Meet the jurors of the 2024 Innovation by Design Awards

We’re proud to introduce some of the judges for 2024’s Innovation by Design Awards. Innovation by Design honors the best projects and ideas across the design spectrum, as represented by our stellar group of jurors, who come from some of the world’s most exciting design-led companies. Read on to meet them. And remember to apply for the Innovation by Design Awards by Feb 23.

Ti Chang
Cofounder and Creative Director, CRAVE

Ti Chang is an American industrial designer whose pioneering work in pleasure products has elevated a new definition of luxury in intimacy products. She is the cofounder of CRAVE and the visionary behind pleasure jewelry, adornments that inspire sensual empowerment and cultural conversations. She is best known for the design of Vesper vibrator necklace in 2014, one of the most celebrated and iconic pleasure products, as seen on A-list celebrities and fierce individuals. Ti’s design vision has won international design awards and has led CRAVE to mainstream partnerships with the likes of Nordstrom, Goop, and Ulta Beauty, including a collaboration with Saint Laurent. Ti is a classically trained industrial designer with an M.A. in Design Products from the Royal College of Art in London and a B.S. in Industrial Design from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Eran Chen 
Founder and Executive Director, ODA

Since establishing ODA in 2007, Eran Chen has earned a reputation for mold-breaking designs that will deliver a better urban future. Having completed more than 50 buildings in just over a decade, he has become one of the most prolific architects in New York. Chen’s work has been widely published around the world and recognized by the AIA, the Society of American Registered Architects, and others. In addition to guest lecturing globally, Eran is also an Adjunct Professor at both Columbia University and New York University. His recent projects include the renovation of the former Postkantoor in Rotterdam, an urban plan in Chicago, and the conversion of a defunct parking garage into a public park and class A office building in Buenos Aires. His writings on architecture have been published in Unboxing New York and ODA’s forthcoming book ODA: Office of Design and Architecture (Rizzoli) will be released this spring, featuring notable projects from his portfolio of work and the firm’s range in architecture, from apartments to buildings to neighborhoods.

Brian Collins
Cofounder and Chief Creative Officer, COLLINS

Brian Collins is cofounder of COLLINS, the business transformation company based in San Francisco and New York City. The company started with two laptops, four desks, and an idea: Design is not what they would make. Design is what they would make possible. Since then, the company has won Agency of the Year honors over the past five years from AdAge (2019, 2020, 2021, 2023)—including business transformation agency of the year—and D&AD (2021). Their work on reimagining The Institute of Design at The Illinois Institute of Technology (The New Bauhaus) just won best work of the year from Design Week in London. Before launching COLLINS in 2008 with Leland Maschmeyer, Brian led the design and brand innovation division at Ogilvy Worldwide for over a decade. Brian is a Distinguished Alumnus of the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. He has been awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the ArtCenter College of Design and granted the Luminary Prize from Bell Labs. He was most recently elected a member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale.

Marcus Engman
Creative Director at Ingka Group, IKEA Retail

Marcus Engman has extensive experience from working within IKEA, as Communication and Interior Manager, Marketing Manager, and Head of Design. In his current role, he spearheads initiatives like Atelier100, IKEA Festival, and IKEA at Milan Design Week, and the brand’s partnership with Annie Leibovitz.

Sharon Gauci
Executive Director of Design, Global Buick & GMC

Sharon Gauci, a native Australian, is an experienced design leader who has held a variety of different global roles. Prior to her current appointment, Gauci was the Executive Director of Industrial Design at General Motors. In June 2020, Sharon joined GM’s Sustainability Office, where she was one of seven executive leaders working across the organization to implement strategies supporting GM’s Zero Emissions vision. In her current role, Gauci is responsible for leading studios to create the visual expression and design strategies for Buick, GMC, and GMC Hummer trucks, cars, crossovers, and SUVs across all of GM’s markets. Gauci is the first recipient of Good Design Australia’s inaugural Women in Design Award in 2019, the first female keynote speaker at WardsAuto Interior Conference in 2018, and the first female to be included as a core judge for the Australian Design Awards in 2005, at the time a 50 year award program. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Design in 1993 from Swinburne University in Melbourne. In 2021, she commenced service as a Board of Trustees member for PRATT Institute, a global leader in higher education situated in New York City.

Mara Hoffman
President and Creative Director, Mara Hoffman

Mara Hoffman founded her label in 2000 after graduating from Parsons School of Design in New York City. Fifteen years later, the brand committed itself to implementing more sustainable and responsible practices while remaining committed to presenting colorful collections inspired by and in celebration of women. In an effort to foster mindful consumption habits, the brand maintains an open conversation about its approach and encourages consumers to reevaluate the relationship society has with clothing. The company continues to focus on sustainable materials, processes, and production in order to improve and extend each garment’s life, and is a vocal and active advocate in seeking racial and social justice for the sake of a more equitable society.

