Debbie Millman, Founder and Host of the Design Matters Podcast
Co-founder Graduate Program in Branding at SVA 
Partner & Co-Editorial 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 Partner & Co-Editorial of Print Magazine, the oldest magazine about design in the United States.

Co-Founder and CCO of Design Army

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, strategic thinking and industry know-how, 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, New York Times, and Adweek, to name just a few.

Pum regularly judges elite design competitions around the world 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, among others. She has has been asked to give design lectures and lead workshops from Copenhagen and Durban to Bangkok 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. Pum has guided the design and development of an array of award-winning work. Her clients include the Academy Awards, Adobe, 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 as a Rising Star 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.

Co-Founder, A PLASTIC PLANET

A Plastic Planet is a global campaign organisation with a single goal - to ignite and inspire the world to turn off the plastic tap. As entrepreneurs, they bring a fresh pro-business solutions-focused approach to environmental issues. A Plastic Planet are highly vocal in the world’s media, working collaboratively with industry, retailers, Governments, legislators and the UN; to accelerate the pace of change at all levels. Recognised in The 2019 Fast Company Awards and winners of International Campaign of the Year, A Plastic Planet created the infamous Plastic Free Aisle campaign, opening this catalyst for supermarket change in Amsterdam early 2018. They also launched the Plastic Free Trust Mark for brands, with over 1000 already certified, and the Industry Commitment Mark ‘Working Towards Plastic Free’. A Plastic Planet is a key founding partner in the Plastic Health Coalition, bringing together the world’s scientists, doctors to irrefutably prove the impact of plastic toxicity on human health.

From plastic hackathons for Unilever and WPP to creating new laws banning export of plastic waste, from lobbying for plastic taxes, and the creation of the first PlasticFree.com materials and solutions library with blockchain partner IBM, A Plastic Planet have created global impact in just 3 years.

Co-Founder, Stamp Works

Jin Fujiwara is a founder of Stamp Works in Okayama, Japan and Sweden, and is passionate about art, design and especially packaging.

Jin has a B.A. from Academy of Art university in San Francisco. After having education and work experience in the Bay area, he moved to Stockholm, Sweden to learn nordic way of design thinking.

He has helped create designs for Massive Entertainment, Hansa Borg, Spendrup, Carlsberg, Cloetta, and other small start up companies over the years.

Co-Founder and Creative Director, Gander

Katie Levy is a Co-Founder and Creative Director at Gander, an award-winning creative agency based in New York. She founded Gander in 2013 with her partner, Mike McVicar, and together with their team they have helped redefine how consumers perceive and interact with food and beverage brands. Clients include Banza, Gotham Greens, Magic Spoon, Coconut Bliss and many more.

Jamie Gandee is Creative Director at the London studio of independent brand design agency Bulletproof, bringing almost 20 years experience in both brand design and advertising, with roles at a number of respected agencies including Design Bridge, Elmwood and Havas.

Jamie is worryingly passionate about producing iconic design that is strategically grounded in an explosive mushroom-cloud of a big idea. He prefers to work collaboratively and is a devout believer in sensorial brand world creation.

He has worked with global clients including PepsiCo, Unilever and Mondelēz, where he was instrumental in the global redesign of Cadbury Dairy Milk. Jamie’s work has been featured in a number of outlets from Creative Review to Have I Got News for You. Even The Sun; which was slightly unnerving.

Outside of work, you’ll find Jamie in an ill-fitting pair of tight jeans zealously adding to his collection of Air Max 90s. He is covered in scribbles (although has a fear of needles and dislikes tattoo culture), collects anything from old works of fiction to Ouija board planchettes and has an obsession with David Bowie. The main takeout though, is that he probably needs looser fitting jeans.

Over 20 years of experience in packaging and brand design

‘I love to use creative thinking and design to answer business challenges’ Relevant Category Experience: Brand creations, evolutions and revolutions across a wide range of categories, considering large portfolios and complex portfolio architectures.

Clients: Danone, Unilever, Kellogg Company, Reckitt Benckiser, P&G, Mars Wrigley, United Biscuits, Bloom & Blossom, Deliciously Ella, Molton Brown, and many more

Blossom, Deliciously Ella, Molton Brown, and many more

Founder Mousegraphics

Gregory was born in Thessaloniki at the North of Greece and moved to Athens to study graphic design.

