DN2022 | Q&A | Annabelle Gao Design Nation Conference 2022-04-21 | Annabelle Gao is a multidisciplinary artist based in Brooklyn. She obtained a BFA in Textiles from Rhode Island School of Design, where she dialogued her work and personal journey through vlogging that amassed a substantial audience on Youtube. She has since launched the brand Pyperbleu, an online shop which houses her art prints and handmade crafts. Annabelle is interested in capturing emotion in her work, like vignettes of the human experience that so deeply connects her to others. She believes in the healing power of art and color. She remains self employed through juggling digital content creation, online retail and various commissions.Design Nation 2022 is the 6th all-expenses paid design conference for anyone with a love for design. To learn more: dn.businesstoday.orgInstagram: @designnationconference
Design Nation 2025 Highlights Design Nation Conference 2025-11-24 | Design Nation is the nation's only all-expenses paid design conference for undergraduates. To learn more: dn.businesstoday.org
Design Nation 2023 Highlights Design Nation Conference 2023-06-19 | Design Nation is the nation's only all-expenses paid design conference for undergraduates. To learn more: dn.businesstoday.orgFilmed and edited by Stephanie Tang and Tyler Vu
DN2023 | FIRESIDE CHAT | Erik Carter Design Nation Conference 2023-06-19 | Erik Carter is a graphic designer and art director running an independent practice based in New York City. He's previously worked as an art director at Google developing communicative AR experiences, a senior designer at MTV building on on-air animation, an art director for The New York Times, and as a designer at the Office of Paul Sahre. Clients include The New Yorker, The New York Times, Verso Books, and New Directions. He is currently an adjunct professor at The School of Visual Arts and has taught at Pratt Institute and California College of the Arts. He writes about "Typography. Color. Capitalism. Chaos." in his newsletter Design Harder.Design Nation 2023 is the 7th all-expenses paid design conference for anyone with a love for design. To learn more: dn.businesstoday.orgInstagram: @designnationconference
DN2023 | PANEL | Designing Technology Design Nation Conference 2023-06-19 | Design Nation 2023 Panel II:Designing Technology — Erin LeForce, Zoey ZhuErin LeForce — Design Director at Work & Co. Interested in the intersection of digital design and human behavior. Collaborates across disciplines to create innovative products that ignite the digital landscape. Clients include Google, Apple, Nike, and IKEA. Past life: Senior Designer at ustwo and Instructor at the School of Visual ArtsZoey Zhu — Ziyuan ‘Zoey’ Zhu, is a designer and creative technologist at IDEO. Working at the intersection of design, emerging technology, education, and sustainability, she creates physical and digital objects to reflect and communicate the relationship between humans and the built environment. Her approaches include data visualization, material science, AR, web-based platform, installation, and creative prototyping. She received several awards, including IDA, Spark Design, and SOM China Prize, and was granted international art and research fellows, at Ars Electronica, Technion, University of Stuttgart, and MIT Council of Art. She was invited to give speeches and conduct workshops at NYC Climate Week, MIT Museum, Design Museum Week, International Design Conference (IDC), IDSA, Pratt, IIT, Telkom University, Bandung Biennale, etc. She has been an affiliated researcher at MIT Environmental Solution Initiative(ESI), focusing on leveraging emerging technology to design a sustainable experience for live events. Zoey holds a dual degree in architecture and computer science from MIT. Social Media Handle: @zhu.ziyuan Design Nation 2023 is the 7th all-expenses paid design conference for anyone with a love for design. To learn more: dn.businesstoday.orgInstagram: @designnationconference
DN2023 | KEYNOTE | Josh Haas Design Nation Conference 2023-06-19 | Josh Haas is the co-founder of Bubble, a pioneering no-code platform with over 2 million users. The idea for Bubble came from Josh’s experience as the technical co-founder at a small startup. He wanted to empower people like his non-technical co-founder to build apps and businesses themselves. Today, people building on Bubble have raised millions in funding for their products and built communities amounting to tens of thousands of users—without writing code. A lifelong programmer who taught himself Visual Basic as a kid to make his own video games, Josh also previously spent time working in engineering and management at Bridgewater. Josh currently leads the product and engineering disciplines at Bubble, which recently raised $100M to make technology creation more accessible to everyone.Design Nation 2023 is the 7th all-expenses paid design conference for anyone with a love for design. To learn more: dn.businesstoday.orgInstagram: @designnationconference
