Meet the Designers | Design Career Fair 2020

Jasmine Burton
CEO, Executive Director, + Founder | Wish for WASH
Principal + Founder | The Hybrid Hype
Co-Founder | Period Futures

Jasmine Burton is a social inclusion and design specialist with a focus on gender equity, meaningful youth engagement, and innovation in the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and global health sectors. She has a BSc in Product Design from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a Msc in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and is driven by health equity, human rights, and social justice. As a serial social entrepreneur, she has led iterative toilet innovation pilots and research across Sub-Saharan Africa with a design thinking lens and in resettled refugee communities as the Founder and CEO of Wish for WASH, a social impact organization that seeks to bring innovation to sanitation. Following a decade of diverse independent freelance work across the 3rd, 5th and 6th United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, Jasmine became the Principal and Founder of the Hybrid Hype, LLC, a certified, woman-owned global consulting firm. In 2020, she co-founded Period Futures, an early-stage venture focused on sparking curiosity, conversation and commitment to designing positive, inclusive and sustainable futures for period-havers. With 7+ years of various WASH, global health, and gender equity experiences across 10 countries in research, communications, and management roles within the public, private, and social enterprise sectors, Jasmine identifies as a social impact designer and storyteller who seeks to couple design thinking, business acumen, and evidence-based science to accelerate access to universal health and sanitation for all because #everybodypoops and #menstruationmatters (jasminekburton.com)

@jasminekburton, @wishforwash, @thehybridhype, and @periodfutures

COCO + BREEZY, Eyewear Designers | DJ’s | Producers

Coco and Breezy are founders of Coco and Breezy eyewear, and accomplished producers and DJs.

Their eyewear brand, which started as D.I.Y project has now evolved into an affordable luxury brand that offers sunglasses and optical collections. The brand has been a favorite among clients and collaborators like Prince, Diddy, Daddy Yankee, and Beyonce just to name a few. Gathering brand partnerships with Hershey’s, Foot Locker, Samsung and Hulu coupled with notable press mentions from WWD, 20/20 Mag, Vogue, and Essence, Coco and Breezy have amassed acclaim within the entertainment, fashion, media landscape.

The duo are accomplished producers, and DJs – performing at major festivals, and topping dance music charts in addition to co-hosting the TV show Wonderama.

Gloria Opoku-Boateng, UX Research Manager | Amazon

Gloria Opoku-Boateng Ph.D. is a Computer Scientist turned UX Research Scientist. Her love for computers spurned her current focus on making technology usable for all. As a UX leader, she currently leads a team of AWS researchers who work to optimize customer/consumer experience with cloud solutions. Prior to current role, she led research and design for Enterprise AI/ML platforms and Consumer Digital Identity Services across Capital One. Gloria is passionate about mentoring and giving back to the community. She also believes in order to ‘build for all’, there needs to be equity, diversity, and inclusion across research and design teams.Over the last several years, she has volunteered in so many ways to teach girls how to code, mentored UX researchers, and served in various capacities with local and regional robotics competitions. With her work and passion, Gloria has been awarded several awards and recognition. She hopes to inspire women in tech with her experience and encourage black women to ‘have it all’ through balance and patience. Outside her work at AWS, she spends time with her family and teaches middle and high-schoolers how to design and code.

Robert Brunner, Founder/Partner | Ammunition

Robert founded Ammunition in 2007 to communicate ideas through products, brands, and their surrounding experiences. His work as an industrial designer has spawned numerous brand-defining designs over the past three decades.Prior to founding Ammunition, Robert was a partner at Pentagram and led strategic brand consulting and industrial design programs for Fortune 500 companies. Previously, he was the Director of Industrial Design for Apple, where he established itspioneering internal corporate design organization, Apple IDg. Before joining Apple, Robert co-founded design consultancy Lunar. Named one of Fast Company’s “Most Creative People in Business,” Robert’s work is included in the permanent design collectionsof the MoMA in both New York and San Francisco. He is the co-author of the book “Do You Matter? How Great Design Will Make People Love Your Company.”

