It is with much gratitude and admiration that we celebrate the jury alumni members of the Core77 Design Awards.
Inna is a design leader focused on designing thoughtful products and experiences. She is currently a Design Director at frog, and leads the North American Industrial Design and Product Design team, as well as the New York Ventures Practice (interim). Her work is cross-disciplinary, with clients ranging from pre-seed to Fortune 50 companies, and spans a broad range of industry verticals and product types, including consumer electronics, healthcare and transportation. In addition to working with clients, she teaches entrepreneurship and human-centered design at NYU. Before joining frog, Inna architected next-generation technologies and brought many products to market as a senior member of Apple’s Product Design team. She is an inventor on multiple patents and a graduate of the MIT Media Lab. She is the winner of the 2022 Women in Innovation Rising Star Award.
As Product Development Design Director for Gensler, Daniel applies his insights and industry experience to inspire design teams to translate Gensler’s voice and vision into tangible products for workplace and lifestyle environments. Partnering with manufacturers, his team creates touchpoints that expand the experience for which clients rely upon Gensler. He previously led design teams on projects with Arper, Andreu World, Devon&Devon, Elizabeth Arden, Emser, Estel, Fantoni, Gandia Blasco, Knoll, Muraflex, OXO, Targetti, Zumtobel, and many others.
Daniel’s career began with digital imaging pioneer April Greiman, focusing on brand-based design and conceptual work. From there, he worked with legendary product designers Richard Holbrook and Don Chadwick until eventually striking out on his own. Daniel joined Gensler in 2014.
Rebecca is the Director of Design for Goesling Group. She works at the intersection of forecasting, branding, and color material finish design to create visions for independent startups to Fortune 500 companies. Her experience spans from home appliances to activewear and decor to consumer electronics. In addition to her applied practice, she produces illustrations for culinary, fashion, and furnishing clients. She holds a BFA in Industrial Design from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign where she cultivated skills in research, artistic development, and technical application.
Ye-Jeong Kim is a Korean-born, US-based principal designer and UX leader who has continuously navigated IC and management paths across her career. Currently, Ye is leading Gmail UX at Google. In her time at Google, Ye led teams and efforts building products in the areas of Search, Assistant, Android, Geo, Payments, Social, and Ads. As a founding member of Google Now, Google Assistant, and Search’s innovation and strategy UX team, Ye has extensive experience building assistive experiences and molding innovative technologies to help people in their everyday lives. Prior to Google, her focus was on information visualization and building tools for people to collaborate and make sense of data through shared visualization of information and understanding. Ye appreciates her name to be pronounced Yay!, pronounced with a ghost of joy!
Timi Oyedeji is a Interaction Designer & Prototyper working in a unique space where emerging technology meets design interaction.
George co-founded Greater Good Studio to use design to heal, to be just, to be restorative, Previously, he spent seven years at a global innovation firm before being hired as the first human-centered designer at the Chicago Transit Authority. Since founding Greater Good he guides clients and teams through complex projects that honor reality, create ownership, and build power. He speaks frequently across the US and internationally. George holds the position of Full Professor (Adj) at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
For more than two decades, Su Mathews Hale has thrived at the intersection of design and brand strategy. Using the power of design to develop inspiring creations while solving business problems, Su has collaborated with a broad range of notable clients including Citibank, Disney, Chick-fil-A, eBay, Hawaiian Airlines, Hershey’s, Hyatt, IHG, Papa Johns, Sam’s Club, Samsung, Shutterstock, Taco Bell and Walmart.
Currently as CEO and Chief Creative Officer of Hale Design, a branding agency she opened in 2019, Su recently led her creative team on Papa Johns refreshed brand identity – the visual reflection of the new tone set by the brand - a more modern, bold, fun, fresh and tasty experience. The friendly, streamlined logo reflects the pizza chain's momentum, introduces flexibility to scale digitally and positions Papa Johns for continued success and growth. Prior to Hale Design, she was a former associate partner at Pentagram, New York, and a senior partner and creative director in design at Lippincott, where Su led global projects spanning the full gamut of brand creation and identity development. While at Lippincott, she served as creative director on the famed Walmart rebranding – a massive brand repositioning and revitalization engagement that contemporized the global retail giant while retaining the values of its heritage.
Su also serves as Chair of the Board of Trustees at ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, CA.
As a designer and design leader at Harley-Davidson, Ben has been at the forefront of electric motorcycle design while also having the opportunity to make an impact on new and existing internal combustion spaces through a mixture of evolution and reinvention.
Now, as director of design for LiveWire, Ben and his team focus entirely on the challenge of reinventing motorcycling for the electric future – transforming everyday experiences into urban adventure and beyond by creating soulful products and product experiences that build the new brand and enrich the lives of riders.
In his free time, Ben spends his time reading about sustainable architecture, out in nature, or with his collection of (mostly not running) vintage motorcycles.
For two decades Cas Holman has been designing playthings and playspaces that encourage exploration, imagination, and collaboration. Through her company Heroes Will Rise, Cas creates intuitive toys that inspire creative, open-ended play, including the award-winning Rigamajig, a line of playful building kits used in schools and public spaces worldwide. An educator of 12 years and former Associate Professor of Industrial Design at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), Cas travels the globe to collaborate with thought and industry leaders in early education, curriculum design, public space, and childhood advocacy who share her passion for creating opportunities for child-directed free play. Her philosophy and approach to designing for play was recently featured in the award-winning documentary series “Abstract: The Art of Design” on Netflix.