DN2023 | WORKSHOP | EAT Studio Design Nation Conference 2023-06-19 | Design Nation 2023 Workshop I:EAT Studio — Renata Amaral Morris, Gabriel SeibelRenata Amaral Morris — Renata Amaral Morris is the Founder and CEO of EAT, a Los Angeles and Paris based creative studio working internationally across design and branding. Joined by over 17 years of her own experience in the field, Renata’s role in the studio is one as EAT’s director and go-getter, comprehensively leading all facets of the business. Collaborating with the likes of Amazon, Adidas, Netflix, Twitch, Red Bull, EA Games, Blizzard/Activision, Polygon, and many many more. Featured in industry heavy-hitters such as Forbes, Business Today, and Design Week, Renata continues to further her calling as a design educator and speaker. Gabriel Seibel — Gabriel Seibel manages EAT’s operations based in Paris and LA. Since the beginning of his tenure as Partner, COO, and Head of Production, Gabriel has successfully executed 400+ projects for internationally renowned brands, overseeing everything from development through production. Together with EAT’s Founder and CEO, he has expanded the team to the US, Brazil, France, Germany, and Portugal while cultivating a brilliant company culture in which creativity thrives. He is also a TEDx speaker and teaches Marketing at IESEG School of Management in Paris. Design Nation 2023 is the 7th all-expenses paid design conference for anyone with a love for design. To learn more: dn.businesstoday.orgInstagram: @designnationconference
DN2023 | KEYNOTE | Gabby Hirata Design Nation Conference 2023-06-19 | Gabby Hirata is the president and chief executive of DVF (Diane von Furstenberg), having joined the company in January 2020. Prior to DVF, Gabby served as the chief strategy officer of Jill Stuart in 2019, and the managing director of Adeam, a NY-based Japanese luxury brand from 2014 to 2018. Prior to these senior management roles, Gabby specialized in product development and supply chains at Ralph Lauren, managing the global sourcing of Blue Label and the launch of Polo for Women from 2009 to 2014. Raised In China and educated in the US, Gabby is passionate about leveraging her multicultural and trilingual background to streamline and scale organizations through establishing international offices, standard operating procedures, and global go-to-market strategies with a focus on China.Design Nation 2023 is the 7th all-expenses paid design conference for anyone with a love for design. To learn more: dn.businesstoday.orgInstagram: @designnationconference
DN2023 | PANEL | Designing Solutions Design Nation Conference 2023-06-19 | Design Nation 2023 Panel I:Designing Solutions — Jacob Benbunan, Andy Baron, Eddie OparaJacob Benbunan — Jacob Benbunan started Saffron in 2001 with the late Wally Olins. Today he is the Chairman and CEO. In his 36 years of experience, Jacob has worked with a large variety of clients including Orange, Repsol, YouTube, Facebook, Vueling, A1 Telekom Austria, Engie, ABP News in India, SwissRe or Plus in Poland. Prior to Saffron he was a Principal at Wolff Olins. Jacob champions the natively global approach that Saffron embraced since the very beginning. Today, the independent brand consultancy represents 100 professionals, 25 nationalities, and 15 languages spoken, all working as one team across London, Madrid, Vienna and Istanbul offices. An engineer by training at Boston University, he is fluent in English, French and Spanish. When he’s not keeping the lights on at Saffron he’s often commenting for the media on issues relating to brand and identity or delivering keynote speeches at events like Web Summit and Collision. He is married and has three children.Andy Baron — As ECD and co-opener of Turner Duckworth New York, Andy oversees all creative work in the studio. Over the past 15ish years, he has directly influenced many of the world’s most significant brands with work for Anheuser-Busch, BlackRock, Campbell’s, Equal Justice Initiative, MillerCoors, Subway, the School of Visual Arts, and Visa to name a few. Andy has consistently played an essential role in winning 50 or so of some of our industry's hardest to win awards: Clios, One Show and D&AD pencils, The Type Directors Club; and has appeared in many design annuals. He has also served on juries for the ADC Awards and Society of Illustrators among others. Andy lives in Brooklyn