A math fanatic and a physics enthusiast, Gregory also loves boats and the open waters of the Aegean Sea –hence he lives in Athens about 20 minutes away from the nearest sea-side.

He founded ‘mousegraphics’ very early on as this Greek- company-with-the-funny-name that works globally, and has been honored with more than a 160 major international awards within the last five years only, including 3 agency of the year distinctions at the Dieline Awards (2015, 2016, 2018), 2 agency of the year awards at the Pentawards in 2017 and 2018 and the designer of the year award in 2016. He has been a judge in many of the most significant design competitions.

To not be fluent in English has somehow made Gregory more attuned to the nuances of the design language and its complex relationship to everyday life. He enjoys the paradox as he is an introvert by character and an extrovert by trade.

mousegraphics.eu

Global Design Director, Diageo

Jeremy is responsible for transforming the Design capability and output of Diageo’s current brands and new products worldwide. Diageo is the world's leading premium drinks business. He is passionate about the impact Design has on business performance and the way Design Thinking leads to breakthrough ideas wherever it is applied. Standout projects include Johnnie Walker Blue Label, Tanqueray 10 and the Johnnie Walker Brand Home in Edinburgh which opens on 6 September 2021.

Founder of CENTER

Alex Center is a Brooklyn-based designer and founder of the branding company CENTER. Prior to launching his own studio in 2018, he spent 10 years at the global beverage leader The Coca-Cola Company where he led the design vision for the billion dollar brands vitaminwater, smartwater & Powerade.

Today, Alex and his team are building the icon brands of tomorrow, partnering with startups like Kin Euphorics, Conbody, Camp and United Sodas of America.

Over his career, Alex has designed packaging that has been in the hands of millions, launched breakthrough creative campaigns, given talks around the world and once met rapper 50 Cent who told him “You must think you're pretty special.” He got nervous and instantly started sweating.

In his personal time he enjoys rooting for New York teams that wear orange & blue, eating/taking photos of delicious food and spending time with his wife Jacquelyn De Jesu and their zero kids and zero pets.

Zoe is Co-Founder & Creative Director of Co-Partnership, trusted branding and packaging partners to the world’s most loved drinks brands.

London born, Sydney based, Zoe believes that the power of a great studio is the collaboration of a diverse set of people, skills and personalities; ‘Everything we do is in partnership — with each other, with our clients and with our collaborators. We work in a trusting, positive way, to challenge drinks brands to better express who they are and why people should care, because the strongest brands are built in partnership’.

Over her career, Zoe has met 50 Cent*, told a client she loved him by mistake and enquired if Cypress Hill were in a band in her local coffee shop, however she is best known for her trademark game ‘Zoodles’ which she loves to play with her team.

*…right back at you Alex Center

Celeste Perez is a creative entrepreneur and founder of Well Fed, a brand studio and product foundry. With a knack for building memorable brands in the startup space, self-taught designer and web developer Celeste has successfully found the sweet spot between digital and IRL.

In 2020, Celeste led the launch of Well Fed’s first in-house brand, Droplet, a sparkling adaptogen drink designed to balance stress. Droplet has been featured in Vogue, L'Officiel, Forbes, BevNet, and more, and nominated for Best New Beverage at the Natural Products Expo West NEXTY Awards.

In 2017, Celeste spun off Well Fed’s best remote freelancers into Artful Studio, a digital marketing studio providing meaningful work for creative women worldwide. With over 100 female freelance designers, developers, and content creators, Artful nurtures global creative talent while offering fair pay and flexible work schedules for women in developing economies.

Previously, Celeste worked in product and brand development at Disney Consumer Products and Digital Brand Products, where she helped shape new brands for digital influencers. Though typically behind the scenes, Celeste can be found on camera hosting food and travel content featuring destinations like Miami, Berlin, Tokyo, Paris, and more. Celeste’s videos are distributed to millions worldwide via Tastemade’s AppleTV, Facebook, and Snapchat Discover channels.

