Jury

Debbie Millman, Design Matters Podcast, SVA & Print Magazine, New York, NY

• Debbie Millman, Founder and Host of the Design Matters Podcast
• Co-founder Graduate Program in Branding at SVA
• Editorial and Creative Director of PRINT Magazine

Named “one of the most influential designers working today” by Graphic Design USA, Debbie Millman is also an author, educator, brand strategist and host of the podcast Design Matters. Debbie is President of Design at Sterling Brands, where she has worked with over 200 of the world’s largest brands. As the founder and host of Design Matters, the first and longest running podcast about design, Millman has interviewed more than 250 design luminaries and cultural commentators. In the ten years since its inception, the show has garnered millions of downloads and a Cooper Hewitt National Design Award.

Debbie is the author of six books, including two collections of interviews that have extended the ethos and editorial vision of Design Matters to the printed page: How to Think Like a Great Graphic Designer and Brand Thinking and Other Noble Pursuits. In 2009 Debbie co-founded with Steven Heller the world’s first graduate program in branding at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.

Debbie’s written and visual essays have appeared in publications such as The New York Times, New York Magazine, Print Magazine, Design Observer and Fast Company. Debbie is President Emeritus of AIGA, one of five women to hold the position in the organization’s 100-year history. Currently, Debbie is the former Editorial and Creative Director of Print Magazine, the oldest magazine about design in the United States.

Sean Adams, Acting Chair, Graphic Design at ArtCenter College of Design, Pasadena CA

Sean Adams is the Executive Director of the Graphic Design Graduate program at Art Center College of Design, currently serves as Interim Chair of the Graphic Design program, founder of Burning Settlers Cabin weblog, on-screen author for lynda.com/Linked In, and a contributor and serves on the editorial board of Design Observer.

He is the only two-term AIGA national president in the organization’s history. Adams has served on the AIGA national board and was also AIGA Los Angeles president. In 2014, Adams was awarded the AIGA Medal, the highest honor in the profession.

He is an AIGA Fellow, and Aspen Design Fellow. He has been recognized by every major competition and publication including; Print, Step, Communication Arts, Graphis AIGA, The Type Directors Club, The British Art Director’s Club, and the New York Art Director’s Club. Adams and AdamsMorioka have been exhibited often, including a solo exhibition at The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Adams is an author of multiple magazine columns, and several best-selling books. He has been cited as one of the forty most important people shaping design internationally in the ID40, and one of the top ten influential designers in the United States.

Previously, Adams was a founding partner at AdamsMorioka, whose clients included The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Disney, Mohawk Fine Papers, The Metropolitan Opera, Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History, Richard Meier & Partners, Sundance, and the University of Southern California.

Daniel D'Arcy, Jones Knowles Ritchie, Los Angeles CA

Speaking & Panels:
SVA Masters In Branding, “Argumentation”, 2017
Showcase Itch No. 3 Guatemala, “Design Big”, 2017
The High End, “Branding 101”, 2017
New York Festivals, “Who Owns Creativity” Panel, 2017
The High End, “Bringing Brand Positioning to Life”, 2017
SVA Masters In Branding, “Storytelling”, 2016
ABInBev, “Creativity Training” Panel, 2016
Sacramento State, “Branding”, 2013

Pum Lefebure, Co-Founder & Chief Creative Officer, Design Army, Washington DC

Pum Lefebure is a co-founder and chief creative officer of Design Army in Washington, DC, where she oversees all creative coming through the agency’s doors. An award-winning creative director and savvy business leader, Pum has dreamed up and developed numerous high-profile campaigns worldwide. The Thailand native brings a global sensibility to American design – a creative point of view that draws from different cultures and resonates with diverse audiences.

Guided by an international eye and entrepreneurial edge, Pum has helped expand the agency’s client base and elevate its reputation as a trend-setter. Pum’s hallmark is a distinctive union of the artistic and the commercial. With a rare balance of creativity and strategic thinking, she has proven that good design is the cornerstone of good business. Her work and words of wisdom have been featured in Huffington Post, Forbes, Entrepreneur, Fast Company, CMO, and Adweek.