in what he believes to be a haunted cathedral and is a tennis obsessive who regularly sacrifices his body on court.Eddie Opara — Eddie Opara was born in Wandsworth, London in 1972. He studied graphic design at the London College of Printing and Yale University, where he received his MFA in 1997. He began his career as a designer at ATG and Imaginary Forces and worked as a senior designer/art director at 2×4 before establishing his own studio, The Map Office, in 2005. He joined Pentagram’s New York office as partner in 2010. Opara is a multi-faceted designer whose work encompasses strategy, design and technology. His projects have included the design of brand identity, publications, packaging, environments, exhibitions, interactive installations, websites, user interfaces and software, with many of his projects ranging across multiple media. His clients have included lululemon athletica, re-inc, OPPO, Samsung, Dashlane, SFMOMA, The Baffler, The New Republic, Hisense, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, Grace Farms, the Menil Foundation, the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Queens Museum, St. Regis Hotels, the Corcoran Group, ShOp Architects, Morgan Stanley, New York University, UCLA Architecture and Urban Design, Skidmore Owings & Merrill (SOM), Grimshaw Architects, (ARO) Architecture Research Office, Harry N. Abrams and Princeton Architectural Press. Opara has won numerous awards including a Gold Cube from the Art Directors Club and honors from D&AD, the Society for Experiential Graphic Design (SEGD), Type Directors Club, Tokyo Type Directors Club, the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) and Communication Arts. His work is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art and has appeared in publications such as Wired, Fast Company, Creative Review, Archis, Surface and Graphis. Opara is a senior critic at the Yale University School of Art. He has taught at the Rhode Island School of Design, the Columbia University School of Architecture and the University of the Arts, Philadelphia. He is a member of the distinguished design society, Alliance Graphique Internationale. Opara recently authored a book, Color Works, published by Rockport. He was named one of Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People in Business in 2012 and 2014, and was featured in Ebony Magazine’s Power 100 and Adweek’s Creative 100.Design Nation 2023 is the 7th all-expenses paid design conference for anyone with a love for design. To learn more: dn.businesstoday.orgInstagram: @designnationconference
DN2022 | Art Project Design Nation Conference 2022-04-21 | Design Nation 2022 is the 6th all-expenses paid design conference for anyone with a love for design. To learn more: dn.businesstoday.org"
DN2022 | Art Project Mentor | Li Zhang Design Nation Conference 2022-04-21 | Professor of Visual Communication Design, former Chair of the Department of Art and Design at Purdue University, Honorary Professor of multiple institutions, and Founder of AIGA Purdue Student Group. Professor Zhang is a co-author of the book Social Poster Design: Visual Connections Between East and West. Zhang's designs have been recognized in about three hundred exhibitions and publications and have received numerous national and international design awards. More than sixty of her posters are in permanent collections of the Library of Congress in the USA, Zürich Museum of Design in Switzerland, Victoria & Albert Museum and Imperial War Museum in the United Kingdom, Ogaki Poster Museum in Japan, and Lahti Poster Museum in Finland. In addition, Professor Zhang served as an editor of Cross-Cultural Communication, Canada, and editorial review board member of Scientific Journals International-Creative Work, USA. Zhang also contributed as a design research consultant at Art Research Centre for Olympic Games in Beijing. Zhang has been invited by many institutions and organizations to speak internationally.Design Nation 2022 is the 6th all-expenses paid design conference for anyone with a love for design. To learn more: dn.businesstoday.orgInstagram: @designnationconference