Giorgia Lupi
Partner, Pentagram

Giorgia Lupi is an information designer and partner at the international design consultancy Pentagram. In her practice, she challenges the impersonality of data, designing engaging visual narratives that reconnect numbers to what they stand for: stories, people, ideas. Lupi was born in Italy and received her Doctorate in Design at Politecnico di Milano, where she focused on information mapping. In 2011, she cofounded Accurat, an acclaimed data-driven research, design, and innovation firm with offices in Milan and New York. Her work is part of the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, and her TED talk on her humanistic approach to data has over one million views. She has published two books, Dear Data (Princeton Architectural Press, 2016), exploring the details of daily life through hand-drawn visual data; and Observe, Collect, Draw! A Visual Journal (Princeton Architectural Press, 2018), a guided journal for collecting visual data.

Ali Mize
Senior Director of ESG, Belonging, & Corporate Philanthropy, Neiman Marcus Group

Ali Mize leads Neiman Marcus Group’s 2025 ESG strategy to revolutionize luxury experiences by advancing sustainable products and services, cultivating a culture of Belonging, and leading with love in its communities. She holds a Master of International Business degree from Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy and the Fundamentals in Sustainability Accounting (FSA) credential from the IFRS Foundation.

Lara Marrero
Retail & Consumer Experience Leader, Strategy Director, and Principal, Gensler

Lara joined the Gensler team in 2002 and has more than 20 years of experience spanning retail, hospitality, and lifestyle and entertainment experiences. As a global leader of Gensler’s Retail & Consumer Experience practice and a Strategy Director, Lara brings insights that result in innovative and powerful strategies that generate engagement among brands, places, and people. With an education that spans psychology, advertising, marketing, and cultural anthropology, she has honed her ability to translate complex global consumer trends into understandable, workable, and profitable outcomes for her clients, including Microsoft, Harrods, C&A, John Lewis, and HB Reavis. She has been recognized as as a Top Retail Influencer of 2022 by Rethink Retail and was named one of design:retail magazine’s 40 under 40 in 2017. Lara is considered a leading voice on the future of retail and is a sought-after speaker at influential retail industry events and with leading publications and national media.

Ivy Ross
VP of Design for the Hardware organization, Google

Ivy Ross is the Vice President of Design for the Hardware organization at Google. Over  the past six years, she and her team have launched 50+ products winning over 240 global design awards. This collection of hardware established a new Google design aesthetic that is tactile, colorful, and bold. A winner of a National Endowment for the Arts grant, Ivy’s innovative metal work in jewelry is in the permanent collections of 12 international museums. Ivy has held executive positions ranging from head of product design and development to CMO and presidencies of several companies, including Calvin Klein, Swatch, Coach, Mattel, Bausch & Lomb, and Gap. Most recently, Ivy coauthored with Susan Magsamen Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us. 

Todd Snyder
Founder and Creative Director, Todd Snyder

Since launching his eponymous label in 2011, Todd Snyder has infused his love for New York City into the DNA of the Todd Snyder brand, rede?ning how modern American men can present themselves to the world in stylish, unexpected ways. From bespoke tailoring to innovative capsule collections, Todd’s creations show that good style can be attainable and even playful. He resides on the cutting edge of fashion retail and is always looking for unexpected ways to push creative boundaries, as seen through innovative capsule collections and limited-edition designs with brands including Champion, New Balance, Timex, Moscot, Moby’s, and FJ Company. Todd serves as a mentor for the next generation of designers at his alma mater, Iowa State University where he works closely with emerging talent through the label’s robust internship program.

Dori Tunstall
Design anthropologist, author, educator 

Dr. Elizabeth “Dori” Tunstall is a distinguished design anthropologist, celebrated author, visionary organizational design leader, consultant, and coach. As the author of Decolonizing Design: A Cultural Justice Guidebook and Lead Executive Officer of Dori Tunstall, Inc., she writes on “World Builders,” the creatives who build the worlds of film and television and how they are helping to reenvision a more culturally just world.

Forest Young
Executive design leader and educator

Forest Young is an executive design leader and educator. Most recently, at Rivian, his role dictated the evolution and expression of the Rivian brand across its people, products, and services, whereby his team focused on continually refining the components of design, content creation, brand experience, and digital design delivery across both consumer and commercial spaces. Prior to Rivian, Forest was the first Chief Creative Officer at Wolff Olins. There, he led design forward initiatives for the world’s most influential companies and cultural institutions, based in New York City. Before joining Wolff Olins, Forest was the Executive Creative Director at West, leading design across a portfolio of early stage companies alongside Allison Johnson. Forest is a Senior Critic in graphic design at the Yale School of Art, where he is also a distinguished MFA alumnus, and recipient of the Mark Whistler Prize; he previously served as a MFA Thesis Critic at RISD. Forest has also maintained a private design atelier, Young Studio, for two decades to take on multidimensional projects

Zipeng Zhu

Founder of 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, The New Yorker, CNN, MTV, 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, Beijing, 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.