Among all the benefits that come with entering the Core77 Design Awards, having your work critiqued by the juries is perhaps the most valuable. These are established experts with extensive experience in your field of design, looking over your plans, ideas and executions. For those who win, the jury comments become a permanent record of your achievement that gets shared across the Core77 Design Network and a make an excellent addition to your resume. With the Regular Deadline on March 24th only 5 days away, there’s not much time left to enter, so let’s take a look at the design experts that will be critiquing your work this year. 

Consumer Products

Co-captains: Hoang and Anh Nguyen, Founders of Creative Session

Hoang & Anh are the founders of Creative Session, a collaborative space for presenting trends, insights and impulsive ideas among the brothers in ways of industrial design. Industrial designers by trade but obsessed with story telling, graphics and branding. Beyond Creative Session they are leads at respectable agencies in San Francisco; Astro Studios and Matter Global. With 15 years of combined experience in consumer electronics they bring keen eye for sex appeal and functionality. They’ve worked on projects from small start-ups to fortune 500s.

The Consumer Products Jury Team is completed by Shujan Bertrand, CEO and Owner of APLAT, Jason Mayden, Vice President of Design at Mark One, David Whetstone, Design Director at Astro Studios, Adam Leonards, Principal Designer at Matter Product and Max Burton, Founder and Chief Designer at Matter Product.

Built Environment

Co-captains: Laura Allen & Mark Smout, Senior Lecturers, Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL.

Mark Smout and Laura Allen are Senior Lecturers at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL. Their work takes two routes, architectural competitions, where the particular rigor of the competition brief, site and program provide the basis for new investigations and, conceptual design projects which test out the agenda and methodology of the design research practice. They focus on the dynamic relationship between the natural and the man made and how this can be revealed to enhance the experience of the architectural landscape.

The Built Environment Jury Team is completed by Will Hunter, Founding Director at the London School of Architecture and Vicky Richardson, Director of Architecture, Design and Fashion at the British Council.

Interaction

Captain: Jill Nussbaum, Executive Director of Product and Interaction Design at The Barbarian Group

Jill works with clients to develop long-term product experiences that explore emerging technologies and manages the Interaction Design team at the Barbarian Group. Previously she was an Executive Creative Director at R/GA, and a key player behind the design of the Nike+ platform. In her role, she oversaw the evolution of the platform to include Nike+ Fuelband, Nike+ Basketball and Nike+ Training.

Jill is an active member of the New York design community and enjoys teaching, public speaking, writing, and advising young designers and tech start-ups. She currently teaches in the Interaction Design MFA program at SVA, and is a contributing writer for PSFK. She frequently guest lectures at conferences and learning institutions like Fast Company, SxSW, AIGA/NY, IxDA and General Assembly.

The Interaction Jury Team is completed by Ian Spalter, UX Lead and Manager at YouTube, Carla Echevarria, Vice President and Head of Creative at MakerBot and Matt Jones, Interaction Design Director at Google Creative Lab.

Design For Social Impact

Captain: John Thackara, Director at The Doors of Perception

For thirty years, John Thackara has traveled the world in his search of stories about the practical steps taken by communities to realize a sustainable future. He writes about these stories online and in books; he uses them in talks for cities and business; he also organizes festivals and events that bring the subjects of these stories together. John is the author of a widely-read blog at designobserver.com and of the best-selling In the Bubble: Designing In A Complex World (MIT Press) – also translated into nine languages. As director of doorsofperception.com, John organizes conferences and festivals in which social innovators share knowledge.

John is a Senior Fellow of the Royal College of Art, in London, and a Fellow of The Young Foundation, the UK’s social enterprise incubator. He sits on the advisory boards of the Pixelache Festival in Helsinki, the Future Perfect festival in Sweden, and Design Impact in India. He is also a member of the UK Parliament’s Standing Commission on Design.

The Design for Social Impact Jury Team is completed by Babitha George, Partner at Quicksand, Dr. Mathilda Tham, Design Professor at Linnaeus University and Gill Wildman, Co-Founder and Principal at Plot.

Speculative Concepts

Captain: Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg, artist, designer and writer who leads Studio Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg Ltd.

Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg is a designer, artist and writer. Seeking new roles for design, Daisy is developing experimental design approaches to help us imagine alternative ideals around technology. Through the design of objects, workshops, and writing and curating, her practice investigates both aesthetic and ethical futures for design. Daisy’s collaborators include scientists, engineers, artists, designers, social scientists, galleries and industry around the world. She began a PhD by practice, The Dream of Better, exploring the idea of a ‘better’ future, at the Royal College of Art in London, in 2013.

