2019 In-house Design Awards judges
Wade Convay
Interactive Creative Lead, Google Brand Studio in San Francisco
Wade works with a transdisciplinary team across brand design, marketing and cross-product initiatives to create the next great experiences from Google, including platforms such as Be Internet Awesome, Google One and Google Earth. Previously he was the Executive Creative Director and VP of Product Innovation at R/GA, working on the Nike+ ecosystem of products. He also worked on brands such as Converse, Fossil, Louis Vuitton, Samsung, Toyota, Walmart and Zagat. Wade has been a faculty member at the School of Visual Arts in New York for the last five years building the interactive department from two instructors to over 20. He graduated from Conestoga College and ArtCenter College of Design with a degree in Graphic Design.
Judging Technology/Information Sectors
Gay Cross
Graphic Designer at Dementia Australia in Melbourne
With 30 years experience as a freelance and in-house designer, Gay has worked with landscape architects, pop-up restaurants and major clients such as Caterpillar Australia. Her passion is for creating impactful design that supports important public health messaging and raising awareness of the importance of creating accessible design. As the only in-house designer for Dementia Australia, Gay has collaborated with senior executive teams across countless state and national campaigns and projects. Most recently Gay developed the major rebrand for Dementia Australia, the one national body for people living with dementia, their families and care providers.
Judging Public/Non-Profit Sectors
Shelley Gainer RGD
Director, Creative & Branding, Shoppers Drug Mart in Toronto
Shelley is a Creative Director with over 18 years of experience in the design industry. As the Senior Director of Creative, Content and Social for Shoppers Drug Mart, she leads an internal team of art directors, graphic designers, production artists, copywriters, social media specialists and content leads. Shelley is responsible for the Shoppers Drug Mart brand across all customer touch points and engagement platforms. Over the course of Shelley’s career, she has worked with many of Canada’s leading ad agencies and developed strong connections within the design community.
Judging Environmental & Packaging
Donna Graffi-Smith RGD
Manager, National Design Studio at Deloitte in Vancouver
Donna is an innovative design leader with over 13 years of experience building and transforming ideas into brand experiences. She has a proven knowledge of brand, creative strategy, communication and management with an emphasis on client service excellence. At Deloitte, she works with a talented team of designers based all over Canada and overseas. She has been an in-house designer since she graduated from York University/ Sheridan College Program in Design where she received her Bachelor of Design with Honours. Judging Branding & Editorial Work
Chris Govias
Chief of Design at The Canadian Digital Service in Ottawa
Chris is a Canadian designer who has spent the past decade in London, UK. He’s worked with startups, charities and Fortune 500 companies including Expedia, where he was a Design Lead. As Head of Design for the Ministry of Justice UK, he was on the forefront of delivering transformative, user-centred government services. He returned to Canada to become the first Chief of Design with The Canadian Digital Service, a new initiative from the Government of Canada to deliver simple, easy to use services for everyone in Canada.
Judging Public/Non-Profit Sectors
David Guarnieri
Creative Lead at Geometry in Montreal
With over 15 years of experience in the creative, advertising and retail industries, David knows a good thing when he sees it. A bursary from the marketing firm Y&R led him to graduate with a bachelor’s degree from the Université du Québec à Montréal. This was followed by a stint at Paprika, where he worked on projects for Commissaires, Baronet, Les Allusifs, Dubuc, Infopresse and Maison Corbeil. David joined and then led creative in-house teams for Call It Spring, Globo Shoes, Hyba Activewear and Reitmans, developing strong 360 degree creative strategies.
Judging Retail & Consumer Goods Sectors
Grace Hwang
VP of Design & Experience, Carrot Inc in Palo Alto Prior to Carrot,
Grace spent 12 years at global innovation consultancy IDEO where she co-led the Food and Beverage practice and served as Executive Director of the Design for Health practice. In these roles, Grace led multi-disciplinary teams and collaborated with startups, non-profit organizations and Fortune 500 companies like Samsung, NASA, AARP and ConAgra, helping them innovate through rapid prototyping and insightdriven design. She holds multiple patents and was awarded a Fast Company Innovation By Design Award for her work on the patient and employee experience for Planned Parenthood. Grace holds BSc degrees in mechanical engineering and product design from Stanford University.
