Jury Alumni

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  Danny Kuo

  Designer

  2017 Furniture & Lighting Jury Member

  Danny Kuo is a Dutch designer currently based in Shanghai.
  As a designer he wants to address the issue of our changing reality as a result of technological progress. This is why flexibility and adaptability are the keywords with regard to both his work and his life. By creating effective products he wants to improve our lives and offer something we can enjoy.
  When Danny Kuo designs his objects, he is not only concerned about playful flexibility but also about enhanced usability.

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  Ben Hughes

  Founder, A4

  2017 Furniture & Lighting Jury Member

  Ben Hughes is a designer, educator and author who has worked for consultancies in UK, Australia and Taiwan. From 1999 to 2011 he was the Director of Postgraduate Industrial Design at Central Saint Martins. In 2011 he relocated to Beijing where was Professor of Industrial Design at the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) until 2016. In 2019 he was appointed Director of the International Design Centre at Beijing Institute of Technology. He continues to run his own design studio, A4, in CaoChangDi, Beijing.

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  Hlynur V. Atlason

  Founder, ATLASON

  2020 Furniture & Lighting Jury Member

  Hlynur V. Atlason, leads his eponymous design studio ATLASON, based in Manhattan. Leading a team of world-class strategists, innovators and designers, practicing a method of design, deeply informed by research, brand and craft. ATLASON delivers strategy, design innovation and manufacturing expertise, guaranteeing everything imagined, can be made.
  
  ATLASON/studio, his own product design firm founded in 2004, has since built a comprehensive portfolio of furniture, consumer lifestyle products and packaging in collaboration with MoMA, DWR, Ercol, Umbra, Artecnica, Estée Lauder, Microsoft, and Stella Artois.
  
  Hlynur is an adjunct lecturer at School of Visual Arts, Products of Design Masters Degree Program, NYC.

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  David Kennedy

  VP of Sales, Berndhart Design

  2020 Furniture & Lighting Jury Member

  David Kennedy is the Vice President of Sales at Bernhardt Design, the globally renowned design brand. A life-long design enthusiast, David is an experienced executive having spent over 20 years’ in luxury furniture sales, design and manufacturing. Prior to joining Bernhardt Design, David has held executive positions at Design Within Reach / Herman Miller, DEDON, Brown Jordan and Century Furniture. David is a former ASID national board member of and serves as a corporate advocate of Be Original Americas.

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  Kilian Schindler

  Founder, Bureau Kilian Schindler

  2019 Furniture & Lighting Jury Member

  Kilian Schindler studied product design in Germany and France. Werner Aisslinger, James Irvine, and Stefan Diez amongst others have overseen his projects. Since setting up his multi-disciplinary design bureau he has realized commissioned projects for internationally renowned companies in different fields: from product design to furniture as well as exhibition design.
  
  Since 2014 Kilian Schindler is doing the creative direction for TOLIX, France. His works have been recognized with coveted design awards, including German Design Award (gold), IF Product Design Award (gold) as well as the Red Dot Design Award. His designs were exhibited and published worldwide.
  
  Kilian Schindler has been teaching as visiting professor in the Product Design department at -Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung- (University of Arts and Design) in Karlsruhe, Germany.

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  Patricio Hernandez-Ysasi

  Co-Founder, Casa Ysasi

  2023 Furniture & Lighting Jury Member

  Patricio “Pato” Ysasi is a co-founder at Casa Ysasi; a Los Angeles-based creative studio with an emphasis on light. Patricio is a Los Angeles-based art director and filmmaker whose work explores the intersection of photography, film, and text. Since graduating from Cornell University, Patricio has worked in collaboration with Farm League, MACRO, and Tortoise.

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  Inigo Hernandez-Ysasi

  Co-Founder, Casa Ysasi

  2023 Furniture & Lighting Jury Member

  Iñigo Ysasi is a co-founder at Casa Ysasi; a Los Angeles-based creative studio with an emphasis on light.
  Iñigo self-taught designer constantly experimenting with new mediums from wood to neon all the way to concrete. He is driven by curiosity and the combination of nontraditional materials in new formats. He moved to LA back in 2016 to join a large technology company while simultaneously pursuing a creative profession in his free time. He worked for a furniture company before co-founding Casa Ysasi with his brother Patricio Ysasi in 2020.
  

