It is with much gratitude and admiration that we celebrate the jury alumni members of the Core77 Design Awards.
Nalini P. Kotamraju is Vice President of User Research & Analytics at Salesforce, where she leads a cross-disciplinary team that drives insights for product design and development. She loves using data in all of its forms to create the best product experiences possible. Previously, she led user experience research at Microsoft Dynamics AX, Sun Microsystems Inc., and assorted dot.com companies. Nalini also worked in Denmark and the Netherlands as a professor of technology and society.
Nalini earned her a B.A. in Social Studies and her B.A. in Women’s Studies from Harvard College and a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of California at Berkeley.
Lionel is an innovation leader with a proven track record in large, complex organizations. He is passionate about galvanizing organizations around bold, customer-driven visions and empowering teams to do the best work of their lives. Currently the head of innovation at Intuit, Lionel leads a team of designers, researchers, marketers and storytellers to fuel innovation across the Small Business Group. Prior to joining Intuit in 2011, Lionel spent seven years at global innovation consultancy IDEO.
Susan serves as the Head of Strategy at IDEO’s office of the CEO. In this role, she works with IDEO’s senior leadership team stewarding change and growth initiatives across the firm.
A business and organizational designer by training, she is interested in exploring how established enterprises can embrace new ways of working. Her work on the Planned Parenthood Experience won a Fast Company Innovation by Design award in 2016.
Susan started her career in the early days of Google’s European Operations in Dublin. Her service in helping to scale and grow AdWords in EMEA and beyond was recognized with a Google Luminary award. She holds a BA in German Cultural Studies and Economics from Trinity College Dublin and an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.
La Shirl Turner is currently the Head of the Exterior and Interior Color and Materials team at FCA US LLC. She is responsible for the inspiration, research, development and coordination for all exterior and interior color and materials found in all FCA US vehicles. She has worked on vehicles such as the performance-driven 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon, the iconic Jeep® Wrangler and the innovative Chrysler Pacifica minivan. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts with a focus on Fiber and Textile design from the College for Creative Studies.
Shady Elias is a senior designer in the Advanced Color and Materials studio at FCA US LLC. He is responsible for and provides input on all interior colors and materials used on Chrysler, Dodge and SRT (Street, Racing and Technology) vehicles. He also provides support for all exterior color and trim across those FCA US brands. As a senior designer in the advanced color and materials studio, he works side-by-side with interior and exterior designers, brand and materials engineering to develop new, innovative interior and exterior trims and finishes for each vehicle. Most recently, Elias worked on the all-new 2017 Jeep® Compass, Jeep Renegade and the Chrysler Portal concept vehicle.
Elias earned a Master of Science in menswear design from the Academy of Art, San Francisco, and a Bachelor of Business Administration from The American University in Cairo. Prior to joining FCA, Elias was a children and menswear’s designer and has worked for Levi Strauss & Co. on their Levi’s and Dockers brands. He has also designed for brands such as Janie and Jack and The Northface.
Meredith Gannes began her automotive design career in Shanghai and she has continued to explore the different facets of automotive design over the past decade. As a design manager in the advanced color and materials studio at FCA US, she oversees interior color mastering and program information for all NAFTA vehicle programs. She spends the majority of her day working with FCA designers and suppliers to execute color and material for vehicle production. Additionally, Gannes manages a separate team that creates documents illustrating FCA vehicle interiors for internal and external use. Most recently, Gannes designed the color and materials for the latest Jeep® concept car, the YunTu, revealed at the 2017 Shanghai Auto Show. She also worked on the new Jeep Compass, as well as variations of the Fiat 500.
She earned her Bachelor of Arts in fashion and textile design from Michigan State University and her Master of Science in business administration from Wayne State University. She is passionate about design and enjoys working with her team of color, material and finish designers. When she is not working, she loves traveling and immersing herself in different cultures.
Kasia Lys is a Lead Senior Designer in the Advanced Color and Materials studio at FCA US LLC. While Lys is responsible for overseeing the selection of exterior body paint, trim and wheel finishes for all FCA US brands, she spends the majority of her time with the Ram Truck brand. From research to material development, she oversees design and creation of all colors and materials used within the interiors of the Ram Truck model lineup. She recently completed work on the all-new Ram 1500 unveiled at the 2018 North American International Auto Show.
Lys earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in interior design with a minor in textile design from the College for Creative Studies in Detroit. She enjoys a hands-on approach to design and appreciates highly crafted products and spaces.
