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A Conversation with 2025 National Design Award Winner Jules Sherman and Figma’s Amber Bravo

Join us for a virtual lunchtime talk with Jules Sherman, winner of the 2025 National Design Award in Product Design, as she reflects on how her design practice has evolved over the past decade. Drawing from her work in medical device design and healthcare innovation, Sherman will share the fundamentals of her process—tracing her early use of hand-drawn sketches to her current use of AI tools. She will also discuss what it means to design for patients and families, and how designers can better understand and serve the people at the heart of their work.

After her presentation, Sherman will have an intimate conversation with Amber Bravo, who leads Story Studio at Figma, a cloud-based digital design and collaboration tool that Sherman uses in her human-computer interaction studies. Together, they’ll discuss AI’s role in supporting a designer’s need for speed and integration while breaking down barriers to using various software and coding tools.

Click here to join virtual program on Zoom.

SPEAKERS

Jules Sherman is a leader in pediatric medical device design and healthcare innovation. Inspired by a traumatic hospital birth experience in 2010, she turned her focus from consumer product design to transforming pediatric and maternal healthcare through FDA-cleared devices that prioritize safety and efficacy. For the past 12 years, Sherman has worked within innovation labs at Stanford Medicine and Children’s National Hospital. In these environments she collaborates with clinicians, engineers, and families to develop innovative devices and teaches design thinking methodology for medical device development to nurses and students. Her work includes products like Trach Sense, which detects tracheostomy complications; The Kangarobe, which improves skin-to-skin care in neonatal ICUs; Primo-Lacto, a closed system for colostrum collection; and NOOMA Tech, which facilitates delayed cord clamping for preterm infants. As an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland, Sherman has the opportunity to share her methodology and work experiences with bioengineering students. Sherman is currently a graduate student at UC Irvine studying human-computer interaction where she is developing projects for pediatric and mobile clinic applications.

Amber Bravo works at the intersection of product, brand, and strategy. She leads Story Studio at Figma, where she helps shape how the company shows up and how its products are understood—from vision and direction to the launches and tools where design happens every day. Before Figma, she led the creative and storytelling strategy for Material Design at Google. Her background spans design and cultural storytelling, with earlier work at Herman Miller, Dwell, and The FADER.

AccessibiliTy & What to Expect

Format: The program will be hosted on Zoom. The viewing link will be emailed to you upon registration. The program will begin with a brief welcome, then the speaker will give presentations with slides followed by the conversation and then a Q&A with the audience.
Accommodations: The program will have live closed captioning. If we can provide additional services to support your participation, email us at CHEducation@si.edu or let us know when you register. Please make your request as far in advance as possible—preferably at least ten days before the program date.
Recording: The program will be recorded and may be posted on Cooper Hewitt’s YouTube channel.

Support

The National Design Awards are made possible by:
Design Partners
Shelby & Frederick Gans
Jon Iwata
Lisa Roberts & David Seltzer

Design Sponsors
Apple Inc.
Chris & Irma Fralic
Alexandra & Paul Herzan
Helen and Edward Hintz
IBM Corporation

Design Friends
ANT/DOTE
Irene Au & Bradley Horowitz
Jake Barton
Amita & Purnendu Chatterjee
Cristina Grajales Gallery
Al Eiber
The Garden Conservancy
Agnes Gund
Jessica Healy, Seven Willow Collaborative
Randy & Taylor Hunt
Lemberg Foundation
Michael Maltzan & Amy Murphy
Henry R. Muñoz III & Kyle Ferari-Muñoz
Pentagram
Theo Richardson, RBW.com
Virginia San Fratello
Savannah College of Art and Design
Kimberly Schuessler
Lauren Seikaly & Michael Huber
Enid Sherman in honor of Jules Sherman
Slow and Steady Wins the Race
Margaret Gould Stewart