Bios of national board members
Sean Adams is a partner at AdamsMorioka, Inc., in Beverly Hills, California. Since AdamsMorioka's founding in 1994, Adams has been globally recognized by every major competition and publication including; Communication Arts, AIGA, Graphis, The Type Directors Club, The British Art Director's Club, and the New York Art Director's Club. In 2000, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art exhibited AdamsMorioka in a solo retrospective. Adams holds the honor of being named to the ID40, citing him as one of the forty most important people shaping design internationally. Adams is a Fellow of the International Design Conference at Aspen. In 2006, Adams was named as a Fellow of AIGA.
Adams is a past national board member of AIGA, past president of AIGA Los Angeles and chair of the AIGA Creative Leadership Campaign. He currently teaches at California Institute of the Arts. Adams is a frequent lecturer and competition judge internationally. He is the co-author of the best selling, Logo Design Workbook, and Color Workbook. AdamsMorioka's clients include ABC, Adobe, Barton Myers Associates, Gap, Old Navy, Frank Gehry Associates, Nickelodeon, USC, Sundance and The Walt Disney Company.
Jim Ales is the art director for the nonprofit Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey, California. He is responsible for the creative direction, design and maintenance of the aquarium brand identity and visual communications. The aquarium is consistently ranked number one in the United States for its innovative exhibits and unsurpassed visitor experience and is recognized as a world-wide leader in ocean conservation. Jim has embraced the challenge of redefining what a conservation voice sounds like: modern, relevant, respectful and positive. Seamlessly integrating the aquarium brand, Jim and his team develop simple and visually powerful messages that inform and inspire a broad audience. His work, and that of the aquarium, is changing the way individuals, corporations and government agencies understand and interact with ocean environments.
Jim has lectured extensively on nonprofit branding and the positive economic and social impact it brings to the organization. Jim’s work has appeared in many design and museum award publications and he is the recipient of the AIGA Environmental Leadership Award.
Laurie Churchman is the principal of Designlore, a place for thinking, making and writing about design. She is also an assistant professor in Fine Arts, Graphic Design, at the University of Pennsylvania.
Prior to founding Designlore, she had over 20 years of branding and corporate design experience directing projects for clients including IBM, Goldman Sachs, Museum of American Folk Art, First Union and COMEX. Now at Designlore, her interests are centered on nonprofit and cultural projects, and her research looks at the intersection of craft, design and technology. She is also committed to partnering with her students and the community to offer solutions through design. Her prior teaching experience includes North Carolina State University and Seton Hall University.
Churchman's work has been recognized by Communication Arts, Creativity, How Magazine, PDN:Nikon, Fox River Paper, and Neenah Paper among others. She is a past board member of World Studio Foundation, AIGA New York and AIGA Raleigh. As an admitted AIGA junkie who has been active in the organization since 1983, she recently co-chaired the 2005 AIGA "Revolution:Philadelphia" design education conference and is a member of the AIGA national Design Education steering committee.
Churchman holds a BS in visual communication from the University of Delaware and an MFA in graphic design from Yale University. She also attended the AIGA/Harvard Business School Design Leaders program.
Stanley Hainsworth grew up in a small town in Western Kentucky, right between Possum Trot and Monkey’s Eyebrow, which taught him an appreciation for multiple retail options. After pursuing an acting career for some years, he spent several years at Nike as a creative director, where he worked on everything from hangtags to annual reports to the Olympics. He then decided to embark on an adventure in Denmark at the Lego Company as its global creative director. After a total visual overhaul of the Lego brand from top to bottom, including packaging, the web, retail and brand stores, he heeded the call to return to the states where he thought it would be fun to work for a company named after the first mate in Moby Dick—Starbucks. And there he now resides, in the upper left hand corner of the United States, as their global creative director, learning more about the mighty coffee bean than he ever thought possible. Hainsworth has spoken worldwide on brand design and has received many awards including Communication Arts, Graphis, I.D., Print, AIGA, The Library of Congress, Type Directors Club, HOW International, NW Design Awards, Retail Interiors and MAPIC.
Nikolaus Hafermaas Nik Hafermaas is department chair of Graphic Design at Art Center College of Design since August 2004, He has created a new Graphic Design curriculum and co-hosted studio abroad programs in Berlin, Copenhagen and, most recently, in Tokyo. His current large-scale environmental artwork PowerPLANTs–a major public work awarded by the City of Pasadena–was featured as a top winner of design in Newsweek, June 2006.
Prior to Art Center, Nik was a Professor of Integrated Design and Temporary Architecture at the University of Arts, Bremen and curator of the Berlin-based network Young Creative Industries. His clients include the Bertelsmann Media Group, World Expo 2000, Audi, Deutsche Telecom AG, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen and Zurich Financial Services, Expo.02.
Nik is also the former principal and chief creative officer of the design company Triad Berlin where he and his two partners formed an integrated professional team of over 50 employees, shaping it into one of Germany’s leading design firms specialized in the field between industry and the arts, new media and contemporary culture. Most recently, he founded the design company UeBERSEE, specializing in the artistic development of exhibitions and narrative spaces.