As Design Fellow on Synthetic Aesthetics (Stanford University/University of Edinburgh, 2010-2013), Daisy curated an international research project, developing novel modes of collaboration and critical discourse between synthetic biology, art and design. Daisy is lead author on Synthetic Aesthetics: Investigating Synthetic Biology’s Designs on Nature (MIT Press, March 2014). She led the curatorial team for Grow Your Own… Life After Nature, a flagship exhibition about synthetic biology at Science Gallery, Dublin (October 2013–January 2014).

The Speculative Concepts Jury Team is completed by Lucy McRae of Body Architect, Cher Potter, Research Fellow at Victoria and Albert Museum, James Auger, Partner at Auger-Loizeau and Jan Boelen, Artistic Director at Z33.

Commercial Equipment

Captain: Dan Harden, President, CEO & Principal Designer, Whipsaw

Dan is President, CEO, Principal Designer and cofounder of Whipsaw Inc., a highly acclaimed design firm in Silicon Valley, California. Whipsaw designs products and experiences for companies around the world including Google, Cisco, Clorox, GE, Haier, Intel, Leitz, Merck, Motorola, Nike, Olympus, Samsung and TP-Link, plus many exciting startups including Apnicure, Dropcam, Highfive, Livescribe, Nod Labs, and Yubo. Dan is a hands-on designer and directs the strategic and conceptual direction of most client accounts.

The Commercial Equipment Jury Team is completed by Bill Evans, Principal and Founder at Bridge Design, Mike Gallagher, Vice President of Design at Crown Equipment Corporation and Sam Lucente, CDO and Co-Founder of Cookbrite.

Visual Communication

Captain: Astrid Stavro, Partner & Creative Partner at Atlas

Astrid Stavro graduated with a First Class Certificate from Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design and with Distinction from The Royal College of Art in London. In 2004 she returned to her native land of Spain to start her own design practice in Barcelona. Astrid Stavro’s strongly rooted conceptual solutions and distinctive typographic approach quickly won international critical acclaim. Her work has been recognized nationally and internationally with over 150 highly acclaimed creative awards including D&AD, The Annual (Creative Review), Design Week Awards, The International Society of Typographic Designers and Art Directors Club of New York. She is a recurrent jury member in design competitions and lectures in design conferences worldwide. Stavro writes for various design journals and is currently the Art Director as well as a contributing editor of Elephant magazine.

The Visual Communication Jury Team is completed by Matt Willey, Art Director at The New York Times Magazine, Pablo Juncadella, Founder of Mucho, Professor Teal Triggs, Associate Dean of the School of Communication at the Royal College of Art and Marion Deuchars, Author and Illustrator, www.mariondeuchars.com

Service Design

Captain: Cathy Huang, President of CBi China Bridge

Cathy founded CBi China Bridge in 2003, the first insight-based innovation consulting firm in China. Recently, she co-founded Successful Design, a platform aiming to amplifying the value of design. Under her guidance, CBi has become a leading innovation firm, acting as the bridge linking creative design with business.

Having broad influence both socially and on the global design industry, Cathy is frequently invited to conferences in North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. She enjoys adventures; from crossing the Gobi desert in Dunhuang to bungee jumping in New Zealand. Her continued dedication to challenging the limits fuels her creativity for both business and design.

The Service Design Jury Team is completed by Adam Lawrence, Co-Founder at WorkPlayExperience, Luis Arnal, President and Founder of INSITUM and Martha Cotton, Partner at gravitytank.

Design Education Initiatives

Captain: Mike Weikert, Director & Founder, Center for Social Design & Master of Arts in Social Design at MICA

Mike Weikert is founding director of the Center for Social Design and Master of Arts in Social Design at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). In 2008, he established MICA’s Center for Design Practice, a multi-disciplinary, project-based studio bringing together students and outside partners to collaborate on innovative solutions to social problems. Previously, he served as co-chair of the graphic design department at MICA, partner/creative director at Atlanta-based Iconologic, and as a design consultant to the International Olympic Committee. In 2011, he was nominated for the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award and in 2014, received the Ashoka U-Cordes Innovation Award.

The Design Education Initiatives Jury Team is completed by Becky Slogeris, Social Design Associate for the Center for Social Design at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), Sarah Hemminger, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Thread and Jess Gartner, CEO and Founder of Allovue.

Open Design

Captain: Jennifer Turliuk, Co-President of MakerKids

Jennifer Turliuk is Co-President of MakerKids, a maker learning company that operates one of the only maker spaces for kids in the world. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, Wired, Fast Company, Forbes, a Harvard case study and more. Jennifer keynoted the first MakerCon in Europe and has also spoken at various Maker Faire, MakerCon and TEDx events. She attended the Graduate Studies Program at Singularity University at NASA and business school at Queen’s University. In her spare time, Jennifer does marketing and strategy consulting. She also enjoys dancing, kiteboarding, playwriting and DJing. Follow her on Twitter: @jenniferturliuk.