Matt Rolandson, Partner | Ammunition

As the head of experience design and design strategy at Ammunition, Matt works hands-on with the studio’s clients and partners to create new product and service businesses that engage consumers in meaningful ways. Matt has worked in close partnership with leaders of organizations including Apple, Lyft, Skype, Starbucks, Square, Target, and the University of California, among others. In the food tech space, he has worked alongside founders at Cafe X, Ember and June. Prior to Ammunition, Matt was President of MetaDesign in the US and a strategist at frog, where he led product and service innovation programs for clients including 23andMe, Autodesk, DirectTV, HP, and Shangri-La hotels. A native San Franciscan, Matt is a graduate of UC Berkeley where he studied sociology and architecture. An avid cyclist, Matt is occasionally seen taking a lap around the studio on his bicycle.

Shane Coen, CEO + Founder | Coen + Partners

Shane Coen has led Coen+Partners, an urban design and landscape architecture studio, for over twenty-five years. Coen+Partners’ body of work was recognized in 2008 by the Architectural League of New York for the distinct and emerging design voice. In 2015, their work was recognized with the National Design Award from Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. In 2018, CP was the first-place recipient of the Landezine International Landscape Award. Shane and his firm continue to build relationships with influential architects, designers, and artists throughout the world creating contextually specific urban design initiatives for spaces and cities throughout the world.

Rodrigo Corral, Creative Director | Rodrigo Corral Studio/Farrar Straus & Giroux

Rodrigo Corral runs the Rodrigo Corral Art + Design Studio and is the Creative Director at Farrar, Straus, and Giroux and New Directions. With a focus on conceptual art, his work spans print, art, film, brand identity, and interior spaces. He designed the New York Times bestselling books Decoded by Jay-Z, Principles by Ray Dalio, and The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. He has also created multiple covers for the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Junot Diaz, bestselling authors Chuck Palahniuk and Jeff Vandermeer. Recently Rodrigo published his own New York Times bestseller, SNEAKERS the book. He has taught at the School of Visual Arts and Cooper Union in New York City and lectured around the country. Rodrigo remains deeply committed to pushing the visual possibilities in art, sports and throughout the universe.

Phil Clevenger, Senior Director, Experience Design | Adobe Design

Phil Clevenger is Senior Director, Experience Design for Adobe Design. He began his career at Adobe in 2005 with the design the first several versions of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom; subsequently he built out UX design teams for Adobe while living in India, and is currently leading the worldwide UX design team responsible for Adobe’s Experience Cloud suite of enterprise products. Phil is a proud citizen of San Francisco, where he lives with his wife and three unruly dogs.

SCOTT DADICH, FOUNDER + CEO | GODFREY DADICH PARTNERS

2020 National Design Winner

Scott Dadich is a founder and co-CEO of Godfrey Dadich Partners, a communications design and strategy firm headquartered in San Francisco, California, that helps organizations tell better stories—from documentary films and longform journalism to corporate strategies and brand marketing campaigns. He has led work with Nike, Apple, The Obama Foundation, IBM, National Geographic, and The New Yorker. With the belief that every choice is an act of design, he created and executive produced Netflix’s Emmy-nominated Abstract: The Art of Design. Dadich was editor in chief of WIRED, where he previously served as creative director and was the only person to ever win three consecutive National Magazine Awards for design (he has four) along with three consecutive Society of Publication Design “Magazine of the Year” awards.

Craig Dykers, Founding Partner, Architect
Elaine Molinar, Partner, Managing Director
Snohetta

National Design Winner

For over 30 years Snøhetta has designed some of the world’s most notable projects integrating architecture, landscape, interiors, branding, and product design. The firm is dedicated to building equitable and sustainable places to enhance human society and natural habitat. With seven offices across the globe, Snøhetta’s noteworthy projects include the Library of Alexandria in Egypt, the Norwegian National Opera in Oslo, the National September 11 Memorial Museum Pavilion and Times Square in New York, the San Francisco Museum of ModernArt in California, the Calgary Public Library in Canada, House Zero a zero-emissions sustainable research prototype at Harvard University, and the Ford Motor Company’s new Research & Engineering Campus in Michigan. The studio’s global practice is led by founders Craig Dykers (US) and Kjetil Thorsen (NOR). Dykers leads the US studio together with partners Elaine Molinar, Michelle Delk, and Alan Gordon

