Hasta La Ideas

FURNITURE & LIGHTING
Judging location: Paris, France

» Matali Crasset Jury Captain
Founder and Creative Director at Matali Crasset Productions

Matali Crasset is by training an industrial designer; a graduate of the Ateliers – E.N.S.C.I. (Workshops – National Higher School of Industrial Design). At the beginning of 2000, after her initial experience with Denis Santachiara in Italy and with Philippe Starck in France, she set up her own studio in Paris called Matali Crasset productions in a renovated former printing firm in the heart of Belleville. She considers design to be research, working from an off-centered position allowing both to serve daily routines and trace future scenarios. Her work revolves around searching for new coordination processes and formulating new logics in life. She defines this search as an accompaniment towards the contemporary.

Always in search of new territories to explore, she collaborates with eclectic worlds, from crafts to electronic music, from the textiles industry to fair trade, realizing projects in set design, furniture, architecture, graphics and collaborations with artists, young furniture-making companies, municipalities and communes. This experience acquired over the years has led her to currently work on more participative projects, on a local and global level, both in rural and urban settings. It’s ultimately the core question of living together, which defines her imaginative designs, writings and the sense of Matali’s work.

VISUAL COMMUNICATION
Judging location: New York, USA

» Eddie Opara, Jury Captain
Partner at Pentagram

Eddie Opara studied graphic design at the London College of Printing and Yale University, where he received his MFA in 1997. He began his career as a designer at ATG and Imaginary Forces and worked as an art director at 2×4 before establishing his own studio, The Map Office, in 2005. He joined Pentagram’s New York office as partner in 2010.

His clients have included the Menil Foundation, Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Queens Museum of Art, Prada, St. Regis Hotels, Morgan Stanley, New York University, UCLA, Grimshaw Architects and Princeton Architectural Press. Opara has won numerous awards including a Gold Cube from the Art Directors Club and honors from the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) and I.D. magazine. His work is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art and has appeared in publications such as Archis, Surface, Graphis and I.D.

Opara is a visiting critic at the Yale School of Art and teaches narrative design at the University of the Arts, Philadelphia. He has taught at the Rhode Island School of Design, the Columbia University School of Architecture and the Yale University School of Art. He is a member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale, on the board of the New York Chapter of AIGA and was recently featured in Ebony Magazine’s Power 100 list for the December 2011 / January 2012 issue. Most recently, Opara was named one of Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People in Business in 2012.

TRANSPORTATION
Judging location: London, United Kingdom

» Paul Priestman, Jury Captain
Designer and Co-Founding Director at Priestmangoode

Paul Priestman is a Designer and Co-Founding Director of leading multidisciplinary design consultancy Priestmangoode.

Priestman studied Industrial Design at Central Saint Martins and at the Royal College of Art. He was a member of the UK Design Council and Chair of the Design Sector Skills Panel from 2004 to 2006. He was also President of the Design Business Association from 2001 to 2003, and a member of the D&AD Executive from 2005 to 2007. He is currently a member of the Royal College of Art Council. In 2010, Priestman was selected to represent the UK’s creative industries on the Prime Minister’s Trade Delegation to China, flying the flag for British design around the world.

He is a leading voice in the industry and an experienced speaker on the subject of design and innovation. Last year, the Evening Standard—London’s leading newspaper—voted Priestman one of London’s 1000 most influential people of 2012.

WRITING & COMMENTARY
Judging location: London, United Kingdom

» Justin McGuirk, Jury Captain
Writer, Critic and Curator

Justin McGuirk is a writer, critic and curator based in London. He is the director of Strelka Press, the publishing arm of the Strelka Institute in Moscow, and the design consultant to Domus. He has been the design columnist for The Guardian and the editor of Icon magazine. In 2012 he was awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale of Architecture for an exhibition he curated with Urban Think Tank. He is currently working on a book about activist architecture and social housing in Latin America.

DIY
Judging location: Sebastopol, USA

» Goli Mohammadi, Jury Captain
Senior Editor of MAKE Magazine

Goli Mohammadi is Senior Editor of MAKE magazine and has worked on MAKE since the first issue hit newsstands in 2005. Covering the vast and amazing world of DIY provides her with endless brain candy and gives her hope in the future of the human race. Maker Faire is, without a doubt, the most inspirational event she’s had the pleasure of working. Born in Tehran, Iran, and raised in Chicago, she has forever been amazed by the complexities of language, and the cultural differences therein. Goli is a word nerd who particularly loves to geek out on how emerging technology affects the lexicon as a whole. When she’s not fawning over perfect word choices, she can be found on the nearest mountain, finding the ideal backcountry lake or hunting for snow to feed her snowboard addiction.