Celeste graduated from the USC with a degree in broadcast journalism, music, and entrepreneurship

Vice President of Design at The Coca-Cola Company

Graphic and Industrial designer with over 20 years of experience in creating and leading design for global brands, Rapha Abreu is Global Vice President of Design at The Coca-Cola Company where he heads up all aspects of design for the company’s iconic global billion-dollar brands - Coca-Cola, Sprite, Fanta, Minute Maid, Powerade, Smartwater and others. Rapha is the first Latino to hold the highest position in design inside the organization. He is responsible for leading global design strategy, brand identity, design innovation, visual creativity, packaging, interactive and retail design to create a relevant, multidimensional and seamless end-to-end experience across all global brand touchpoints.

Previously, Rapha was VP, Global Head of Design at Restaurant Brands International, overseeing Burger King, Popeyes and Tim Hortons holistic design experience - from brand identity, packaging and digital touch points to restaurant experience and architecture. He reimagined Burger King’s brand identity, dialing up taste and quality across all brand elements. Rapha also redesigned Burger King’s restaurant experience where service and technology, physical and digital, were completely integrated creating a seamless and touchless guest journey. He also helped to boost the chicken sandwich frenzy with a new Popeyes brand identity.

"Freddie" was adopted to Sweden after being found outside a police station where he lived for 6 months. At 1,5 years old he landed in north and was brought up as a swede in the rural city of Borlänge, also called Sweden’s Chicago. In the Swedish army they found out his heart is twisted backwards and an EKG will read it as if he’s dead. His love for design began with creating posters for a dj-night that he and some friends organized. On graduation day, after being told that they needed 10 years of experience in the industry before starting their own agency, him and his co-founders started up Snask with zero years of experience 14 years ago. The Snask team still see the “old conservative world” as their biggest enemy.

During these 14 years Freddie has lectured about branding and life in general being a maverick, at stages across the world ranging from China, Russia and Australia, Europe and South Africa and all the way to US, Colombia and Mexico. He’s sat in jury’s like Creative Review as well as opening Cannes Lions with a rock show. Snask work with clients ranging from Bang & Olufsen and Spotify to Klarna and hyped rockbands like Viagra Boys. They have their own fashion label, their own bags, their own rock band, their own pink bar and much more.

Owner & Creative Director, Established

Sam O'Donahue is owner and Creative Director of New York design studio Established, which specializes in packaging, identity design and art direction for premium brands in beauty and fashion with a client list that includes Marc Jacobs, Calvin Klein, H&M, DKNY, LVMH, Fenty Beauty, Svedka, Estee Lauder, Shiseido, Sephora, MCM, Rare Beauty, Shinsegae and many more.

The winner of over 60 international design awards including 5 Clio’s, 4 D&AD’s, The One Show, Art Directors Club, Diamond Pentaward and the Dieline Editors Choice award.

Sam lectures regularly, including at Columbia Business School on the building of luxury brands, and has been on the packaging design jury of the D&AD Awards, the Pentawards and the Dieline Awards.

Sam runs his studio with his wife and partner Rebecca Jones. They live in New York City with their three boys.

Deena Keller is the Head of Packaging at hims and hers, guiding design, product experience and strategy. She is passionate about thoughtful, smart design and innovative sustainability and how the two come together. Over her career, she has worked for a range of mission-led, design first companies and has designed packaging that has most likely graced your home at some point, if not right now. She has over 17 years experience creating branding, packaging, wayfinding, campaigns, retail design, and overarching design systems. She has worked for brands big and small, global and local.

In her personal time, she enjoys painting, yoga and running, being in nature and by the ocean, teaching art and the company of good friends and family.

She has served on the San Francisco AIGA board and her work has been recognized by IDSA, print regional annual, HOW International Design awards, AIGA (re)design awards, Dieline awards, and Color in Design awards. However, her most rewarding and inspiring work is raising her daughter and son with her husband in Pacifica, CA.

Base Design, Partner & Executive Creative Director

Min Lew is a brand builder working with founders, directors, and CEO’s to create cultural relevance and lasting influence for companies, institutions, and organizations.

A graduate of Yale University where she received her MFA, she brings two decades of experience working in the fields of culture, technology, luxury, fashion, hospitality, beauty, education, education, government, and industry. Brand work under her leadership includes MoMA, Apple, the Prince Estate, MFA, Boston, MILK, JFK Terminal 4, The New York Times’ Times, Facebook, The Bob Dylan Center, Coca-Cola, AIGA, Museum of Sex, NYCxDESIGN, Geffen Playhouse, the LA Master Chorale, the Meatpacking District, and FTD among others.