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  Chris Liljenberg Halstrøm

  Founder, Chris L. Halstrom

  2018 Furniture & Lighting Jury Member

  Chris Liljenberg Halstrøm was born 1977 and lives and works in Copenhagen, Denmark. Halstrøm mainly works with furniture and smaller objects for the home always taking a starting point in everyday situations. She finds it interesting to work with familiarity and neutrality as topics in order to create new expressions and purposes for objects. This applies whether working with companies such as Skagerak, Frama and +Halle or with objects for exhibitions. In 2017 she received the Three Year Work grant from The Danish Arts forundation / Statens Kunstfond.
  
  She established her own studio in 2007 after graduating from The Royal Danish Academy in Copenhagen with prior studies in Stockholm, Sweden and Berlin, Germany.
  
  In addition to running her own studio, Halstrøm is part of the duo INCLUDED MIDDLE with textile designer Margrethe Odgaard. Together, they design furniture and objects from the two simple questions; what if colour and pattern are seen as something suggesting form and what if form is seen as something suggesting pattern.

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  Fernando Ramirez

  Co-founder and Designer, Common Object

  2024 Furniture & Lighting Jury Member

  Fernando Ramirez is a designer dedicated to exploring the intersection of sustainability and community and how it drives value in design. Specializing in industrial design, furniture design, and environmental design, he has left his imprint on diverse projects, collaborating with both major corporations and innovative startups. His deep commitment to sustainability propels him beyond conventional boundaries, driving him to explore pathways that lead into the realm of regenerative thinking.
  
  As a co-founder of Common Object, a design studio aligned with his values for people and the planet, Fernando has forged a path guided by these principles. At the core of his studio's philosophy is a "planet- centered" design approach, empowering companies to take steps toward sustainability while fostering more inclusive connections with people. Their versatile portfolio spans industrial, furniture, medical, and interiors. A notable aspect of their work involves community projects, actively participating in co-design workshops specifically crafted to empower and uplift communities.
  
  Common Object's experience in sustainability has led to the studio's regenerative design experiment, Okaterra—a project that focuses on creating regional supply chains that collaborate with farmers to create materials for furniture. Since its release, Fernando and his design partner, Justin Beitzel, have seamlessly integrated workshops and talks into their studio flow. They are diligently working to share this thinking and posing the question, “Can the future of product design be regenerative?”

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  Constance Guisset

  International Designer, Constance Guisset Studio

  2016 Furniture & Lighting Jury Member

  Born in 1976, Constance Guisset lives and works in Paris.
  
  After studying at ESSEC business School and Sciences-Po Paris, then a one-year internship at Japan Parliament in Tokyo, she chooses to turn towards design and enters ENSCI design school from which she graduates in 2007.
  
  In 2008, she is awarded the “Grand Prix du Design de la Ville de Paris”, wins the Prize for the Public of the Design Parade at La Villa Noailles (Hyère, France), as well as two grants from the VIA (French institute for the valorisation of innovation in design). In 2010, she is named among the “ten designers of the year” in Maison & Objet, Now! Design à vivre and wins the Audi Talents Awards.
  
  Constance Guisset establishes her own studio in Paris in 2009. She works with many French and international furniture editors like Molteni, Petite Friture, Moustache, etc. She also designs industrial objects for companies like La Cie – Seagate or travel accessories for Louis Vuitton Malletier for instance.
  
  Since 2009, she has realized the stage designs of several shows, among which Angelin Preljocaj’s solo, Le Funambule, Laurent Garnier’s Concert in Salle Pleyel in Paris in 2009 or Angelin Preljocaj’s ballet Les Nuits presented in Théâtre National de Chaillot in Paris. She also conceived stage design for exhibitions for the Arts Décoratifs museum in Paris, the Villa Noailles, or for brands like Established & Sons or Molteni (2011, Paris Designers’ days award for best scenography).
  