DN2022 | PANEL | Corporate Panel Design Nation Conference 2022-04-21 | Rudi Anggono, Creative Director at Google:I'm a Global Creative Director and Product Visioning Strategist at Google Shopping Lab. Prior to that I was a Group Creative Lead at The ZOO, Google's in-house creative think tank for brands and agencies. Before joining Google, I spent 15+ years in creative advertising agencies working on iconic, global brands across 3 different continents. As somebody who has worked as an architect, designer, creative director and now product design strategist, I’ve had the good fortune to practice and witness the power of design thinking and strategic narrative to shape culture and change behaviors through ideas and innovations that are helpful and add values. Outside of Google I serve as an advisor to startups, from direct-to-consumer brands to NFT to non-profit. On the weekends, I make fun food art for my little boys @papamakesbreakfast. Eduardo Velazquez, Head of Design at Walmart:Strategic designer and innovation professional; has collaborated for more than ten years with top global companies through consulting, although since the last two years has taken the lead as head of the design team within Walmart Mexico and Central America.He has participated in the definition of transformation strategies for organizations in Mexico, Brazil, Spain and Peru, design of digital experiences, design of financial services for the Latin American region, creation of brands and products for various segments; as well as a trainer to develop an innovation mindset in business teams of the largest companies in America and Europe.Matt Wallaert, Head of Behavioral Science at frog:For almost 20 years, Matt Wallaert has been applying behavioral science to practical problems. After leaving academia, his career as an executive lead from startups to the Fortune 500 and back again, before joining frog (a Capgemini company) as the Head of Behavioral Science, where he focuses on helping organizations build their own applied behavioral science capabilities while building projects with the frog team.Tanesha Smith, Senior Product Manager at frog:For over 10 years, Tanesha Smith-Wattley has been at the forefront of Product Management through strategic analysis to software development bringing to life new products in the market areas of luxury fashion, healthcare, and e-commerce and delivery. She has worked in-house as a PMO as well as consulting, most recently with frog.In addition to consulting with emerging and established brands to provide human-centered solutions, Tanesha loves to connect with those early in their careers or considering a career change to help mentor people and grow their areas of passion. You can find her on Linkedin.Design Nation 2022 is the 6th all-expenses paid design conference for anyone with a love for design. To learn more: dn.businesstoday.orgInstagram: @designnationconference
DN2022 | KEYNOTE | Mila Linares Design Nation Conference 2022-04-21 | Mila Linares is a brand strategist with global experience across the Non-Profit, Tech and Payment sectors. She started out her career in management consulting and held global market research roles at Philips, eBay and American Express. She led the Brand Strategy team at Wolff Olins New York for two years, working with leading cultural and non-profit institutions such as the Wikimedia Foundation and the Canadian Center for Architecture.She enjoys how Brand brings together organizational strategy, insights and design. Her goal is to create distinct and memorable communication that unlocks understanding and moves people to action. Currently heading Brand Development at UNICEF HQ in New York. UNICEF helps children from early childhood to adolescence, survive, thrive and fulfill their potential in more than 190 countries and territories. A dual citizen of Spain and the U.S. she lives in Brooklyn, N.Y with her husband, daughter and two cats.Design Nation 2022 is the 6th all-expenses paid design conference for anyone with a love for design. To learn more: dn.businesstoday.orgInstagram: @designnationconference
DN2022 | PANEL | Food Panel Design Nation Conference 2022-04-21 | Joanne is CEO of Turner Duckworth, a world-class branding agency with studios in San Francisco, London and New York. Turner Duckworth has designed some of the world’s most valuable brands, including Amazon, McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Levi’s and Samsung. Joanne’s first career was in the art world, having worked at prestigious art galleries in New York, Monaco and San Francisco, and the Guggenheim Museum. After deciding on a career shift, Joanne became employee #2 at Turner Duckworth San Francisco, establishing and growing its design business in the United States. Over 24 years, Joanne went from managing brand identity and packaging projects, to focusing on new business, operations and finance, leading to the acquisition of Turner Duckworth by Publicis Groupe in 2014. Joanne was appointed global CEO in 2019.Joanne was awarded the honor of AdAge Leading Women in 2021. She lives in Marin County, where she, her husband and teenage daughter are outnumbered by their four cats.Allison is the Director of Design at Shake Shack, an international fast-casual restaurant chain based in New