It is with much gratitude and admiration that we celebrate the jury alumni members of the Core77 Design Awards.
Irina Kozlovskaya is a director of industrial design at Fitbit, where she leads a team of designers creating products that help people live healthier, happier lives.
Irina is driven by the conviction that collaboration and a human-centered approach are fundamental to good design, which, at its core, is simple, helpful, and enduring.
Prior to joining Fitbit, Irina worked with a broad range of companies, as well as founding a New York City based design consultancy, Vim & Vigor. Her client list includes global brands such Nest, HTC, Kitchenaid, Martha Stewart, and Barnes & Noble, as well as multiple startups.
The daughter of two architects, Irina grew up in Saint Petersburg, Russia before moving to the United States to study at the Rhode Island School of Design.
Her work has been recognized by Red Dot, IF, ICFF Studio, IDEA, and Spark awards.
Irina is a vice chairwoman of Women in Design San Francisco.
As a Managing Director and Head of Design for Fjord (a part of Accenture Interactive) in North America, Nick is responsible for leading the Region in the pursuit of paradigm-shifting, impact-driven digital and physical design that breaks new ground for clients and contributes to positive systemic change around the world.
Prior to joining Fjord, Nick was Partner and co-founder of Big Tomorrow, an experience design agency focused in healthcare, education and entertainment, and an Executive Creative Director at the global innovation and design firm frog, where he led their flagship San Francisco studio.
He received a Master's degree in Industrial Design from Rhode Island School of Design and a BFA in Graphic Design from Syracuse University.
Alejandra is an Industrial Design Lead based out of the San Francisco Bay Area, currently working at Fjord - part of Accenture Interactive. Born and raised in Mexico City, she holds a BA in Industrial Design and an MFA in Interdisciplinary Design. Alejandra has over 10 years experience working with multiple Fortune 500 companies, as well as early stage startups, helping them transform ideas into reality. She specializes in designing solutions that take place at the intersection of digital and physical. Over the years she's worked on a variety of projects that range from design research, usability testing and alignment workshop facilitation all the way to end-to-end design and shipping of full-fledged, consumer-facing experiences and products.
Prior to joining Fjord she worked for other design consultancies such as frog design. Most recently, she had the opportunity to lead the physical experience design, interior architecture and custom tech solutions of concierge-style medical facilities for Forward, an innovative Healthcare startup named one of Time Magazine's best 25 inventions.
After earning her Bachelors in Graphic Design from North Carolina State University, Kirsten started her career as an Experience Designer at Second Story Interactive Studios where she did work for cultural clients including the World of Coca-Cola, the College Football Hall of Fame, and the National Archives. She then moved in-house to the Art Institute of Chicago as one of the founding members of the Experience Design studio, initially recruited to lead the strategy and discovery work for the website redesign. Kirsten eventually became Creative Director, Visual Design where she led all visual design and design strategy work in the digital, print, brand, and environmental workstreams. After six years at the museum, she joined Fjord's midwest team to expand her service design capabilities. Outside of work, Kirsten is passionate about her art practice, rockhounding, birding, and cultivating a native prairie landscape in her backyard.
Ruihai is a product designer who loves teaching organizations and individuals how to do user-centered design well. He has worked with organizations in healthcare, government, ecommerce, and esports to implement regular user research, accessibility practices, and lean UX. Ruihai trained the first product designers at Ford UK, the FAA, and the US Air Force. He's currently helping teams deliver cancer research data faster.
Outside of work, Ruihai fosters cats, skates, translates video games, and collects vintage Carhartt.
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.
Sloan Leo (they/them) is an artist and the Founder/CEO of FLOX Studio Inc. FLOX Studio is a community design and strategy studio that works with curious optimists who are committed to getting things done. FLOX is on a mission to increase the community design capacity of mission-driven enterprises so that the entire ecosystem is more brave, creative and resilient. Prior to founding FLOX Studio, Sloan Leo spent 15 years leading non-profit staff and volunteer teams at the Environmental Defense Fund, The Trust for Public Land, and other organizations at the intersection of community, justice, and design.
Farrell is a purpose-driven leader with over 20 years of experience spearheading strategic communications and impact initiatives within Fortune 500 and Top 100 companies. She is passionate about integrating sustainability into company culture and operations while driving transformative change through collaboration. Skilled in developing ESG goals and scalable sustainable solutions with multiple stakeholders, she has extensive experience working across sustainability, marketing, product design/engineering, and innovation teams, fostering innovation and challenging norms. She is a driver of the idea that business can be used as a lever for positive impact, and is a sought-after professional to position products, technologies - often resulting in building good brand from the inside out.
You can see her advocating for this work as she speaks on Purpose x Sustainability as a Framework for high-performing companies, as well as the positive impact designers can have on the sustainability of products, services and innovative/novel ideas.