Pum regularly judges elite design competitions including Cannes Lions, Clio, D&AD and Spikes Asia. She served as the President of the One Show Design jury, AdFest, and London International Awards. Her work has earned a plethora of awards, including D&AD, One Show, ADC, Red Dot, AIGA, SPD, and TDC. She has has been asked to give design lectures from Copenhagen and Cannes to Monterrey and Beijing.

Pum excels at establishing the vision behind high-profile campaigns. Skilled in the creation and implementation of corporate identity, branding, conceptual design, she is known for her distinctive art direction. Her clients include the Academy Awards, Adobe, GE, Disney, Bloomingdale’s, Ritz Carlton, PepsiCo, Washington Ballet, Neenah, Smithsonian and Lucas Film.

Pum was named as one of Adweek’s Creative100. Graphic Design USA named her as one of the top 50 People to Watch, and she was awarded by the Washington Business Journal’s Women Who Mean Business. Pum currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors for The One Club in New York.

Richars Meza, IS Creatives Studio & Latin American Design, Peru

Richars Meza is a Peruvian born Spanish creative director and typographer. He founded IS Creative Studio in Madrid in January 2010, where he conceptualizes products and packagings, ad campaigns and catalogs, logos and brand identities, as well as events and installations.

Richars Meza studied graphic design and advertising at Toulouse Lautrec Institute and IPP in Lima. He started his career working for the renown graphic design consultancy Studioa/Interbrand, Axis and the largest advertising agency at that time in Peru, Causa/Leo Burnett.

He moved to New York City in 1989 to study interactive design and animation at Pratt Institute where he worked for the interactive agency Oven Digital (where he won a Gold Pencil at One Show Interactive 2000), the corporate design firm Siegel Gale, and the advertising & design agency Blue Dingo.
After four years in New York City, he moved to Tokyo to work as an Art Director for the interactive studio Insentiv Media, designing art works for Nikon, Mazda, Mitsubishi Electric, Tosoh, Fuji Xerox and Toyota.

In 2003 he relocated to Madrid to co found a design company  to be in charge of the creative direction, working for the Spanish film industry and other cultural institutions. Seven years later in 2010, after winning at the European Design Awards and Premios Laus, he began a new phase establishing his own design firm, IS Creative Studio.

Ken Lo, Founder, BLOW, Hong Kong

Ken founded BLOW in May 2010 with a mission to help brands stand out from the crowd through simple and impactful design, communicating the core message in a direct and highly effective way. With a passion on craftsmanship in graphic design, Ken places great emphasis on the solid craft skill as well as the design concept on every single piece of his work. His latest personal work, More Hugs by Ken Lo, is the embodiment of Ken’s unique view of the world. An earnest reflection of his own personal history and a humble wish to humankind.

Born in 1981. Ken graduated from HKU SPACE Community College with Distinction in Higher Diploma in Visual Communication in 2005. He won the Champion of “Design Student of The Year” presented by Hong Kong Designers Association in the same year. Ken kickstarted his design career in 2004 with CoDesign Ltd. He then joined Alan Chan Design Company in 2006 and left in May 2010 to set up his own design studio BLOW.

Ken has over 80 international and local awards on his belt including The One Show, Tokyo Type Directors Club (TDC), International Poster Triennale, HKDA Global Design Awards and more. He was also selected by the Time Out Magazine in 2012 as “The Design Hot 25”- the 25 Hong Kong city’s top talents you need to know! He was the winner of Victoria Harbour Icon Design Competition of which is being used on signage to guide locals and tourists alike in the city. He has been invited by the “How Design Live 2015 – The Dieline Conference” & Wallpaper* Thai Edition, Wallpaper*Design Talk in 2017 to share his design experience in Chicago & Bangkok respectively. In this summer, Ken has invited by Graphics Matters to design 40 More Hugs flags exhibiting in Breda, Netherlands.