Jennifer Kinon co-founded OCD | The Original Champions of Design with Bobby C. Martin Jr. OCD has developed brand identity systems for clients that range from the Girl Scouts of the USA to The New York Times, MTV and the NBA. During 2016, Kinon served as Design Director of Hillary for America. She has spoken about the role of brand identity systems around the world and served as President of AIGA/NY. Kinon graduated from the University of Michigan and earned an MFA from the School of Visual Arts, where she was the first graduate of the program to join its faculty.
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.
Osi Imeokparia has over 16 years as a product leader first at a venture-backed startup, and then at eBay and Google before joining the Hillary for America presidential campaign as the Chief Product Officer. Osi is now working at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) where the goal is to build a new type of philanthropic organization that brings engineering to social change at scale. At CZI, Osi leads the team responsible for building technology that will be applied to social justice fields like Criminal Justice Reform, Economic Opportunity, Housing Affordability, and Immigration Reform.
As Partner of Base, an international branding studio with a presence in New York, Brussels, and Geneva, Min spans the spectrum between design, strategy, and management. She has helped to build personality-driven brands for an eclectic range of clients that include MoMA, The New York Times, JFK Terminal 4, Meatpacking District, Neuehouse, Kiki de Montparnasse, Coca-Cola, Gagosian Gallery, Puma, Milk, Museum of Sex, L'Oreal, Le Pain Quotidien, Pantone, Wellesley College, Kanye West, and more.
A graduate of Yale University's MFA program, Min is an adjunct professor at the School of Visual Arts and a guest critic at Parsons School of Design. Next to passionately building brands and building Base, she is an adjunct professor at the School of Visual Arts, guest critic at Parsons The New School for Design, served as a board member of the AIGA/NY and served on the steering committee of NYCxDESIGN and is a regular speaker at design conferences.
Her work has been featured in and has contributed her thoughts on design and branding to publications that include The New York Times, Bloomberg Businessweek, The Wall Street Journal, Adweek, Creativity, Creative Review, Surface, Fast Company, and others.
Lola Sheppard received her B.Arch from McGill University and M.Arch from Harvard Graduate School of Design. She is Associate Professor at the University of Waterloo. Together with Mason White, she founded Lateral Office in 2003.
Lateral Office is an architecture practice that operates at the intersection of architecture, landscape, and urbanism. The studio describes its practice process as a commitment to design as a research vehicle to pose and respond to complex, urgent questions in the built environment, engaging in the wider context and climate of a project– social, ecological, or political. Lateral Office have been pursuing research and design work on the role of architecture in remote regions, particularly the North, for the past seven years. Lateral’s work tests the potential for architecture and infrastructure to be culturally responsive, geographically scalable, environmentally adaptable, and multi-purpose in its programmability.
The office’s work has been exhibited and lectured extensively across the USA, Canada and Europe. Lateral Office was awarded a Special Mention at the 2014 Venice Biennale for Architecture, a PA award in 2013 and the Holcim Gold for Sustainable Construction for North America, for their project Arctic Food Network. They received the Emerging Voices from the Architectural League of New York in 2011, and the 2010 Professional Prix de Rome from the Canada Council for the Arts. Lateral Office are the authors of the upcoming book Many Norths: Spatial Practice in a Polar Territory (Actar 2017) and of Pamphlet Architecture 30, COUPLING: Strategies for Infrastructural Opportunism, published by Princeton Architectural Press (2011). Sheppard and White are also co-editors of the journal Bracket.
Eva Franch is a New York based architect, curator, educator and lecturer of experimental forms of art and architectural practice. In 2004, she founded her solo practice OOAA (Office of Architectural Affairs) and since 2010 is the Chief Curator and Executive Director of Storefront for Art and Architecture in New York. Franch specializes in the making of alternative architecture histories and futures.
Franch has lectured internationally on art, architecture, and the importance of alternative practices in the construction and understanding of public life at educational and cultural institutions including the Royal college of Art and the Architecture Association in London, Arts Club of Chicago, Cooper Union in New York, Hong Kong University, IAAC in Barcelona, Izolatsia in Kiev, Kuwait University, SVA in New York, San Francisco Art Institute, Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam, University of Manitoba, UT Sidney, Oslo School of Architecture, Princeton University, SCI-Arc in Los Angeles , and Yale University among others.
