Furniture designer Jomo Tariku grew up in Ethiopia in a home full of eclectic objects collected via his dad’s travels. In the U.S. with an Industrial Design degree, he embarked on a mission to change the western canon by designing modern furniture through an African lens. After initial heartbreak and years as a data scientist, Jomo Furniture is now in museums and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever!

Co-founder and editor-in-chief of Deem Journal, Alice Grandoit-Šutka says, as a child of Haitian immigrants, her essential function was to listen. Now this practice, a ritual that keeps her grounded in the possibilities of better futures, informs all of her work. A cultural researcher, designer, publisher, and host - Alice’s work exists at the intersection of arts, community engagement, and food.

Creature World’s Danny Cole began drawing the Creature in a dusty church basement in youth. He had his first public exhibition before graduating from high school. His work has since evolved from graffiti and paintings to include immersive art experiences, NFTs, clothing capsules, and adventures in virtual reality. All in an effort to bring us together in a shared version of a more divine reality.

Taylor Levy, half of the multidisciplinary studio CW&T, found adventure and drive early as a competitive skier. Now, Taylor and her life and art partner, Che-Wei Wang, root their practice in transparent, iterative processes that span art, engineering, and design. CW&T received the prestigious Cooper Hewitt National Design Award, a testament to their groundbreaking, and thought provoking work.

Baronfig founder, Joey Cofone, grew up in New Jersey learning to speak his mind from his strong, single, adoptive mother. A systems thinker, his lens on the world has always been adept at zooming way in and way out with an alarming self-awareness. This has served him well, both in designing “tools for thinkers” and in recognizing the patterns of invention for his book, The Laws of Creativity.

Ashleigh Axios spent her youth entertaining herself with crafts, immersed in her grandma’s world, finding kinship with the neighbors. After college, she gained a unique bouquet of experience that all added up to a position in the Obama White House as creative director. Now, as an owner of Coforma, she is a fierce advocate for design's ability to create positive social change.

Nancy Baker Cahill spent her youth gaining an appreciation for both civic engagement and dark humor. Her creative passions were ignited with a powerful youth arts program, but then went dormant for a difficult spell in adulthood. Now, fully in her stride as a new media artist known for work that examines power, selfhood, and embodied consciousness, her AR artwork can be found covering Time Square, at international festivals, and floating in unexpected, intangible places, worldwide.

Design entrepreneur and founder of Colony, the designer’s co-op, Jean Lin, grew up in suburban Massachusetts as one of a handful of non-white kids. With two brothers, she was a card-carrying tomboy until her teenage years when she leaned into fashion as a way to express herself. Influenced by her mother’s work as an educator for the incarcerated, she initially followed a career path into social services before reconciling with her undeniable yearning to study fashion design. After getting fired a few times, launching a few businesses, and gaining a smorgasbord of experience in a handful of roles, she bet her life savings on a dream and founded Colony, a community of designers that reimagines the design gallery business model as a supportive ecosystem, while celebrating American design to an international audience.

Multidisciplinary designer and art director, Luca Nichetto, grew up in Murano, Italy, steeped in the glassmaking traditions of the region and his ancestors. He got started in design by selling his drawings to local factories for pocket money. As a teenager, he became a rising basketball star and considered going pro, but eventually chose his other love, design, instead. After college and some fruitful early collaborations, he set up his own shop, Nichetto Studio, in Venice in 2006. Five years later, he opened a second studio in Stockholm. Now 15+ years in, he’s established himself as an international design force, built long-term relationships with several high-profile brands, and continually creates new connections and collaborations that build and strengthen a robust community of creatives. Plus, he knows how to have fun, and even considers it an obligation. Cheers to that!

Airbnb’s Global Head of Marketing, Hiroki Asai, grew up riding his BMX through the orchards of Cupertino, CA. But it was the visual language of skateboard culture that ensnared his creative imagination and grew into a passion for graphic design. Always industrious, he took night school art classes as a teenager, went on to earn a BA in Graphic Design, and then got straight to work freelancing. Not long after, he began working with Apple - eventually rising in the ranks to Vice President of Global Marketing Communications. Over his 18 years with Apple, he directly influenced the branding, packaging and marketing that we have come to know as distinctly Apple. Now, with Airbnb since early 2020 (through the tumult of the pandemic, the IPO, and a recent major reconfiguring of how Airbnb serves up wander lust and discovery,) he’s leading and supporting creative teams that are adapting and responding to the needs of a rapidly shifting global society. As a leader, he knows the most effective place for creative teams to be is right up close to the problems that need solving (aka in-house and upstream.) And to do their best work, the creative process needs protection and structure. Amen.