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Chris is an Emmy award-winning designer and CEO of Blind - a Santa Monica-based brand strategy design consultancy. He also founded The Futur – an online education platform that teaches the business of design to creatives. He serves as the chairman of the board for the SPJA and as an advisor to Saleshood. Chris has taught Sequential design for over a decade at the Art Center College of Design, has lectured all over the world.

Designer of enduring logos and visual identities, David Airey runs an independent branding studio in Northern Ireland, working with clients in more than 30 countries to improve their businesses through distinctive, meaningful, and emotive design. In addition to his identity work, David has written a number of bestselling design books. The Logo Design Love book was first published by Peachpit in 2009. It’s now available in thirteen languages, an expanded edition from 2014, and is listed as recommended reading on college design programmes around the world. The Identity Designed book was published by Rockport in 2019, and in the words of Adobe’s principal designer, Khoi Vinh, it’s, “Not just beautifully designed, but also beautiful in its depth and detail about the identity design process.”

Michelle is the Creative Director and Co-owner of Canada’s specialty coffee favourite, Pilot Coffee Roasters. With 2 decades of global branding experience behind her, from New Zealand, and on to Canada. When the call came to leave it all behind Michelle was more than equipped to develop an omni-channel brand of her own, from the ground up. As the 2020 Global Pandemic hit the cross-section of Michelle’s role as both Designer and Business Owner became more critical than ever. With customers expectations for radical brand transparency and daily connection intensified, the need for fresh, honest and relevant content has become more important than ever before, with Pilot being an example of how great design can be a driving force in any successful pivot and strategy.

Bruce Mau Design is a research-based design studio delivering inventive and rallying design across all the places where people connect. Home to an international community, BMD works across borders and cultures, helping organizations at every scale grow, transform and deliver indelible experiences. As Partner and Chief Creative Officer and long-time advocate for collaboration, Laura provides overall creative and strategic direction across a variety of project types, from a museum in Abu Dhabi to a greenway in Austin to a global performance brand based in Tokyo.

Innovator, artist, protagonist, activist and positive provocateur, Maria has pursued a vision of intelligent, elegant, people-centered design throughout her professional life. Under Maria’s leadership, Hot Studio, the award-winning experience design firm she founded in 1997, grew into a full-service creative agency with an impressive list of Fortune 500 clients. In 2013, Facebook acquired the talent behind Hot Studio, where Maria worked as a Director of Product Design. From 2015 to 2017, Maria led a global team of designers as Autodesk’s first VP of Experience Design. Maria is the author of Rise of the DEO: Leadership by Design, among other books.