Lew has won top design awards, given speeches at design conferences, and been covered in countless publications. Additionally, she served on the steering committee of NYCxDESIGN, was a professor of design at the School of Visual Arts, and a board member of AIGA/NY.

Julia Beardwood founded Beardwood&Co. in 2004 to bring strategic leadership, agility and exceptional creativity to brand owners and design leaders. The agency is known for cracking juicy challenges with smart and beautiful work that drives powerful, positive impact. As a result, Beardwood&Co. has multiple wins of the Dieline Design Effectiveness Award, for Honest Tea, Sabra and Hill’s Science Diet.

Beardwood&Co. works with leading global and national brands, including Colgate, Danone, Pottery Barn and Hyatt, as well as select entrepreneurial brands including R3SET, Sallyeander and S’well Bottle.

Julia won the EY Entrepreneurial Winning Women award in 2013, recognizing fast-growth women-owned businesses with high potential to scale. She takes pride in mentoring other women entrepreneurs to grow and scale their businesse, as well as championing women at all levels to raise their profile and advance their career in design.

Ali Martín Filsoof is a Los Angeles based design director, who specializes in integrated brand identity and brand experience programs for startups to multinational brands.

He has built a remarkable portfolio of clients, including Virgin Galactic, American Express, Procter & Gamble Ventures, LVMH, Marriott, Michael Kors, Diane von Furstenberg, Microsoft along with incredible early stage startups, including Fatty15, Quibi, St. Jane Hotel, Looped, Stampede Ventures, and Wonder.

His work has been recognized globally by the AIGA, Dieline Awards, Art Directors Club (ADC), Art Directors Club of Europe (ADC*E), The One Show, Clio Awards, Communication Arts, Graphis, Pent Awards, GDUSA, American Design Awards and Int'l Photography Awards. His work has also been featured in leading publications such as Taschen, Rockport Publishers, Logolounge, Ad Age, Adweek, Brandweek and Global Corporate Identity.

Recently, he was selected to be on the Creative Awards Jury at LeBook's CONNECTIONS and currently sits on the Board of Directors for AIGA Los Angeles.

Beau Oyler is a design entrepreneur and founder of Enlisted Design where he works at the intersection of business, data, and design to create product experiences for some of the world’s most sought-after brands.

Head of Sustainability at Pearlfisher

Sustainability is fundamental to how Pearlfisher operates and creates, and is the foundation of the work of all of their teams. In her role, Brandi challenges Pearlfisher's designers to think about the end game at the start, and encourages their clients not to problem-solve based on ease, but on brand experience and environmental impact. She is revered by both for offering innovation and problem-solving, grounded in practicality, which comes from her many years of experience and expertise in technical realization.

She firmly believes that the future of sustainable design does not just come down to materials – and managing waste – but implementing realistic and incremental change through a multi-disciplinary approach. By understanding changing culture, continuing to innovate with cutting-edge materials and processes, and joining this with the power of design, Brandi believes we can help change people’s behavior and encourage more sustainable actions and choices. This is where tangible, positive and long-term change will come from.

Californian designer Julia Marsh is the CEO and co-founder of Sway, a venture-backed materials company which produces compostable packaging made from seaweed. Julia's work is inspired by a lifelong affection for the ocean and the belief that designers must take part in solving the planet’s greatest challenges. Sway is on a mission to replenish the planet by supporting healthy ocean ecosystems, eliminating plastic waste, and creating a more inclusive climate movement.

Ian Montgomery is the Founder and Creative Director of Guacamole Airplane, a San Francisco based design agency focused on sustainable packaging. Guacamole Airplane's clients include Nike, Dell, Whole Foods and Clé Tile. Ian did his undergraduate coursework in Environmental Science at Stanford and masters work in Packaging Design at Pratt, where he received funding from the National Science Foundation to build a series of experimental recycling machines. Before starting GA, Ian worked with the in-house design teams at Areaware, Chubbies, and Mollusk. He also teaches in the design department at the University of San Francisco.