In 2014 Franch, with the project OfficeUS, was selected by the US State Department to represent the United States Pavilion at the XIV Venice Architecture Biennale. Franch has taught at Columbia University GSAPP, the IUAV University of Venice, SUNY Buffalo, and Rice University School of Architecture.
Recent publications by Franch include Agenda (Lars Muller, 2014) and Atlas (Lars Muller, 2015) both as part of OfficeUS. An upcoming publication, the OfficeUS Manual will be published in 2017.
Sheila Kennedy is an American architect, innovator and educator. She is a founding Principal of KVA Matx, an interdisciplinary practice that designs architecture, urbanism and resilient infrastructure for emerging public needs www.kvarch.net. Designated as one of Fast Company’s emerging Masters of Design, Kennedy is described as an “insightful and original thinker who is designing new ways of working, learning, leading and innovating”. Kennedy is the 2015 recipient of the Rupp Prize, the 2014 Design Innovator Award and is the 2016 recipient with SELCO India of an Inventing Green grant from the Lemulson Foundation. Kennedy is Professor of the Practice of Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Kennedy directs KVA’s material research division MATx which works with industry leaders, universities and public agencies to explore new applications for natural and emerging materials. Kennedy’s work focuses on the design of public space and next generation resilient infrastructure in networked cities and urbanizing regions. MATx has developed designs for Dupont, Siemens, Osram, Herman Miller, 3M, The North Face, the United States Department of Energy, Volkswagen “Think Blue” and the green Electrical Utility Company of Portugal in Brazil. The KVA MATx Portable Light Project, a non-profit global initiative to create energy harvesting textiles in the developing world has been recognized with a 2012 Energy Globe Award, a 2009 US Congressional Recognition Award, the 2009 and 2012 Energy Globe Awards and a 2008 Tech Museum Laureate Award for technology that benefits humanity.
5468796 architecture is a Winnipeg-based studio established in 2007 by Johanna Hurme and Sasa Radulovic and joined shorty by the third partner Colin Neufeld. In the past [nearly] ten years the firm has achieved national and international recognition and its work has been published in over 200 books and publications. Project specific awards include Progressive Architecture Awards; Awards for Emerging Architecture & Future Project Award from from Architectural Review; Governor General Medals in Architecture and Awards of Excellence from the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada, as well as recognition as a finalist of IIT’s emerging MCHAP award on two consecutive years, to name a few. Firm recognitions include the 2014 Rice Design Alliance Spotlight Award, the RAIC Emerging Architectural Practice Award, WAN 21 for 21, as well as the Architectural League of NY Emerging Voices lecture series and the Design Vanguard issue of Architectural Record.
5468796 makes design advocacy an ongoing pursuit through critical practice, professorships at the Universities of Manitoba, Toronto and Montreal; and through numerous public engagements. In 2012 5468796 represented Canada at the Venice Biennale in Architecture and in 2013 they were selected as recipient of the 2013 Prix de Rome Award in Architecture for Canada by the Canada Council for the Arts.
In addition to practice Johanna + Sasa are activists and advocates. They are passionate about making architecture an integral part of broader culture by spearheading ventures like Table for 12 + 1200, Chair Your Idea and Design Quarter Winnipeg. Sasa is a member of the University of Manitoba Partner’s Program Executive Board and currently serves on the Presidential Advisory Committee for the selection of the Dean at the University of Manitoba.
Thomas O'Connor is an awarded Industrial Design consultant who thrives at the intersection of business, technology and user-centered design. He began consulting for PDT in 2010 where he's led multi-disciplinary teams ranging from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies. PDT is a Chicago based product development consultancy specializing in fast moving, regulated and complex industries ranging from medical devices, aerospace, consumer electronics, laboratory equipment and tactical communication devices.
Thomas has consulted for clients including AbbVie, Hospira, Smiths Medical, Harris, Thermofisher, Siemens, Bosch, 3M, Weber, McDonalds and Intel.
Most recently Thomas spent 4 months working in Shanghai as a consultant for Sinowell. Thomas led research and product development to help bring innovation to the commercial horticulture and hydroponics industry. Sinowell is a manufacturer and wholesaler of horticulture and hydroponics equipment.
Thomas is active in the Chicago start-up community, serves as a judge in Chicago's Tech Week Launch Competition and is an Industrial Design mentor at University of Illinois at Chicago.
Thomas grew up in the Motor City and received his BFA in Industrial Design from the College for Creative Studies in Detroit.