Susannah Drake, FASLA, FAIA Founding Principal | DLANDstudio Architecture and Landscape Architecture PLL

2020 National Design Winner

Designed by DLANDstudio, the Gowanus Canal Sponge Park™ in Brooklyn, New York is a proven new form of green infrastructure that captures and cleans dirty urban stormwater runoff and addresses the global problem of contaminated streams, rivers, aquifers, and oceans. Completed in2016, the Sponge Park™ is in a notoriously dirty EPA superfund site, where petroleum byproducts and combined sewer overflows of human waste present acute risks to public health. The Sponge Park™ keeps excess water out of combined sewers, with a replicable ecosystem where plants and microorganisms in the soil absorb and break down biological and synthetic contamination in water and soil. The modular system, when implemented across New York City, has the potential to clean billions of gallons of storm water, and the impact nationwide has even greater power for environmental stewardship.

Ben Ebel, Experience Design – Customer Lab | Michelin North America, Inc.

Ben Ebel is the experience designer at Michelin North America’s Customer Innovation Lab. During his career at Michelin, he has designed multiple product lines including the TWEEL and UPTIS non-pneumatic solutions, served as the designer for the Incubator Program Office, and was responsible for innovation development and deployment for the Original Equipment business line. He was also the chairman of Michelin Challenge Design, the most influential and popular mobility design program in the world, for the last seven years. Ben joined Michelin in 2008 after a previous role as an automotive designer at the Mercedes-Benz Advanced Concept Center in Irvine, CA. He holds degrees in design from Auburn University and the Art Center College of Design, where he also served as an adjunct professor. A frequent speaker, Ben has given lectures and conducted workshops at the Movin’On Sustainability Summit, TEDx, and BBC World-Changing Ideas Summit, as well as at design schools and institutions around the world.

Abrima Erwiah, Co-Founder | Studio One Eighty Nine

2020 National Design Winner

Co-founded by Rosario Dawson and Abrima Erwiah in 2013, Studio One Eighty Nine is an artisan-produced fashion lifestyle brand and social enterprise. The luxury brand creates African and African-inspired content and clothing, working with artisanal communities in Africa that specialize in traditional craftsmanship techniques and focusing on empowerment, job creation, education, and skills training. It operates stores in New York and Accra, Ghana, an ecommerce site, a manufacturing facility in Accra, Ghana, and supports community-led projects in Africa and the United States. Studio 189 partners with the United Nations ITC Ethical Fashion Initiative and NYU Stern School of Business, and its collaborators include Lexus, Ferragamo, EDUN (LVMH), Fendi, Nike, Opening Ceremony, The Surf Lodge, Okay Africa, and Yoox Net a Porter. It received the CFDA + Lexus Fashion Initiative for Sustainability in 2018

Teran Evans, Global Head of Brand Design | Amazon Music

Teran Evans earned his Master in Architecture degree with advanced placement from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. He holds a cum laude B.S. in architecture from the University of Florida as well as an A.A. degree in classical instrumental performance and theory. He has worked in Europe, Asia, and the US for many prominent design offices, including Rem Koolhaas’ Office for Metropolitan Architecture.Always interested in shaping the way that consumers engage brands, Teran serves as the Global Head of Brand Design for Amazon Music. For the last ten years he has also taught brand strategy as a member of the graduate design faculty at his alma mater, Harvard University. His seminar, Paper or Plastic, introduces students to branding and the world of consumer packaged goods. Prior to his role with Amazon, Teran served as Vice President of Design & Experience for Panera Bread where he oversaw the company’s consumer packaged goods arm, Panera at Home, among other responsibilities. Teran also served as the Global Design Director of Brand Experience for PepsiCo, where he worked across the brand’s entire global portfolio. He was primarily responsible for shaping the identity of Pepsi brands via high-profile activations and campaigns for the Super Bowl, the Sundance Film Festival, the MTV Video Music Awards, and the Grammy’s, to name a few.In addition to his leadership roles within various Fortune 50 brands, Teran has also consulted on the development of multiple luxury fashion brands including LVMH, MCM, Theory, Calvin Klein, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Bloomingdale’s along with developing corporate brand strategy for companies like Verizon FiOS, Samsung, and American Express. Additionally, jewelry from his own fashion brand, Dioscuri (started in 2004), was chosen by Oprah Winfrey as one of her favorite things in 2006.Finally, Teran has appeared on several television networks, including HGTV, Fox’s Good Day New York, and many times on the Rachael Ray Show. In 2012 he was awarded the Innovations in Business Award by Black Enterprise Magazine and Ford Motor Company. He and his work have been featured in multiple media publications including O The Oprah Magazine, New York Magazine, The New York Times, Black Enterprise, Time Magazine, The New York Daily News, Women’s Wear Daily, and Inc Magazine, among others.