Artist, Dazzle Studio

Zipeng Zhu is a Chinese-born artist, designer, art director, illustrator, and animator in New York City who wants to make every day a razzle-dazzle musical. His clients include Apple, Adidas, Adobe, Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Twitter, Netflix, New York Times, Harry’s, Viacom, The New Yorker, Fox, Away, Animal Planet, CNN, MTV, Refinery29, Chobani, and Samsung. He was one of the Art Directors Club Young Guns 13 winners and has been recognized as Print magazine’s New Visual Artist and The One Show Young Ones. His work has been exhibited all over the world including New York, Barcelona, Dubai, Mumbai, Shanghai, and other major museums and institutions. Now he runs his creative practice Dazzle Studio and gift shop Dazzle Supply to push dazzle to the next level.

Dora Drimalas is the co-founder and executive creative director of Hybrid Design in San Francisco. Dora’s extensive background in brand strategy and graphic design has allowed her to work intimately on projects with some of the largest brands in the world such as Nike, Sonos, The North Face, Rapha, Pinterest, Google, Apple, Samsung, Mohawk Fine Paper, Steelcase, TED Conferences, Lego, AT+T, Verizon and Starwood Hotels. Dora’s desire to create the most innovative work possible brings her to the intersections of design, content and culture within multiple mediums, always looking for new answers.

Executive Creative Director - Superunion Brazil

As Executive Creative Director in São Paulo he leads all design, communications and architecture efforts in the region. An accomplished brand identity specialist with about two decades of experience coordinating design and branding projects for global elite clients such as Chevrolet, Carrefour, Tupperware, Nakheel, Beeah and Santander. Before joining Superunion, he had worked for major branding consultancies such as MBLM NY and Futurebrand SP/NY. Heitor has also pursued an active academic journey, lecturing at universities in Brazil and researching on subjects related to design, knowledge exchange, innovation and creativity. He holds a master in Design and Architecture from University of São Paulo - USP and a BA in Visual Communication from Mackenzie University.

Adey Efrem currently serves as a Senior Brand Designer at PepsiCo, and her goal is to build beautiful things that give people beautiful experiences. Through running her creative studio, she’s gained valuable experience creating designs for CPG brands and has had some of her work featured in the Dieline and Thingtesting.

Global Brand Design Director, Colgate-Palmolive Company

Hill’s Pet Nutrition, Tom’s of Maine, EltaMD, PCA, Filorga, Personal & Home Care Categories

Jen has a powerful and proven ability to influence and transform brands that create meaning and relevance for consumers around the world. With over three decades of insight-driven design experience she possesses an intimate understanding of the consumer packaged goods landscape, the ever-changing omni-channel environment, the new data economy and the intricacies of multicultural and regional consumer perspectives. With a proven track record as an accountable change-leader,

Jen brings together strategic vision and creative discipline, design thinking, innovation and organizational transformation skills that ultimately manifest through heightened brand awareness and growth for the brands she manages around the globe.

Director, Packaging Experience & Visual Design, Sonos

Michelle is a mother of three teenagers and often thinks about the world she will leave behind. She is passionate about making sustainability progress for Sonos’ packaging. Michelle has been directing the efforts for our new packaging design system updates, which rolls out starting with Roam’s launch.

Prior to Sonos, she designed visual identity systems for packaging on the VIBE team at Dell in Austin, Texas. Michelle embraced everything she could learn at Dell and was inspired by the design team she was a part of.

Michelle graduated from California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo with a Bachelor of Science in Applied Art & Design.

Gerardo's unique expertise and experience has driven the creation of numerous compelling and highly successful total brand experience solutions. His combined digital and physical product, packaging, visual communications, user interface, and user experience designs have together resulted in award-winning solutions. His work spans mobile communications, augmented reality, and smart and bio-sensing wearables for both consumer and enterprise. Herrera has first-hand, world class consumer understanding from emerging entry level to premium and luxury marketplaces and includes design for business-to-business electronic commerce. Herrera has consistently designed. developed and led effective global creative teams to produce market-leading results.

Herrera is also a core faculty member at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. As both professor and Director of the packaging design area of emphasis, he leads his award-winning department in the continued development of the curriculum. He also teaches for Art Center's educational partnerships for corporate sponsored projects and DesignStorms®. These are exploration vehicles that pursue industry challenges and provide future vision through multidisciplinary teams of design students, professionals, and faculty.

A Southern California native, Gerardo was raised in a competitive sports culture learning valuable lessons in teamwork, group synergy, team leadership and development. This background has helped him lead his group of designers to focus their creative spirit in achieving a competitive edge in the business of design.