Judging Interactive & Motion/Video
Gev Marotz
Director of Design, Drop in Toronto
Gev is an Israeli-born designer who has lived in Germany and China. Educated in design, he began his career in the US. His design philosophy draws from a lifetime of travel and internal exploration and his upbringing in a family of visual artists. Now based in Toronto, Gev loves working with great people to solve tough problems. From branding to product he has led large and small teams and made cool things for some companies and startups you might have heard of, like Drop, Wealthsimple, BrainStation and Konrad Group.
Judging Branding & Promotion/ Campaigns
Cris Jaw
Creative Lead, OCS Ontario Cannabis Store in Toronto
Cris is a Toronto-based creative director who specializes in in-house design development and management. While working for the LCBO, she oversaw a multidisciplinary team of graphic designers, photographers and production artists. Under her direction the team created retail promotional campaigns for in-store and online channels, events graphics, packaging design and publications. In 2018, Cris joined the Ontario Cannabis Store as Creative Lead to head up the brand and visual design portfolio. Cris holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Design from the Ontario College of Art and Design.
Judging Promotion/Campaigns & Editorials
Vishu Mahajan
Creative Director, University of Calgary
Vishu leads the in-house Creative Studio at the University of Calgary. This award-winning team has expertise in branding, design, art direction and project management and is a trusted partner for marketing initiatives on campus. Vishu has evolved the thinking at the university to build brand awareness, enhance creative collaboration and foster a culture of openness and sharing. She is passionate about developing processes, systems and culture that enable meaningful brand experiences and interaction. She has worked in diverse industries including print production, environmental design and editorial design prior to joining the university in 2012.
Judging Educational & Government Sectors
Jamie Myrold
VP of Design, Adobe in San Francisco
Jamie has led largescale design efforts at Adobe for over 13 years, spearheading the company’s development of next-generation design tools through its transformation to a cloud-based software leader. Her experience goes beyond restructuring and redesigning applications to redefining Adobe’s business as well. Jamie aims to inspire the next wave of design leaders, encouraging her teams to push boundaries and develop skills that impact all aspects of business strategy and product creation. Jamie has championed Diversity and Inclusion initiatives at Adobe and has a particular interest in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Immersive Experiences as they relate to design.
Judging Interactive & Motion/ Video Work
Amanda Parker
Manager, Design & Creative Communications, IG Wealth Management in Winnipeg
Amanda has close to 20 years of experience in the in-house design industry. She manages IG Wealth Management’s in-house design and production teams and works closely with a highly talented, cross-disciplinary marketing team. Amanda serves as Events Chair on the Board of the Manitoba Chapter of the GDC (Graphic Designers of Canada).
Judging Financial/Professional Services Sectors
Eric Pellerin
Head of Scenography and Media Production, Canadian Museum of History in Ottawa
Working with museums and cultural institutions over the last 19 years, Eric has met the many challenges and demands associated with the world of creative direction, production and installation of exhibitions, acquiring an intimate knowledge of museum practices, environmental design and architectural installation. He has led multi-disciplinary teams to develop, design and execute promotional products and marketing campaigns featuring art, archaeology and historical collections. From 2013 to 2016, Eric oversaw the creative in-house team that implemented the first Muslim art museum in North America, the Aga Khan Museum. He has been at the Canadian Museum of History since 2016.
Judging Environmental, Print & Other Work
Ian Scott RGD
Graphic Designer, Confederation College in Thunder Bay
Ian has over 20 years of experience in creative design. He started his career in Toronto working on national and international print campaigns and later returned to his northwestern Ontario roots to produce materials for the tourism industry and establish his own design business, Kuda Media. For the past nine years, Ian has been producing award-winning work at Confederation College and teaching in the Interactive Media Development program. Bringing a strategic, design-thinking approach to all of his projects, Ian focuses on achieving exceptional outcomes and influences the creative direction of Confederation’s local, provincial and international campaigns.