The Open Design Jury Team is completed by Mark Hatch, CEO at TechShop, Darrel Etherington, Writer at Techcrunch and Yancey Strickler, Co-Founder and CEO or Kickstarter.

Furniture & Lighting

Captain: Paul Cocksedge, Founder of Paul Cocksedge Studio

Paul Cocksedge studied under Ron Arad during his MA in Product Design at the Royal College of Art, and was introduced to Issey Miyake and Ingo Maurer, both of whom staged early exhibitions of his work. Maurer went so far as to give Paul a show within his own show at Milan Design Week 2003, introducing his lights ‘Styrene’, ‘NeON’, and an early work that was to be developed into ‘Life 01’ with FLOS. Paul has since gone on to become one of Britain’s leading designers, founding Paul Cocksedge Studio with business partner Joana Pinho in 2004. The Studio’s catalogue includes an imaginative range of design products, architectural projects, sculptures and lighting, all infused with the sense of simplicity, joy and wonder that has come to characterize Paul Cocksedge’s work.

The Furniture & Lighting Jury Team is still being assembled at the time of this post. Stay tuned!

Packaging

Captain: Nishma Pandit, Director & Principal Designer at Ticket Design

Nishma is a co-founder and Director at Ticket Design, a design and innovation consulting firm involved in product, packaging and UX design. Under her leadership, Ticket Design has established itself as a respected design consulting firm, with a wide variety of award winning products launched in the Indian as well as International markets. Some of the awards that Ticket Design has won under her vision are Red Dot Product Design Award in 2013, CII award for UX design 2013 and Silver award at US Appliance Design.

During her tenure at Ticket Design, she has been the force of converting ideas into reality. With a robust background in design and years of hands-on design realization she brings her extensive knowledge of product development to the projects. Her project management experience has helped her team to get to the root of a problem and look at meaningful creative solutions.

The Packaging Jury Team is completed by Ayush Kasliwal, Founder of Ayush Kasliwal Design Private Ltd., Manabu Tago, President, Art Director and Designer, MTDO Inc. and Dinesh Korjan, Founder and Partner of Studio Korjan.

Transportation

Captain: James Thomas, Industrial Designer and Founder of BicycleDesign.net.

James Thomas is an industrial designer with interests in cycling, photography, architecture, lighting, active transportation, sustainability, and generally speaking, all art & design. Over the course of his 20 year design career, James has worked on a wide variety of consumer products and interior environments and his award-winning designs have received recognition from top national outlets including the Wall Street Journal and Better Homes and Gardens.

In 2005, James started BicycleDesign.net, a website that quickly became a central place on the internet for discussion of design in the bicycle industry. All types of bicycles (and other human powered machines) are covered on the site, from the latest high-end road and mountain bikes to transportation oriented bikes and unique utilitarian designs. James has staged a couple of different design competitions on the Bicycle Design site, and has served on the jury of several other competitions including the “Cycling out of Poverty” African Bicycle Design Contest, GrabCAD’s Velodroom Bike Accessory Challenge and the ExtraEnergy France eBikeTec Design Contest. In addition to the Bicycle Design site, James can be found online at JCTdesign.net and on Twitter at @JCTdesign and @BicycleDesign.

The Transportation Jury Team is completed by Torgny Fjeldskaar, Design Director at BMC Switzerland, Melissa Bruntlett, Co-Founder of Modacity, Rob Cotter, Chief Designer and CEO at Organic Transit and Eric Stoddard, Design Manager at Ford Motor Company.

Strategy & Research

Captain: Dr. Melis Senova, Founder & Director of Strategy & Design at Huddle Design.

As Founder and Director at Huddle, Melis is the main provocateur when it comes to encouraging creative and pragmatic solutions. She is passionate about driving change within organizations with a natural focus on human centricity, design and what it takes to thrive in the 21st century. Melis has deep academic qualifications and vast business experience, underpinned by a PhD in Human Factors (user-centered design). Her areas of expertise covers service strategy, strategic service design, experience design, concept prototyping, systems engineering, program management and human factors research.

Melis is a contributing author to This is Service Design Thinking, the very first textbook on Service Design published in 2011. She sits on the advisory board for the Department of Architecture and Industrial Design at RMIT and is a Senior Research Fellow at the School of Medicine at Monash University. Melis is also co-founder of London-based Enterprise Design consultancy FromHereOn.

The Strategy & Research Jury Team is completed by Marcel Zwiers, Co-Founder and Creative Director at 31Volts, Harold G. Nelson, Visiting Scholar, University of Montana, School of Computer Science, Hugh Evans, CEO and Co-Founder of FromHereOn and Dr. Yoko Akama, Senior Lecturer in Communication Design, RMIT University.