Robyn Raye is an Associate Professor of Design at Cornish College of the Arts, and co-founder of Seattle based Modern Dog Design Co, an internationally acclaimed design and illustration studio that opened in 1987. Her posters have been exhibited internationally, and are collected in the archives of major libraries and museums worldwide. For more than 30 years, Robyn has lectured extensively about design and design issues. She is the co-author of “Modern Dog, 20 Years of Poster Art” and “Inside the World of Board Graphics; Skate Surf, Snow” and Luther of “1000 Dog Portraits.”

Elaine Lopez is a Cuban-American designer, researcher, artist, and educator whose work explores the intersection of cultural identity, equity, and diversity within the field of design. Elaine acquired her BFA from the University of Florida (2007), and her MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design (2019), both in graphic design. She is currently a faculty member in the Communication Design program at Pratt Institute's School of Design. Elaine has been awarded the AICAD Postgraduate Teaching Fellowship at the Maryland Institute College of Art where she taught in the undergraduate and graduate Graphic Design programs.

Richard Village is the strategy director of award-winning creative agency Smith &+Village, which he founded with Debrah Smith in 2011. The agency creates beautiful brand expressions and irresistible customer experiences for clients including Harvey Nichols, Harrods and Booths. During his career, Richard has led rebranding and strategy projects for many clients including Waitrose, Marks & Spencer, Knorr, John Lewis, The National Gallery, London and Pulbrook & Gould, Britain’s royal florists. He has a degree in Modern Languages from Oxford and a Masters in Art History from the Courtauld. He speaks Spanish, Italian, French, German, Portuguese and (if he’s forced) Russian.

Originally from the UK, Leigh has 20 years’ industry experience working at branding and design agencies across Europe and North America. Joining Vault49 in 2014, and subsequently becoming a Partner, Leigh has been instrumental in the continued growth of business from a small NYC-based team to two global studios, and her team’s projects have been recognized at the likes of DBA Design Effectiveness, Design Week Awards and Pentawards. 

Combining a strategic mindset with creative flair, Leigh thrives on unpicking complex client briefs and business challenges, distilling them into a powerful brand idea, and then delivering a super expressive, disruptive creative solution. Working across everything from holistic brand identities and packaging to retail outputs, events and brand activations, Leigh counts Guinness, Baileys and Smirnoff amongst her current global clients.

Leigh also works with entrepreneurs and startups across emerging categories to create and launch new-to-world brands. This includes collaborating on consumer cannabis products with House of Brands, leading the agency’s strategic branding and design partnership with tech innovators Wonder Inventions, and overseeing the brand development for Casatera, a premium Tequila-based RTD.

Outside of the studio, Leigh is at her happiest exploring South America (fun fact: she originally met Vault49’s co-founders when collaborating on a creative project in Rio de Janeiro - the rest is history), curating Mexican art and furnishings for her apartment, and hanging out with her beloved chihuahua, Coco.

After Vault49 won First Place in the ‘Health, Beauty & Personal Care: Limited Edition’ category for their work on the SK-II Pitera range in 2021, Leigh is looking forward to rejoining the Dieline Awards jury for 2022.

Natalie has had a career spanning 20 plus years on both client and agency side, across a diverse range of design disciplines. She is renowned for driving wonderful creative ideas that are beautifully crafted, always overseen by her watchful and (sometimes annoyingly) exceptional eye for detail.

Co-founding Butterfly Cannon in 2010 she has driven its focus on luxury and craft brands, working with a broad range of clients, from small enterprising start-ups to prestigious global brands such as Glenmorangie, Absolut, Coty, Tanqueray and Hennessy.

Her current mission within the studio is to drive the sustainability agenda, and Butterfly Cannon’s Conscious DesignTM process to help clients navigate an increasingly complex ecological minefield.

L.A. is a Filipino-American Creative Director at COLLINS in New York.

His work has been recognized by D&AD, Communication Arts, Webby Awards, HOW and AIGA among others.

He is a multidisciplinary designer with over 15 years of experience primarily in brand identity as well as product design. He has international experience from San Francisco and New York to London and Abu Dhabi, working with Wolff Olins, Mother Design, R/GA, DesignStudio, JKR, Gretel, Red Antler, SYPartners, Elephant, Landscape, SS+K and Method.