Nik was recipient of the IF Design Award in 1999 and 2004, the German Design Club Award in 2000 and 2002 and the Art Directors Club Design Award in 2002. He studied Visual Communications and Architecture at the University of Arts, Berlin.
Kenna Kay is the vice president/creative director at TV Land, a division of MTV Networks. She directs a team of in-house designers and animators, as well as out-of-house studios and freelancers, to produce print, three-dimensional items, multimedia and motion graphics. Previously, she was art director at Nickelodeon. Kenna has received numerous broadcast design awards, including recognition from Promax, Print, Communication Arts, HOW, Art Directors Club and D&AD. She has spoken on design issues for the AIGA, the How Conference, the University of Kansas, the Art Director’s Club and in Caracas, Venezuela, as well as judged American Illustration 16 and the Minnesota Design Show “Design Excellence 2006,”. From 2003 to 2005, Kenna served on the board of directors as vice president of the AIGA New York chapter, and organized the “MOVE: Design for Film and Television” conference. She currently teaches “Beyond Editorial” in the illustration department at Parsons the New School For Design.
Vernon Lockhart is the founder and principal of Art on the Loose, Inc., a Chicago-based multidisciplinary firm specializes in corporate identities, exhibition and environmental design, and multimedia design. With Art on the Loose, Lockhart has provided art direction for many significant projects in the Chicago area and has served an impressive lists of clients, including: Northwestern University, University of Illinois Laboratory Schools, Hyatt Regency, Nike, Whirlpool, DuSable Museum of African American History, Museum of Science and Industry, Bronzeville Children’s Museum and Namasté. Lockhart is the recipient of awards and praise from Print, Communications Arts, Graphic Design USA and Graphis. Lockhart served on the AIGA Chicago Board as Community Outreach Chair, managing the Poetry In Motion program and student contest. He also participated as a rider with Team AIGA/Roll Over Aids during his tenure.
After serving nine years as chair of the Chicago chapter of the Organization of Black Designers, Vernon helped co-found Project Osmosis, a not-for-profit arts based education and mentoring initiative. The organization has helped over 300 inner city students gain access and knowledge about career opportunities in design. Throughout his work and career, Lockhart has helped to nurture creativity amongst professionals and students alike.
Debbie Millman has been in the design business for 23 years fulfilling her dream of working in branding and furthering the meaning, purpose and stature of brands in our culture. Debbie is a managing partner and president of the design division at Sterling Brands, the largest independent brand consultancy in the country. She has been there for 11 years where she has led long-term partnerships with global clients including Gillette, Kraft, Nestle, Pepsi, Campbell’s, Johnson & Johnson, Glaxo-Smithkline, Pfizer and Unilever.
For 12 years, Debbie also worked as the creative director for Emmis Broadcasting’s Hot 97, where she helped transform the image of the radio station from a dance music format to the vibrant, hip-hop station it currently is.
Debbie is an author on the design blog Speak Up, which will be included in the 2006 Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum Triennial. She is also a regular contributor to Print Magazine, and teaches Creative Leadership at the School of Visual Arts. In 2005, she began hosting the first live weekly radio talk show about graphic design on the internet. The show is titled "Design Matters with Debbie Millman," and it is featured on the Voice America Business Network and as podcasts on iTunes. Debbie frequently lectures on the virtues of brands and authenticity. She believes that the condition of brand reflects the condition of our culture and is bound and determined to further the causes of brand consultants everywhere.
In May 2006, Debbie completed her term as secretary, treasurer and sponsorship chair of the New York board of the AIGA where she worked to raise money for the chapter, participated in many of the chapter’s events and served as a mentor at the High School of Art & Design. She attended the inaugural AIGA Harvard Business School program "Business Perspectives for Design Leaders" in 2003, she was on the board of the AIGA Center of Brand Experience from 1998-2002 and in 2005 she presented a Corporate Leadership award at the AIGA Design Legends Gala.
Bennett Peji is a commissioner of arts and culture for the city of San Diego and an AIGA Fellow. His firm, Bennett Peji Design, specializes in helping the revitalization of cities and cultures through urban design and district branding. Believing that form follows culture, he was awarded the master planning city contract for the Filipino Village development in National City—a first for a graphic designer. He is the recipient of the 2005 Arts, Business and Culture Award from the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, the 2004 Outstanding Professional of the Year Award from the Filipino-American Chamber of Commerce and the 2004 Asian Heritage Award for Cultural Preservation. Besides business and community service awards, his firm has received over 200 design awards.
Mr. Peji serves on the board of the AIGA Center for Cross-Cultural Design and attended the inaugural AIGA Harvard Business School program. While serving as chapter president, he and the gutsy AIGA San Diego board members launched the annual AIGA "Y Design" conference 11 years ago. He is inspired by those board members’ passion to this day. In 1996, he chaired the AIGA Chapter Presidents Council. He is a co-founder and regent of the Baja California Missions Foundation, founded to renovate and preserve the historic missions in Mexico.