Farrell is a well-respected, empathetic human who values integrity, collaboration, and wellness for herself and others.
Before starting FOOD in 2018, Dong was a founding partner of Family New York with Oana Stanescu, which led the designs of contemporary art museums in Mantaa, Finland and Maribor, Slovenia, stand-alone stores for Off-White c/o Virgil Abloh in New York, Tokyo, Singapore and Hong Kong, the stage design for Kanye West’s Yeezus Tour, and residential projects for him and his family in Paris and Los Angeles.
Dong's work has been featured in publications including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, Complex and Wired and has been awarded the Diamond Award for Engineering Excellence, the New York Design Award for Best Young Practice and was nominated for the INDEX Awards in Copenhagen. Prior to starting his own practice, Dong worked as a designer at OMA and REX in New York and EHDD in San Francisco, specializing in public, cultural, and hi-density mixed-use buildings.
Dong earned his Masters of Architecture from Columbia University and his Bachelor’s from UC Berkeley.
Cass Nakashima is an associate at Food New York working as a Project Lead for a renovation of a 2500sf residence in Soho, new galleries for Milk Studios, renovation of Need Supply Co. flagship, residences for Kanye and Kim Kardashian West in Los Angeles and the Services Building of + POOL.
Jesse is and Architectural Designer. He was worked at Food (Formerly Family) since 2015 and has been the Project Lead on Off-White stores in Tokyo, Singapore and New York, a new community church in the Sydhavnen neighborhood of Copenhagen and the new Bauhaus Museum in Dessau, Germany. Prior to Food, Jesse worked with DFA Architects, Huff+Gooden, and was a designer at Hassell Studio in Perth, Australia. Jesse earned a Master’s in Architecture at the University of Western Australia and University of Arizona, and a Bachelor’s of Environmental Design at UWA. Jesse is from Perth, Australia.
Melissa Ruhl is an Emerging Mobility Researcher with Ford’s Research and Advanced Engineering division in Palo Alto. Her research focuses on new and emerging transportation trends, such as micromobility, microtransit, and autonomous vehicles initiatives. Previously, Melissa was a senior planner for Arup in San Francisco where she managed projects on transportation innovation. She regularly speaks in California and nationally on autonomous vehicles and the future of cities. She has published a number of articles on future mobility and most recently co-authored a chapter on mobility as a service in the recently published Disruptive Transport: Driverless Cars, Transport Innovation and the Sustainable City of Tomorrow. In 2019, Melissa was recognized on the "40 under 40" Mass Transit Magazine list.
Shel is Co-Director of Design Thinking for Ford. Her role is to grow the capability, its tools and mindsets, across the company. Her work has also touched the Maverick, New F150, Mach-E and more. She has practiced human centered design and creative leadership for 25 years, with side hustles in performative art and music, community development, and a social benefit company. She often takes on transformation roles where the playbook has yet to be written. Shel is committed to inclusion and anti-racism in all its forms. She advocates a post-scarcity mindset, collaboration, curiosity, reflection, rest, and joy.
Matheus Demetrescu is graduated in Mechanical Manufacturing Engineering, post graduated in Vehicles and Its Subsystems, with two MBAs, in Business Management and in UX Design Strategy Management. Career initiated on window-shops creation (Sylvia Demetresco) and since 2007 working at Ford representing the voice of the customer inside Product Development, ensuring company strategy and customer satisfaction balance. In 2014 created the User Experience area in South America to have the user-centered focus on the development. Has lived in US, France and Germany as part of professional and academical life, and has worked in large corporations such as Pilkington, Volkswagen and Unilever.
Eric Stoddard is an accomplished automotive, transportation and product designer, with 17 years experience at major automotive OEMs including Ford, Hyundai and Chrysler.At Ford, Eric is responsible for mid-size passenger car exterior design, including Taurus and Fusion. He played a key role in establishing an all-new advanced design team in Detroit. Advanced programs include the next generation Fiesta, Focus, Mustang, Expedition and Navigator.At Hyundai, production automotive designs included the 2013 Santa Fe, 2011 Elantra, Genesis Coupe, Tucson, Equus, HCD9 Talus concept (2006), and 2007 Elantra. At Chrysler he conceived and led the exterior design of the Crossfire (concept and production), Pacifica and the Dodge SRT-4. In addition to his automotive work, Eric consults in product design as founder of SpeedStudio Design. He has a passion for bicycle design and alternative transportation, having won awards for bicycle design concepts at Red Dot and the Taipei International Bicycle Show. He actively participates in design education, having taught courses and held demos at Cleveland Institute of Art, College for Creative Studies, Lawrence Technological University and Art Center College of Design. Eric holds Bachelor Fine Art from Cleveland Institute of Art, Class of 1998.