Combined with his independent practice, he has worked with a client list that includes: Apple, Google, Nike, Robinhood, Abu Dhabi Airports Company, Microsoft, Bloomberg, NBCUniversal, Facebook, Pepsi, Samsung and AIGA. He also had a 10-year collaboration with artist and activist iO Tillett Wright’s civil rights effort called the Self Evident Truths Project, culminating in 500+ page book with 10,000 portraits.

L.A. holds a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, and is the recipient of the Bo Bernstein Award for Degree Project.

Fred Hart grew up on an island nearly 3,000 miles away from the nearest landmass (aloha!), which stoked a fierce curiosity about the world at large. As Partner & Creative Director, Fred uses that fire to lead Interact Brands - an entrepreneurial branding and packaging design firm ushering in the changing of the guards in CPG.

Fred and his team work with magnetic founders and strategic brand managers alike, even building their own studio brands to truly practice what they preach. Clients include challenger brands like KOIA, Vive Organic & Hodo, industry leaders like Niman Ranch, Dogfish Head & Orgain, along with brand stewardship work for a number of Fortune 500 food companies.

When Fred’s not walking through grocery stores like they're an art museum, he’s actively exploring cities on foot, collecting sneakers and constantly on the hunt for the worlds best donut. It’s Bluestar Donuts in case you were curious.

DEREK SPRINGSTON, Partner + Chief Creative Officer, Moxie Sozo

Derek Springston leverages more than a decade of design and brand building experience in his role as Partner and Chief Creative Officer at Moxie Sozo. Under his leadership, the creative team has developed innovative, disruptive, inspired work for startups and global brands like Boston Beer Company, Campari America and Danone. His portfolio includes projects across virtually every industry and media, from natural foods to luxury apparel and from packaging design to interactive. Derek got his start earlier than most, going to work in his parents’ small, family-owned print company at the age of 12. He has loved all things paper and ink ever since.

Isabela Rodrigues was born in southern Brazil and from an early age immersed in design and its fields. At 15 she studied industrial design and since then has never stopped. After 10 years in digital design, decided to devote her efforts to what she was always passionate, packaging design. Today at 37 years old, owner of the studio Sweety & Co, located in Porto Alegre, Brazil, Isabela dedicates her time and energy doing things that make a more pleasant and colorful world.

Aaron Atchison is the founder and creative director of Farm Design, a Pasadena-based branding and packaging agency. With over 20 years of experience in graphic design, he has led and influenced a wide range of award-winning branding projects spanning from start-ups to industry leaders. Having grown up on a family farm in rural Montana, Aaron has implemented his small-town values of strategic foresight, hard work, and community to guide his creative process whilst inspiring his team and clients. Aaron continues to share his life lesson stories through teaching and lectures to help guide students and professionals on their personal and creative journeys.

Paula Hansanugrum is the Executive Creative Director of Chase Design Group, a leading branding and package design agency. She is a Los Angeles native whose interests are as diverse as the city in which she was raised. With a background in fine art and business at UC Santa Barbara, she eventually found her calling in Graphic Design – earning a BFA with Honors in Graphic Design from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. Her experience working with brands in product development, housewares, and consumer packaging eventually led her agency-side to Chase Design Group in 2010.

Over the years, Paula has worked to build and expand the agency’s creative vision and culture of thought leadership, while continuing to guide their clients into the future with strategic and industry-leading work. With a proven track record of successfully building brands from the ground up, such as Califia Farms, while also helping established global brands such as Nestlé, P&G, Starbucks and Pepsico maintain distinction in the market, Paula has consistently led Chase Design Group’s creative to innovative and award-winning heights and recognition.

Co-Founder and Creative Director, Made Thought

Made Thought is a London design studio that helps luxury brands harness the power of progressive design to change behaviour.

Made Thought challenges convention to create brands that are desirable and elevated. The studio believes that deep thought is a prerequisite of great design.

Its clients range from iconic luxury and lifestyle brands to major cultural and art institutions. Clients include: Adidas; Charlotte Tilbury; Stella McCartney; Yves Saint Laurent; MoMA; Hunter; Tom Dixon; TopShop and Samsung.

In 2012 Ben and Paul were invited into Alliance Graphique Internationale. In 2015 Made Thought was awarded a coveted ‘Black’ D&AD Pencil, along with being voted as Best UK Creative Studio.