Shel Perkins is a graphic designer and educator with 19 years of experience in managing the operations of leading design firms in the United States and the U.K. He writes the "Professional Practice" column for STEP magazine, the "Design Business" newsletter for AIGA, and the "Design Firm Management" column for Graphics.com. He has given presentations and workshops for many organizations, including IDSA, SEGD, HOW, ACD, Dynamic Graphics, STEP, Seybold and the Graphic Artists Guild. Shel teaches courses in professional practices at the California College of the Arts, the Academy of Art in San Francisco and the University of California.
He has served on the national board of the Association of Professional Design Firms and has been honored as an AIGA Fellow. He chairs the national task force responsible for planning the new AIGA Center for Practice Management. He co-authored the latest AIGA Standard Form of Agreement for Design Services, and his book Talent Is Not Enough: Business Secrets For Designers has just been published by New Riders and AIGA Design Press.
Elva Rubio is executive vice president and creative director at Bruce Mau Design and is a co-founder of Mau’s Chicago-based studio, Rubio Studios. Most recently, Rubio was design director for Gensler’s Chicago office. In that position, Rubio led the design of the Center on Halsted, which recently opened to widespread praise. Under her direction, the firm also won commissions for Chase Bank, the Chicago Transit Authority and the Hyatt Regency, the latter of which was featured in the Museum of Contemporary Art’s green architecture exhibition, “Sustainable Architecture in Chicago: Works In Progress.” Rubio’s work for Pond Studios won both Distinguished Building and Interior Architecture awards from the Chicago chapter of the American Institute of Architects in 1997. She has also received more than 20 AIA awards for work ranging in Urban Design, Architecture and Interiors.
Rubio serves on the board of the Chicago Architecture Club, is chairman of the Burnham Prize, and co-founder of the Chicago Prize and Emerging Visions competition. Rubio’s work was featured in the Ten Visions exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago and through the Mayor’s Institute on City Design, and showcased in the Women in Chicago Architecture exhibit at the Art Institute.
Rubio has complemented her professional practice with teaching engagements at the School of the Art Institute, the Illinois Institute of Technology, and at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She currently is an associate professor at UIC’s School of Architecture, where she teaches undergraduate- and graduate-level studios.
Laura Shore is senior vice president of communications for Mohawk Fine Papers, where she leads a team responsible for strategy and execution of corporate branding, marketing communications and product support. In her 20 years with Mohawk, she has developed a seamless marketing environment where corporate identity, public relations, advertising, relationship marketing, product development, product promotion and the web are all intricately linked. Shore and her team have used the power of design to differentiate commodity products and have contributed to the evolution of Mohawk from niche player to the leading manufacturer of premium printing papers in North America. She has raised Mohawk’s profile by commissioning work from America’s best designers and printers and by linking Mohawk with people and ideas across multiple disciplines.
Mohawk’s work with designers has been recognized by leading publications and organizations in the U.S. and internationally such as Communication Arts, Print, D&AD, GD:USA, Step, HOW, The One Show, IDSA, the Type Directors Club, AIGA, Inc. Magazine, Graphis, Eye.
Khoi Vinh is the design director for NYTimes.com, where he leads the design group in user experience innovation. He and his team are responsible for the creative design of new online features, functionality and content for the leading news site.
Vinh currently holds a seat on AIGA New York’s board of directors. Since 2000, he has also been the author of Subtraction.com, a forum for his extensive writings on design, technology and user experience matters. And in the past year, Khoi co-founded A Brief Message.com, where he is both the publisher and creative director. Prior to joining the New York Times, Vinh was a founding partner at the New York City design studio Behavior LLC. He has an extensive history in consultative design services for clients in a wide range of industries, and he earned a BFA in communication design from Otis School of Art and Design.
Khoi is a recipient of the Gold Award for new media from the Society of Publication Designers.
Brad Weed is the director of user experience design and research for the Windows and Windows Live product line at Microsoft. Prior to Windows he was the user experience manager for Microsoft Office. His contributing work on Office 2007 is widely recognized as one of the biggest paradigm shifts in the history of the industry. In 2003, he received the IDSA IDEA Gold Award; Microsoft’s first IDSA award for software design. With more than 16 years at Microsoft, he’s been instrumental in shaping the role of design at Microsoft and in the industry. He has also been instrumental in advancing the software interaction design education in schools around the world, most recently as a Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Before joining Microsoft in 1992, he worked as a user interface designer and engineer for Wavefront Technologies in Santa Barbara, combining his passion for information design, computer graphics and socio-behavioral geography.
Pamela Williams is co-founder, creative director and partner of Williams and House, a strategic communications practice, which is best known nationally for its results-focused work in the graphic arts industry. The company is renowned for its expertise in strategic planning, media relations and relationship marketing and has developed, launched and managed brands as well as created and implemented dozens of seamless, multi-faceted marketing communications programs for leading brands and associations. Williams’s accumulated knowledge of the design and publishing industry, coupled with her experience of how to effectively market to it, is a unique combination that has been praised by clients.
Williams has been an AIGA member for more than a decade and has done a great deal to assist with programming both by managing and supporting dozens of AIGA events all around the country. She has authored articles in Communication Arts, STEP inside design, HOW, Graphis, Critique and Graphic Design: USA and has also published the book Breaking into Product Design, as well as authoring dozens of design related case studies and stories.
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