York City. In her role, she is responsible for the design and execution of new restaurants, remodels, and overall design innovation. Allison has a Master of Architecture from the University of Maryland, and is passionate about educating students on the various career paths one can pursue with a Design degree. Prior to Shake Shack, Allison worked at Gensler, an award-winning global architecture firm, with a focus on mixed-use, transportation, and master planning projects. Some clients included Amtrak, Westfield, Marriott, DC Office of Planning, and JetBlue.Prior to moving to NYC Hamish Campbell spent time with some of London’s leading design consultancies, getting recognised for work he did with Johnnie Walker, Bacardi, Ferraro and Nike. It’s his objective to lead and inspire the design studio by setting the creative standard – continually encouraging his designers to demonstrate high-level conceptual thinking and strong design craftsmanship. He does his best to consistently bring an excitedly diverse international experience across branding, packaging, retail and print design to the company culture. Hamish has a considerable fondness for typography and a passion for English football and rugby. He's also a huge sneakerhead, with an embarrassing number of Nike kicks, many of which are still in storage in London.Raina Wellman thinks food is rich with meaning, power, and play. She is a collaborative, interdisciplinary creator with experience as a graphic designer, community event coordinator, public health educator, artist, and writer. Her work in the food and design space has centered on exploring connectivity on both personal and systematic levels as well as working with collaborators to encourage food-driven play, exploration, and research. Raina currently works as a designer for the Center for Urban Pedagogy, Printed Matter, and the Monument Lab. She graduated from Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) with a BFA in graphic design and is currently a master’s in public health candidate at Columbia University with a focus in communications and infectious disease.Research and community building have consistently been core elements of Raina's practice, and she has brought those approaches to the world of food and design frequently.Design Nation 2022 is the 6th all-expenses paid design conference for anyone with a love for design. To learn more: dn.businesstoday.orgInstagram: @designnationconference
DN2022 | KEYNOTE | Daniel Arsham Design Nation Conference 2022-04-20 | New York based artist Daniel Arsham straddles the line between art, architecture and performance. Raised in Miami, Arsham attended the Cooper Union in New York City where he received the Gelman Trust FellowshipAward in 2003. Architecture is a prevalent subject throughout his work; environments with eroded walls and stairs going nowhere, landscapes where nature overrides structures, and a general sense of playfulness within existing architecture. Arsham makes architecture do things it is not supposed to do, mining everyday experience for opportunities to confuse and confound our expectations of space and form. Simple yet paradoxical gestures dominate his sculptural work: a façade that appears to billow in the wind, a figure wrapped up in the surface of a wall, a contemporary object cast in volcanic ash as if it was found on some future archeological site. Structural experiment, historical inquiry, and satirical wit all combine in Arsham's ongoing interrogation of the real and the imagined.Design Nation 2022 is the 6th all-expenses paid design conference for anyone with a love for design. To learn more: dn.businesstoday.orgInstagram: @designnationconference
DN2022 | PANEL | Past DN Directors Design Nation Conference 2022-04-19 | Mihika Kapoor is a Product Manager at Figma, a software design company on a mission to make design accessible to everyone. She is passionate about intuitive user experiences, collaborative tooling, and the role of design in seemingly orthogonal disciplines.Mihika founded Design Nation in 2017 to democratize access to a design education and empower the next generation of design-driven leaders. She was inspired to do so after she self-taught herself design and noticed a disconnect between undergraduates and industry. Upon graduating, Mihika worked as a PM at Facebook + Instagram, where she launched Shops to help SMBs in their shift online during the pandemic. She was also selected to be a member of Dorm Room Fund’s inaugural Female Founder Track cohort. Alyssa Nguyen is the owner & creative director of ATNN Design (@atnndesign), a full-service branding studio specializing in WOC & LGBTQIA owned businesses. Her studio of 6 creatives focuses