Judging Educational & Government Sectors
Karuna Scheinfeld
VP of Design at Canada Goose in Toronto
Karuna earned her BFA in New York’s Parson’s School of Design interning for design legends Alexander McQueen and Dolce & Gabbana and cut her teeth at Ralph Lauren Purple Label, creating her own menswear collection, Martin Wynn, which pioneered performance fabrics in traditional silhouettes, partnering with Schoeller and Gore-Tex. She helped develop elevated brands for Abercrombie & Fitch (Ruehl No.925), American Eagle outfitters (Martin & Osa) and at Woolrich in Bologna, Italy, where she became Head of Men’s Design and Global Concept. She now works in Toronto as VP of Design at Canada Goose where she is thrilled to lead the creative vision for global product.
Judging Retail & Consumer Goods Sectors
Evan Scronce
Director of Experience Design, Float in Chicago A customer and UX influencer,
Evan started a sole proprietorship in college, working with international fashion brands like Gucci and Chanel. He then expanded his reach designing eCommerce and research experiences for Motorola and Google. Being an empathetic problem solver (and a true gearhead hobbyist) has made Evan a go-to for cracking complex problems for brands like Microsoft, American Express, Fidelity and more. As Director of Experience Design, he works with globally distributed teams on the enhancement user and customer experience executions. He co-owns multiple technology patents comprising Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence and innovative mobile app thinking.
Judging Cultural Sector
Rajinder Sidhu
Design Director, Vidyard in Guelph
Raj leads design across brand, marketing and product at Vidyard, a platform that helps companies create, share and track their video content. This includes managing an internal team of visual designers, product designers and illustrators. Raj was formally trained as a graphic designer with past experience developing award-winning creative strategy and execution in branding, web, and package design. With over 15 years of experience, he now uses his learnings to help drive business results with design.
Judging Travel, Tourism, Media, Sports & Entertainment
Jessica Vitale RGD
Studio Director, Graphic Design at FORREC in Toronto
Jessica is an award-winning designer whose conceptual thinking, creativity and design experience leads FORREC’s graphic design work in branding and brand activation, signage and wayfinding strategies, exhibit design and other experiential graphics. Her user-centric design approach is foundational to the work Jessica and her team produce for major brands including Nickelodeon, LEGOLAND and Universal. Jessica’s diverse experience spans several design firms including her most recent role as National Graphic Design Manager at DIALOG. Prior to DIALOG, Jessica designed for several boutique graphic design studios in Toronto, working with many non-profit organizations. Jessica holds a Bachelor of Design from OCADU.
Judging Environmental & Promotions/ Campaigns Work
Patrick White RGD
Senior Graphic Designer, McKinsey & Company in Vancouver Patrick is an experienced Senior Graphic Designer with a demonstrated history of working in the global management consulting industry. He has provided design, consultation and project management services to client teams using a variety of creative methods. Examples include corporate presentation, publication and proposal design and print, web and user-interface design. Patrick is currently designing for the McKinsey Global Institute overseeing the implementation of a new visual identity.
Judging Financial/Professional Services Sectors
Pat Young
Creative Director, Lululemon in Vancouver
Pat’s passion for thoughtful design, arresting imagery and powerful storytelling has taken him from photography to art direction to creative direction at lululemon. From a young age, his influences ranged from Dieter Rams, Aaron Draplin and Peter Saville to Fred Mortagne, Jeff Curtes and Spike Jonze. Working in varied industry roles, he has affirmed his love for not just the creative product, but the creative process. Leading a team of more than 50 creatives and overseeing brand and product campaigns, Pat lives and breathes the lululemon people-first philosophy.
Judging Packaging, Print & Other Work
