PROTOPIA

  2024 Speculative Design Jury Captain

  As the Founder of Protopia Futures, Monika Bielskyte is the architect of a platform and a community to proactively prototype inspiring and actually livable future visions. Her journey as a nomadic explorer in over 100 countries has given her first-person experience of the interconnectedness between human cultural priorities and the unfolding future.
  
  Monika was born in the Soviet Union, and grew up in the newly liberated Lithuania, before leaving the country at age 17. Her perspectives as a futurist have been shaped by the collapse of the physical boundaries of a totalitarian regime, and the opening up of the digital world – its opportunities and its harms. She currently resides in Johannesburg, South Africa – which gives her deeper insights into broader futures perspectives, beyond the imaginations of the Global North.
  
  Monika started her career as a creative – working on movie sets in her late teens and progressively moving towards the bleeding edge of technological innovation and scientific research by her mid-20s. Her multicultural and multidisciplinary background, as well as an uncompromising focus on the intricate relationship between future fictions and real-life, have guided her on a journey that makes her voice clearly distinct in today’s foresight industry.
  
  Monika has worked not only with established global media, tech and lifestyle companies such as Universal, Google, Nike, BBC and the WEF, but also various governments and cities. Her contributions have resonated across both industry corridors and academia, from The Royal
  Society to CERN.

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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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  Jonathan Black

  Co-founder, The Office of Ordinary Things

  2021 Packaging Jury Member

  Jonathan Black (he/him) is the co-founder of The Office of Ordinary Things, a socially- and environmentally-conscious design studio based in San Francisco. Jonny is hellbent on making sustainable graphic design the industry norm and shakes his fist at greenwashers, climate deniers, and people who chew gum near his ears. Jonny has an MFA in Visual Communication and has taught at The University of Arizona and The University of Colorado Boulder. His work has been published in AIGA Eye On Design, Communication Arts, Creative Review, It's Nice That, Dezeen, Fast Company, and jonnyiscool420.tumblr.com.

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  David Block

  Principal, Studio Redeye

  2022 Personal Accessory Jury Member

  After receiving his MID from Pratt Institute in 2005, David Block spent his early career at the well-known branding firm Desgrippes Gobe—now Brand Image—and other elite studios/brands. He founded Studio Redeye in 2013, with a focus on products in the juvenile, kitchen, and sports equipment categories. David specializes in designing products with and for innovative startups with whom he forms long-lasting relationships, helping these companies grow into leaders in their category.
  And now, you can understand Dave’s unique aesthetic. A rare mix of high-end craft with grounded sensibilities. He excels at making products that fit into your life, that you can connect with emotionally. His is a proven track record of award winning and exceptional design.