on brands in the fashion, beauty, food, and lifestyle spaces, using their signature pops of color and youthful approach to empower founders and create new spaces for marginalized groups. Alyssa's specialties include brand strategy & identity design, website design, packaging & digital asset design, and social media marketing. Since founding the studio in 2020, she has expanded the creative offerings to include a design course, creative templates and workshops, mentorship, and media collaborations. You can find her work in Sephora, Nordstrom, Vogue, Elle, and InStyle and hear more about her experiences and advice on her design podcast, The Design Diaries.Enver was the director of DN in 2019. He graduated from Princeton University last year, where he studied counterterrorism policy and dance. At Princeton, Enver worked as a project management intern at a NYC-based startup and was heavily involved with the campus dance community, serving as Vice President and then Artistic Director of one of the largest student groups. Today, Enver is the operations associate at Neo, an accelerator, mentorship community, and venture fund. At Neo, Enver gets to wear all hats: from working on investments and portfolio support, to events programming and content. In his free time, he volunteers at a dance studio in Oakland and explores the vast food scene in San Francisco. Design Nation 2022 is the 6th all-expenses paid design conference for anyone with a love for design. To learn more: dn.businesstoday.orgInstagram: @designnationconference
DN2022 | KEYNOTE | Nicole McLaughlin Design Nation Conference 2022-04-17 | Nicole McLaughlin is a multidisciplinary designer based in New York City. Since 2018, Nicole has explored greater possibilities for sustainability through self-initiated and collaborative efforts alike. While sustainability is often used as a marketing buzzword because of its PR value, Nicole's accessible, witty, and functional practice serves as a reminder that sustainability is actually an operational philosophy. By transforming discarded miscellanea into objects with new, imaginative, and often unexpected utility, Nicole shows how a circular approach to design and manufacturing can help us reframe waste as an opportunity. Nicole has partnered with: Hermès, Nike, eBay, adidas, Reebok, Puma, Arc'teryx - as their first ever brand ambassador, Merrell, Christian Louboutin, Crocs, HBO, Calvin Klein, Woolrich, Jacquemus, LN-CC, Opening Ceremony, The North Face, Depop, Warby Parker, JanSport, CamelBak, etc. Her work has been on display at the Design Museum in London in conjunction with her nomination for the Beazley Design of the Year in 2020. And the MAD Brussels as a part of United Fashion alongside works by Martin Margiela and many others. In 2021 she launched a book with Sarah Andelman, formerly of colette as part of her Just An Idea series, with a sold out book signing at Dover Street Market New York. Her work has been featured in publications such as Sixtysix Magazine, SZ Magazin, various Vogue publications, Grazia, L’Officiel, 10 Magazine, GQ, InStyle, Harper’s Bazaar and more.Design Nation 2022 is the 6th all-expenses paid design conference for anyone with a love for design. To learn more: dn.businesstoday.org
DN2022 | KEYNOTE | Natasha Jen Design Nation Conference 2022-04-17 | Natasha Jen is an award-winning designer, a design educator, and a partner at Pentagram, the internationally-renowned design consultancy firm. Hailing from Taipei, Taiwan, Natasha’s work is recognized for its inventive use of graphic, digital, and spatial interventions that challenge conventional notions of media and cultural contexts. She was invited to join Pentagram’s New York office as partner in 2012, and since then has led a strong team of designers to build new identity systems across a range of media, be it printed matter, exhibition design, digital interfaces, way-finding systems, or installations for clients big and small. In 2014 she was acclaimed by Wired Magazine as one of nine “Designers Who Matter.” Her work has garnered awards globally, including Type Directors Club, Art Directors Club, Fast Company Innovation by Design, American Institute of Graphic Arts, The Society for Experiential Graphic Design, and a Webby Award, to name a few. Natasha is currently a faculty member at the School of Visual Arts. Design Nation 2022 is the 6th all-expenses paid design conference for anyone with a love for design. To learn more: dn.businesstoday.org
Design Nation 2022 Highlights Design Nation Conference 2022-04-15 | Design Nation is the nation's only all-expenses paid design conference for undergraduates. To learn more: dn.businesstoday.orgFilmed and Edited by Stephanie Tang