Creative professional with international experience in product innovation, strategic product design and development.
Nik has a wealth of experience across corporate design teams at Philips Design, Microsoft, and HP, as well as growing several design-focused startups.
Notably, he was part of the founding team at Razer, leading the design group to develop the design language and product portfolio. As well as growing the Razer brand, his design work has heavily influenced the gaming industry as a whole.
Nik now specializes in computational design for 3D printing. He will be especially interested to see similar, new technology and innovation in the applicants this year.
Brendan Boyle is a Partner at IDEO, a global design and innovation firm. He’s also an adjunct professor at Stanford. He is the founder of the IDEO Play Lab, a board member of the National Institute of Play, an award-winning author of the Klutz Book of Inventions, and an acclaimed speaker on the joy of innovation. Brendan believes that play is the key to innovation and frequently speaks to creative leaders, entrepreneurs, and students about the importance of playful exploration and risk-taking. Under his leadership, the Play Lab has invented and licensed over 225 consumer products including the best-selling Jumperoo, Elmo Calls, and Pictionary Air.
Shawn L. Rickenbacker is a trained architect, urbanist and urban data researcher. He is currently the Director of the J. Max Bond Center for Urban Futures where he directs the Center’s sponsored and partnership research and is an Associate Professor of Architecture at the CCNY Spitzer School of Architecture. His research and work at the Bond Center confronts the complex urban intersection of spatial equity and the social and economic impacts of place-based policies, programs and design through the lens of urban data, forensic and design research. He’s served as Senior Research Fellow at the Phyllis M. Taylor Institute for Social Innovation, where he researched ‘Artificial Intelligence and The Future of Social Urbanism’, The Favrot Chair in Architecture at Tulane University, Gensler Distinguished Professor at Cornell University and Director of the Motorola Sponsored Future Interactions Lab at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Design. His work and research have been published in The New York Times, NY Daily News and Global Architecture, Wired and exhibited at Studio Museum of Harlem. Shawn holds a MArch with a Certificate in American Urbansim from the University of Virginia where he was the Dupont Scholar and a BArch from Syracuse University.
Founder of Sterling Design in 1996, Jennifer is a creative director, designer, animator typographer, illustrator, photographer, and educator. Her work is part the permanent collections of The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Library of Congress, Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Museum Fur Kunst Und Gewerbe, Hamburg and the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art hosted a three-month solo show entitled "Jennifer Sterling: Selections from the Permanent Collection of Architecture and Design". The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museums Triennial Exhibit showcased the creative work of 83 designers and companies including Jennifer Sterling, Apple, Nike, and Martha Stewart.
Her work has been featured in over 180 magazine and book articles, Graphis Magazine named her "One of the Top Ten Designers in the World." GD:USA Magazine named her one of the "Twelve Designers to Change Design into the Millennium". Clients and projects include creating an interactive online design to promote the worldwide distribution of aids awareness and medical distribution to third world countries for Yahoo Inc. as well as creating the worldwide brand "Vital Voices" for Hillary Clinton and Madeleine Albright. In 2016 she created campaign collateral for Hillary Clinton's 2016 Presidential Campaign. Jennifer has served as an adjunct professor at CCA (the California College of the Arts / San Francisco), AAU (Academy of Art University / San Francisco) and SVA (School of Visual Arts / New York).
Tiffany is a driven and curious innovator who brings game-changing products, experiences, systems, and strategies to life on behalf of the brands. Tiffany manages a large team of multidisciplinary engineering and Innovation professionals.
Tiffany has 21 years of experience in the product & process innovation space including consumer goods (Nike, Saysh, Rubbermaid), Automotive (Tesla, amateur motorsports racing), and consumer electronics (Logitech G, Astro Gaming). She has been granted over 35 US patents and has worked alongside some of the top footwear designers, athletes, and entertainers in the world. She also successfully made the transition from the plastics industry to the footwear industry and is currently in the consumer electronics and gaming industries.
Tiffany has spent over 15 years in the footwear space with Nike, Saysh, and her own Youtube Channel reviewing sneakers. She served as the lead Innovator on the Nike Hyperadapt, 2016 Nike Mag (auto-lacing), Air Jordan 29, Tom Sachs Collection 1, Air Yeezy 1, Air Raid Paranorman, Coraline Dunk, and many more Nike Products. For Saysh, she helped in starting the brand by bringing in designers, factories, and various partners to build the product, she also developed their first two products, The Saysh One and the Olympic track & field spike competed in by Allyson Felix in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, where she won both a gold & a bronze medal.
Tiffany is experienced in product development from concept thru mass production of consumer goods. Tiffany has been featured in Wired Magazine (Oct ‘16), Netflix-Abstract the Art of Design, The Today Show, The New York Times, and the book “Sneakers” for her innovative work on Nike’s Electro Adaptive Reactive Lacing (EARL) Technology.
Tiffany grew up in a small town in Pennsylvania and studied at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College for her Bachelor of Science in Plastics Engineering Technology.
Responsible for some of today’s most ever-present identities-like those for Instagram, Oculus, and Affirm - Mackey has spent his career helping brands of all sizes become iconic through idea-driven strategy, elegantly simple design, and a relentless pursuit of enduring visual principles. After nearly a decade running his own studios in San Francisco and Denver, he became a Principal at Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv—the design firm responsible for classic logos including NBC, National Geographic, and Chase Bank. He now runs his namesake studio based in Brooklyn, focused on creating impactful visual identities across an array of industries both locally and internationally.