Nadine Foik, Design Manager | Catapult Design

2020 National Design Winner

Nadine is a creative and inquisitive problem-solver with experience in human-centered service and product design, design research, organizational capacity-building, and design management. Her passion lies in understanding the “why” behind the “what” and making sense of information in order to design towards a more just, healthy, and resilient life and world. In her role as Design Manager at Catapult Design, Nadine builds new business and strategic partnerships, leads and manages projects, and contributes to projects as strategic designer and design researcher. Nadine holds a Masters in Industrial Product Design from Pratt Institute, a Bachelors in Spanish/Hispanic Cultures with Minors in Fine Arts and Philosophy, and certificates in design research, service design, and design leadership. She loves exploring the new and unfamiliar, whether it is through the people, objects, environments, or ideas she encounters.

Carmen Gama, Design & Production Manager | Eileen Fisher Waste No More

Carmen Gama is a New York-based designer born and raised in Mexico. She attended Parsons The New School for Design in New York and graduated as a finalist for the ‘Designer of the Year’ Award, Class of 2015. Upon graduation, Gama’s ‘Sustainable Urban Outerwear’ thesis earned her the inaugural Eileen x CFDA Social Innovator fellowship. During her fellowship, Gama worked collaboratively to design a scalable and profitable manufacturing system for the recycled EILEEN FISHER garments, which concluded with a “Remade in The USA” capsule collection that debuted in July 2016. Today, EILEEN FISHER Renew has taken back over a million garments and done over 10 million dollars in sales. Gama has a true passion for solution-based design and technological innovation. Through this framework she is constantly challenging her design values by striving to design clothes with the potential to last a lifetime and design solutions for post consumer waste. Gama has been featured in numerous publications including Women’s Wear Daily, The Wall Street Journal, Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar.

Emily Gobeille, Partner | Design I/O
Theodore Watson, Partner | Design I/O

2020 National Design Winner

Founded in 2010, Design I/O is a small studio passionate about creating immersive interactive environments, new forms of storytelling, and developing prototypes that lead toward a more magical future. Led by partners Emily Gobeille and Theodore Watson along with Nicholas Hardeman and Anna Cataldo, the studio takes a playful approach to its work with the goal of developing experiences which support open play and exploration in a collaborative environment. Design I/O strives to make work that not only allows the user to be a part of the experience, but to dramatically shape that experience in a meaningful way. Clients include The New York Hall of Science, Cleveland Museum of Art, Nokia Bell Labs, Franklin Park Conservatory, Cinekid, TELUS World of Science, TIFF, San Francisco Arts Commission, and Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science.

Xerxes Irani, Principal Creative Director | Amazon Music

Xerxes is a third-generation creative professional. His career travels have included time spent as an international ad agency Creative Director, a professor at both the University of Washington Masters Degree Graduate Program, the Alberta College of Art & Design (ACAD) for 10+ years, and the founding partner of two successful design studios. He was previously the Creative Director for Bill Gates’ media licensing company, Corbis (and Veer), where he lead a network of creative teams in Calgary, Seattle, and London, which produced all marketing and advertising assets for the corporation’s four global brands. During the last six years at Amazon he created the 404 Dogs of Amazon pages, The Climate Pledge logo and worked in the Concept Lab. Currently he is a part of the amazing Amazon Design Community as Principal Creative Director of Amazon Music. Husband of one, father of two also finds time to pursue personal projects on the side. To date, he has had seven stamps printed and one coin minted by Canada Post, along with specializing in brand positioning projects with the estates of Muhammad Ali, Martin Luther King, Jr., Albert Einstein, and Alfred Hitchcock to name a few.