  She developed a new concept of interior design for Accor hotel group Suite Novotel. It has been deployed in The Hague and Paris in 2014.
  
  Her work finds applications in industrial design, stage design, interior design and videos. It is guided by an interest for illusion, lightness and surprise. She creates moving objects to raise amazement and fascination.

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  Claire Thomas

  Campaigner, Design for 99

  2015 Furniture & Lighting Jury Member

  Claire is interested in the social value of design, and runs the new campaign Designfor99.org. She brings her experience of working with internationally acclaimed designers, architects and cultural organizations, advising communications strategy, running high level media campaigns and lobbying for government policy to support the design, technology and manufacturing industries.Clients and projects include - Design Museum London, Ron Arad Architects, Venice Biennale commissions by John Pawson and Zaha Hadid for Swarovski, Formafantasma for Established & Sons, Serpentine Pavilion designed by Peter Zumthor, London 2012 Cultural Olympiad, Bloomberg's contemporary art commission and the young creatives programme at the Roundhouse, Rolex Awards for Enterprise, Design Ventura sponsored by Deutsche Bank, and PR at Dyson including the James Dyson Awards. The brilliance of the inventors, artists, scientists and makers she met along the way inspired the creation of a campaigns agency that champions ingenious solutions to social, environmental and civic challenges.

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  Jillian Choi

  Director of Global Exhibitions, Design Miami

  2021 Furniture & Lighting Jury Member

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  Estelle Bailey-Babenzien

  Business Founder, Creative Director and Interior Designer, Dream Awake Studio

  2022 Furniture & Lighting Jury Member

  Estelle Bailey-Babenzien is of British and Ghanaian descent and was born and raised in the UK. She graduated from Central Saint Martins in London, with an honors degree in Fashion- communication and promotion, and moved straight to New York City. Since then, she has built her career as a creative director in the fields of music, fashion, and interior architecture and design. In 2015, she cofounded the men's/unisex clothing brand Noah with her husband, designer Brendon Babenzien. Noah has two stores in the United States, two stores in Japan, and shop-in-shops in three Dover Street Market stores globally. Simultaneously, Estelle continues to grow her design studio, Dream Awake Design, which focuses on experiential and interior design, and creative direction for commercial and residential projects and brands. She lives in Brooklyn, NY, with her husband and their six year-old daughter, Sailor.

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  Jaye Buchbinder

  Director of Product, Emeco

  2023 Furniture & Lighting Jury Captain

  Born and raised in Long Beach, California, Jaye studied Sustainable Engineering at Stanford and currently works at Emeco in Product Development and Sustainability, where she chairs out of recycled materials. She lives and surfs in Venice Beach, California.

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  Eny Lee Parker

  Founder, Eny Lee Parker

  2022 Furniture & Lighting Jury Member

  Eny Lee Parker is a spatial designer based in New York, emphasizing in objects, furniture and lighting, using clay as her main medium. Parker reclaims the essence of making used in traditional craft from our past – the slowness, the intention, the respect for natural resources, creating contemporary objects that brings awareness to our presence as well as to non-living things.

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  Gabriel Tan

  Founder, Gabriel Tan Studio & Creative Director, Ariake, Gabriel Tan Studio

  2019 Furniture & Lighting Jury Captain

  Gabriel Tan is the principal and founder of Gabriel Tan Studio, a design practice working across the borders of craft, culture and technology. The studio is interested in new ways to interpret luxury and break archetypes and clients include Blå Station, Design Within Reach, The Conran Shop, Ishinomaki Lab, Takata Lemnos, Abstracta and Authentics. Gabriel is also the creative director of Japanese furniture brand Ariake and Singapore based Turn Handles.
  
  The works of Gabriel Tan have been exhibited in Milan, New York, Stockholm, London, Paris, Tokyo, Barcelona, Singapore and he has guest lectured at Lasalle College of the Arts, National University of Singapore, University of Oregon, Pratt Institute and also served as a jury member at the Inde Awards and Cannes Lions Festival.