Ben Parker has headed up Made Thought since he co-founded the studio at the turn of the millennium. After graduating alongside Made Thought co-founder Paul Austin in 1996, Ben went on to take a Master’s degree in Graphic Design at Central Saint Martins. He became a founding partner at Made Thought three years later.

Ben believes central to Made Thought’s growth is its willingness to immerse itself in every aspect of the brief. He feels that the studio’s incessant focus on deep-thinking has fueled its burgeoning reputation as one of London’s leading forces for progressive design.

Danielle McWaters is a designer, art director, strategist, and founder of California-based branding and packaging consultancy, Designsake Studio.

She started her career as a photographer, then transitioned into graphic design where she created packaging, brand strategy, and global advertising campaigns for Benefit Cosmetics. After 6 years designing professionally for their team, she broke off to start Designsake in 2014.

Her work has won numerous design awards including The Dieline, Print, World Brand Design Society, and Pentawards. Some of the studio’s projects include nixit, Kulia Skincare, MATTER, and Helpful Hens.

Margherita Porrà, founder and creative director of arithmetic and award wining designer, is celebrated for her innate talent in synthesizing the unspoken feeling needs of humans, their behaviours, and the market data into an aesthetic harmony, which resonates and creates change. She is equal parts analytical and creative, thriving in the ambiguity of paradoxes and opposites. Her work is expansive in thought and concept, deep in research and connection — evoking the emotion we crave. Highly discerning, Margherita's work is rich in meaning-making through storytelling — actioning the knowledge that our brains recognize and celebrating memorable stories — the most memorable ones being authentic.

Over the past 19 years, Margherita has received numerous design awards, including twenty-four in the past five years. She is the recipient of three Pentawards, an inaugural Dieline Sustainability Award, the AACE Award, and the award for Canadian Design Exchange Emerging Graphic Designer of the Year. Her design work has been published countless times in The Dieline, Taschen’s The Package Design Book, Victionary, Applied Arts Magazine, Idn Magazine, Wallpaper Magazine, and Pattern-Base Book, to name a few.

Founder, verynice

Matthew Manos is the founder and managing director of verynice, a design strategy practice that gives half of its work away for free to nonprofit organizations. verynice's clientele includes Apple, the United Nations, Google, and the American Heart Association. Matthew is the author of over 30 books and toolkits on the intersection of creativity, social impact, and strategy. Matthew is also an assistant professor of design at the University of Southern California, and is currently chair of Los Angeles Mayor, Eric Garcetti's creative advisory board.

Sharon Werner is the founder and Creative Director of Werner Design Werks, an award-winning design studio based in St. Paul, Minnesota. There she oversees all the business aspects as well as the creative projects in the studio. Sharon is a storyteller, artist, author, painter, designer, floor sweeper, bookkeeper and creative director, are just a small sampling of her roles. As she engages with clients on a business level she gains a unique understanding of their needs and how they think about their brand, which greatly informs the solutions. Every brand, large or small, has a unique personality and its own story to tell; Sharon is able guide the exploration, craft and cultivate that story with honesty, integrity and originality. The studio is known for their strong visual language and informed design solutions creating work that not only positively impacts commerce, but also transforms culture.

Sharon has taught as well as mentored design students, curated numerous design shows, consulted on various boards and has recently been awarded the AIGA Minnesota Fellows Award for those contributions. She is the co-author of 4 type-centric children’s books. For over 30 years, Sharon has helped build brands that matter and work hard for them. Brands that have a story and a personality beyond the shelf, ‘living brands’ that evolve and grow; such as Knob Creek, SEEN - Dermatologist Designed Haircare, dpHUE, Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day, HiBAR, Planned Parenthood, Peace Coffee, Cabot Dairy and Lord Jones to name a few.

Ashleigh Axios is a speaker, strategic creative, and an advocate for design's ability to break barriers and create positive social change. She is Chief Experience Officer and an owner of Coforma, a digital consultancy and design firm that crafts creative solutions and builds technology products that support communities. She is also the Chair of the Board for AIGA, the professional association for design. Prior to her current roles, Axios formed and led the in-house creative agency at Automattic, served as the creative director and a digital strategist in the Obama White House, served as president of AIGA Washington D.C., and more.