Jasmine James, Founder + Designer | JJ Vintage

JJVINTAGE was founded by designer Jasmine James in November 2019. I’ve always had a passion for thrifting and reworking vintage clothes since I was in college. I began selling vintage rework items in 2015 as a side hustle, which turned into something that I really enjoyed doing in my spare time. My very first rework style that I made in 2015, was a one shoulder crop and bodysuit. That is when the spark of excitement to continue to rework items and create something special came to fruition to where I am today. I moved to New York in 2018 after graduating college and I knew this is where I belonged. I constantly set small goals for myself and wrote out a plan on how I would take JJVINTAGE to the next level. The WHY behind the brand JJVINTAGE is simple, I wanted to recreate clothes in an effort to reduce waste in the environment while still being fashionable. This is why my mission is to recycle, reuse, and repurpose.

MI Leggett, ARTIST + founder | Official Rebrand

MI Leggett is the New York based non-binary artist behind the anti-waste gender-free fashion label, Official Rebrand. A former food justice advocate with a background in sustainable agriculture, video art and painting, they now transform unwanted materials into unique clothing and sculptures. Challenging the boundaries between art and fashion, they have shown two collections on the CFDA calendar, in addition to independent shows at New York and Berlin Fashion Week, international galleries and New Art Dealers Alliance. Their work and words have appeared in The New York Times, Teen Vogue, Vogue Italia, Paper, Bloomberg, i-D, WWD, Office, Antidote and other outlets. Find them on instagram @official_rebrand

OJB Landscape Architecture

National Design Winner

OJB Landscape Architecture is a collective landscape architecture and urban planning practice inspired to create beauty and find unexpected moments in the natural world. Founded by James Burnett in 1989 in Houston, Texas and led today by Burnett and his partners in offices around the country, OJB shapes public spaces into community resources that rejuvenate the human spirit, promote discovery and wellness, celebrate the genus of place, restore connectivity, and respect natural ecologies. The work affirms the public realm as our shared responsibility and a place for discovery, engagement, and transformation. Notable projects include Klyde Warren Park in Dallas, Texas, Myriad Botanical Gardens in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Sunnylands Center and Gardens in Rancho Mirage, California, and Hall Wines in St. Helena, California.

Arjun Mahesh, Senior Product Designer | Kickstarter

I’m a staff product designer focused on strategy on Kickstarter, and I’ve worked on everything from prototyping new products to improving platform trust. In the past I’ve also worked with Frank Gehry, Amazon, Google, BCG, and Wall Street Journal. My backgrounds are in architecture and computer science, so I’m usually filling my breaks during the day drooling over single family residences and algorithmic artwork. I also produce music under the stage name Creative License, and my last release was focused on raising money for The Okra Project, a fantastic initiative dedicated to providing in-home meals for Black Trans people.

arjunmahesh.com
twitter.com/arjmahesh
instagram.com/arjmahesh
linkedin.com/in/arjun-mahesh-7209a179
creativelicense.bandcamp.com/releases

Amanda Rios, Creative Director | Kickstarter

Amanda Rios is an Art Director at Kickstarter and co-founder of Ladies, Wine and Design–Brooklyn. Before joining Kickstarter, Amanda worked as an independent designer for over 4 years. A few of her clients include Cora, DripKit, Hearst, Pamela Love, The Guardian, and W.I.N. During her years freelancing she worked closely with in-house marketing teams and inspiring female founders on a range of branding projects across print and digital spaces. She loves being involved in her local design community and drawing lower case “a”s especially since there are a couple in her name.

www.amandarios.com
ladieswinedesign.com/brooklyn
linkedin.com/in/amanda-rios-graphic-design
instagram.com/amanda_rios/

Cara MiCHell, Senior Urban Planner | WXY Studios

Cara Michell is an urban planner at WXY Studio. With a background in studio art and sculpture, Cara continues to produce visual artwork and writing that highlights the structural inequalities and institutionalized racism that are perpetuated by the urban design field. She is a co-founder of Harvard’s biennial Black in Design Conference.

Mahdiyyah Muhammad, Designer + INSTRUCTOR | MAHDIYYAH

Designer and fashion visionary Mahdiyyah Muhammad is self-taught with a design ability to create concepts directly from her visions without the use of patterns, or sketches. The vision is realized, the fabric is purchased, and then each garment is cut and sewn to life. The journey to actualizing her designs named Mahdiyyah, began at age eight, and has since evolved her craft; leading to custom orders, and then, on to larger retail orders, artist collaboration, and teaching others to sew. Shortly after launching her brand, Mahdiyyah created a sewing program that allows youth ages 9-14 to take sewing sessions at no charge. This was followed by offering paid adult classes for sewing beginners, and an offer to take a position as a Fashion/Sewing Specialist at Harlem Children’s Zone in Harlem, NY teaching sewing and fashion to the high school students there at the after school program. Most recently she has worked with East New York Farms, San Jose Quilt and Textiles Museum, and Agora Gallery. Mahdiyyah combines her love for fashion, art, education, and research with functionality collaborating with artists, and other designers to date like Shirt King Phade of the Mighty Shirt Kings who has worked with the likes of Jay-Z, Rakim, ASAP Ferg and more to grace clothing with his graffiti art, April Walker of Walker Wear, and Notoriouss Clothing Boutique owner T’Yanna Wallace who is daughter of the late great rapper Biggie Smalls to name a few. Additional collaborations with artists and designers Adnaan Muhammad of NabzVision, Terell Alejandro Edwards of Amorcyan, and Neha Surender of Saffron Siren are also included her past works. Other initiatives include a donation program created in collaboration with Halima Garrett of Threads of Habit, to host clothing drives for local shelters where they create and give stylized clothing packages for inhabitants of the women’s shelters. Mahdiyyah believes that there is much emphasis placed on achieving goals and success, but without the ability to gift others with an opportunity to achieve it as well, we are not really using our gifts in their entirety.

Allana Pritchard Ogborn, Senior UX Designer | Amazon

Allana is a Senior UX designer based in Seattle. Over 7 years of designing at Amazon she’s worked on a wide range of products, teams, and modalities. After several years in the retail space, then Alexa, she’s spent the past 2 years working in the Health & Wellness space to launch Amazon Halo. Before starting in UX, Allana studied Industrial design, Architecture, and Web development. Each had an element of HCD (Human centered design), leading to a long-term love for design process & building products for customers. Outside of work, she’s an avid collector of pins, plants, and pet portraits of her 2 dogs, Biscuit & RoRo.

Jasmine Stein, Associate Strategy Director | 2×4

Jasmine Stein is an Associate Strategy Director at 2×4 where she leads the development of brand strategy, conducting research and analysis to uncover insights across sectors from cultural to commercial clients. Recent projects include a brand strategy and visual identity project for womenswear at Target, brand strategy and analysis for Ariel, an investment firm in Chicago, a naming and spatial analysis project for Google, and a strategy and branding public arts project for Carrie Mae Weems and Social Studies 101, regarding COVID-19 and its impact. Before joining 2×4 she was a Senior Creative Strategist at The New York Times planning concept development for print, digital, audio and experiential campaigns across the NYT platform. She has a master’s degree in Creative Writing and Critical Studies from CalArts and holds a B.A. from Purdue University.

Georgianna Stout, Partner + Executive Creative Director | 2×4

Georgianna Stout is a founding partner and executive creative director of 2×4 where she leads a wide range of projects from retail and packaging initiatives to large-scale brand identity and experience programs. Her clients include Target, Starbucks, Nike, Barneys New York, Tom Ford, and Tiffany & Co. In the cultural sector, she has lead brand identity and exhibition design for institutions such as the Cooper Hewitt, Brooklyn Museum and the Studio Museum in Harlem. Stout has been a visiting teacher and critic at Rhode Island School of Design, Parsons School of Design, MICA,  Cooper Hewitt and Yale School of Art, and holds a B.F.A from the Rhode Island School of Design.